#edward soja

[fbrie002]

Exhibition contributions 2.0

Worked with Matt on a possible poster for the exhibition! He designed the diagrams, text, and thought out the initial layout; then passed over to me to come up with the grainy background and play around with the disposition of the elements on the page. After a bit of back and forth and feedback from the rest of the Web Team, we landed on a version we liked. It was a really awesome collaborative effort and a lot of fun.

Here’s the final design:

And a couple different themes we worked out on the way:

I really loved this purple theme but the visibility of the text was an issue so we went for the orange/yellow at the top.

[zwischenstadt]

What I am arguing here through the words of Mandel is not simplyt hat capitalist development is geographically uneven, for some geographical unevenness is the result of every social process. The key point is that capitalism- or if one prefers, the normal activity of profit-seeking capitalists- intrinsically builds upon regional or spatial inequalities as a necessary means for its continued survival. The very existence of capitalism presupposes the sustaining presence and vital instrumentality of geographically uneven development. What is it that becomes geographically differentiatied? The list begins with rates of profit, a crucial parameter, but also includes the organic composition of capital, labour productivity, wage rates, the costs of materials necessary for the reproduction of labour power, levels of technology and mechanization, the organization of labour, and the incidence of class struggle. These differentials are maintained through geographically and sectorally uneven allocations of capital investment and social infrastructure, the locational concentration of centers of control over labour and the means of production, the interlocking circuits of capital in the urbanization process, and the particular forms of articulation between capitalist and non-capitalist reltaions of production. All form part of the complex and distinctive spatialization that has marked the historical development of capitalism from its origins

Ed Soja, “Postmodern Geographies”

[zwischenstadt]

Competitive industrial capitalism has been able to extend and transform itself through a series of structural changes, but it has done so without eliminating its fundamental contradictions. They have instead become expressed not only in the direct confrontation of capital and labour at the point of production but also, and is intensively, in the realm of collective consumption and social reproduction. Whereas under competitive capitalism, Engels could argue that consumption based working-class militancy, as in the conflict over the 'housing question', could be resolved by the bourgeoisie to its own benefit (either by playing off improved housing conditions and reduced rents against increased wages or simply shifting bad housing conditions to another location rather than eliminating them- the tactic of spatial 'displacement'), such consumption-based conflict can no longer be co-opted so easily. More than in the past, the realization of surplus-value, and hence the accumulation of capital itself, has become as dependent upon control over the means of consumption/reproduction as upon control over the means of production, even if this control rests ultimately in the same hands.

Ed Soja, “Postmodern Geographies”

[guenaonda-blog]

on Orange County

Edward soja, a UCLA urban planner I really admire died a few weeks ago. He loved LA but hated orange county (not much new there). I took another look at his book, My Los Angeles, and liked these passages a lot. He also shits on disneyland a lot but thats for another day. 

“Reflecting this growing inability to distinguish what is real and what is imaginatively simulated, I described Orange County as a scamscape, where fraudulent behavior has become part of everyday life. Here outward appearances not only deceive but divert us from the possibility that everything real has disappeared. What one see are thick layers of simulations and simulacra--exact copies of things that may no longer exist, if they ever did in the first place.” 

and

“As the spin-doctoring wizards of the California Office of Tourism proclaim, you can have anything you want in Orange County, where every day seems just like yesterday but the ever-present Now-ness of Tomorrowland makes the Then hard to find; where every place is slightly off center, breathlessly on the edge but always right in the middle of things, smack on the frontier, nowhere yet now/here like home. To its avid promoters, Orange County is a theme park-themed paradise where the American Dream is repetitively renewed and made infinitely available. This resplendent bazaar of repackaged times and spaces allows all that is contemporary (including histories and geographies) to be encountered and consumed with an almost Edenic simultaneity.” 

preach, soja, preach. 

[stonedatthegallery]

[kittenplan]

Everything comes together in Thirdspace: subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract and the concrete, the real and the imagined, the knowable and the unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential, structure and agency, mind ... the disciplined and the transdisciplinary, everyday life and unending history.

Edward Soja. Thirdspace.

[jedihedaroot]

Edward W. Soja's "Postmetropolis" Chapter 2 Thoughts

After reading the Chapter two, I want to focus on the section about the Egypt and its uncertainites.  So far, Soja chose to focus on Ur, a Sumerian city, as the focal point of the second Urban Revolution.  He mentioned Egypt, but claimed that there "is very little evidence of large cities much before 1500 B.C., 4,000 years after the earliest developments of pre-dynastic Egypt" (53). Soja made it sounds like the city of Ur is much more important to the second Urban Revolution because there is much more clear evidence of its existence and how it developed.  I can understand this approach but I feel like there should be more research being done without making any assumptions based on lack of evidence.  It is my philiosophy that lack of evidence doesn't mean it didn't happen or didn't matter. 

The ancient Egypt culture was extremely different than the Sumerian culture so the development of the civilization probably were different as well.  Especially with the concept of necropolis being "the most prominent and permanent city in ancient Egypt" (53).  It was a city of the dead and, where the tombs, temples, pyramids, sphinxes, et cetera were.  The ancient Egyptians always move their "city" every couple generation, depending on the length of the pharaoh's rule. So with this concept in mind, do we disregard their urban development just because they are more nomadic?  Or should we keep an open mind and look at their cities not as just physical location concept, but more of social structure established by the people?

[jedihedaroot]

Thoughts on Edward W. Soja's "Postmetropolis"-Introduction chapter

I've really enjoyed the introduction chapter in the book.  It gives a nice overview of what to expect in each of the chapters and give definition to some keywords that will be mentioned throughout the book such as synekism, urban revolutions, spatiality, et cetera.  There's also brief coverage on the concept of cityspace and what will be discussed in details in the chapters. I definitely will be very interested to see how Edward Soja support his claims of the several Urban Revolution since many historians and anthropologists believe in only one. 

I am also very curious to see if he will mentions about any kind of setback or civilizations "going backwards" and its impact on the development of cities, city-states, or any kind of polis.  One specific time period I'm hoping to read about is the Dark Ages and its impact on the civilizations and its development.  Basically, Dark Ages is the time period where many civilizations, especially in Europe, went through time period where there's no development in culture, technology, etc due to the Bubonic Plague that killed estimated two-thirds of the population in Europe.  That has to have some kind of huge impact on the development of the cities, and it is time period before the Renaissance that sparked the second Urban Revolution I believe. 

I realize something as I read further in the book that Edward Soja usually refer to a lot of other people's writings to support his claims but I am hoping that he will add more of his own evidence to support his own claims instead of relying on others.  I realize its difficult because this is really just theories and it is difficult to prove theories but I would like to see him at least try.