South L.A. Democratic Spaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 90-108
Author(s):  
George Villanueva
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Spaces

scholarly journals If this is not an Urban Crises, what is?

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-194
Author(s):  
Sanjana Krishnan ◽  
Rahul Jambhulkar
Keyword(s):  
Urban Poor ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Democratic Spaces ◽  
The City ◽  
Mumbai City

The very purpose of Mumbai city must be questioned today as the city seems on a transformation spree again. With lakhs of migrants fleeing the city amidst the Covid-19 crises, what would the place be for the urban poor in the city in such a scenario? As cities evolve, their purpose changes and adapt to differing functions. The city in the process of evolution also carries relics of their bygone decades, as a part of their burden and identity, sometimes redundant, but reminders of their implicit purpose, holding vital clues to the origins of the spaces and its basis for existence. These issues lead to the same question — what is the purpose of a city? To create a city is far easier. The task is to keep an existing city going with inclusive and democratic spaces for all its residents. This requires imagination and political will. Determining the nature and future of an ever transforming urban phenomenon called Mumbai is a choice — one that rests with its people.

Designing for Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Forestal
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Democratic Spaces ◽  
Personalization Of Politics

Designing for Democracy addresses the question of how to “fix” digital technologies for democracy by examining how the design of the built environment (whether streets, sidewalks, or social media platforms) informs how, and whether, citizens can engage in democratic practices. “Democratic spaces”—built environments that support democratic politics—must have three characteristics: they must be clearly bounded, durable, and flexible. Each corresponds to a necessary democratic practice. Clearly bounded spaces make it easier to recognize what we share and with whom we share; they help us form communities. Durable spaces facilitate our attachments to the communities they house and the other members within them; they help us sustain communities. And flexible spaces facilitate the experimental habits required for democratic politics; they help us improve our communities. These three practices—recognition, attachment, and experimentalism—are the affordances a built environment must provide in order to be a “democratic space”; they are the criteria to which designers and users should be attentive when building and inhabiting the spaces of the built environment, both physical and digital. Using this theoretical framework, Designing for Democracy provides new insights into the democratic potential of digital technologies. Through extended discussions of examples like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, it suggests architectural responses to problems often associated with digital technologies—loose networks, the “personalization of politics,” and “echo chambers.” In connecting the built environment, digital technologies, and democratic theory, Designing Democracy provides blueprints for democracy in a digital age.

The Potential of Gamification for Humanitarian Organizations to Support Integration in Migration Contexts

2022 ◽  
pp. 381-397
Author(s):  
Marvin Jammermann ◽  
Beybin Elvin Tunc
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Humanitarian Organizations ◽  
Democratic Spaces

The aim of this chapter is to explore the connections between the inherent characteristics of gamification and the current need for sustainable integration activities that are based on meaningful social interactions. By highlighting the potential of gamification for creating democratic spaces of social interaction and engaging diverse actors in joyful encounters, it is possible to underline the notion of social change that gamification can induce. In the area of integration, humanitarian organizations can harness the potential of gamification in their integration activities in order to ensure increased social cohesion. Through a critical analysis of existing gamification and integration approaches, the chapter provides arguments for why gamification is perfectly suited to improve integration processes by highlighting the manifold applications of gamification experience in the humanitarian field.

scholarly journals ‘I always live in a quebrada [favela] and today I am here. So, you can be also here one day’: Exploring pre-service teachers’ perceptions of love for youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1006-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Luguetti ◽  
Brent McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Physical Education ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Sociocultural Context ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
Embodied Experiences ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Project Participants ◽  
Democratic Spaces

In recent years, socially critical scholars have argued that love, as a moral basis for socio-critical work, should not be colorblind or power blind and that marginalized populations may understand caring within their sociocultural context, creating spaces for youth and teachers to challenge the racism, sexism, class exploitation and linguicism imposed on their communities. While there is advocacy of love in education and physical education, there is little research that aims to explore how pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) conceptions change across time. The aim of this study was to explore PSTs’ changing perceptions of love as they worked in an activist sport project with youth from socially vulnerable backgrounds. Participatory action research framed this four-semester research project. Participants included the lead researcher, four PSTs and 110 youth. Data collected included the following: (a) the lead researcher’s field notes; (b) collaborative PSTs’ group meetings; (c) PSTs’ generated artifacts; and (d) PSTs’ focus groups and interviews. Data analysis involved induction and constant comparison. The PSTs understood that love was represented by the following: (a) creating democratic spaces for students to care for each other and their community; (b) trusting and understanding the students, and dreaming possible futures with them; (c) being the best teacher in order to facilitate students’ learning; and (d) making sure all students are included. We concluded that the PSTs’ embodied experiences of oppression and the reflexive experience lived in the activist approach created a space for the PSTs to see themselves in the youth, reconnect with their own identity and develop empathy and love for the diverse youth.

The Turkish Tea Garden

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Wohl
Keyword(s):  
Shared Memory ◽  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Shared Spaces ◽  
Inclusive Settings ◽  
Tea Garden ◽  
Third Spaces ◽  
Democratic Spaces

This article examines the history, use, and significance of the Turkish Tea Garden or Cay Bahcesi, positing that these gardens offer unique democratic spaces for public discourse set within the polis. The article unpacks the historical, cultural, and symbolic features of these gardens, and the role these shared spaces play in Turkey’s multivalent civic environment. It employs Ray Oldenburg’s notion of “third space” to consider how these gardens provide inclusive settings for a culturally diverse citizenry. Furthermore, the article considers how these spaces act as repositories of shared memory, mediating conflict that appears in other societal spheres. The gardens are presented as uniquely “sacred” third spaces, distinct from the “profane” third spaces characterized by Oldenburg.

scholarly journals Truth Commission Archives as ‘New Democratic Spaces’: Table 1.

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Briony Jones ◽  
Ingrid Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Truth Commission ◽  
Democratic Spaces
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