My keynote at the 6th National Seminar on Geography and Phenomenology
Although I've only been in Brazil for about two months, and am careful about over-generalizing based on my limited experience, it seems as if phenomenology, as a field of study,…
Community workshop meetings in Olinda
Work is proceeding on setting up the first of what will hopefully be a series of community workshop meetings in Olinda that will address what should become of the Horto…
UFPE mini-course: old places, significance, and a social science approach
This week I gave my first series of lectures in a special "mini course" at the Department of Urban Development (MDU) at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE). The first…
Shards of the Past: Remembrance & Foreshadowing by Jack D. Elliott, Jr.
Last year, Kent State University published a book on Historic Preservation and Urban Change (Terry Schwarz, editor). In it was a paper by a familiar author: Jack D. Elliott, Jr.…
Mini course at UFPE on the social sciences and heritage conservation
While I'm working on my research in Olinda, Brazil, I will be participating in a "mini course" in the Urban Development Program (MDU) at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE).…
Bringing phenomenology to the people (but don’t call it that)
The phenomenological approach is of particular relevance when dealing with the questions of significance for preservation. ... If a historical place is such a phenomenon, then the term ‘significant’…
The conservation of the historic environment: the void dweller
In the early 1990s, when I was following the techno music scene closely, I came across a track called "Spice" by EON, which I really liked. (It borrowed sound bites,…
A love affair with environmental psychology and the historic environment
I just read an interesting article on the decline in the collaboration of environmental psychologists and architects. In "Architecture’s Brief Love Affair with Psychology Is Overdue a Revival" Carlos Galan-Diaz…
Facilitating community workshops and community-based participatory research
The community workshop is a core method of my research with the Horto d'El Rey, which is part of the overall methodology of community-based participatory research. This post will cover…
Becoming brasileiro through pizza
So last night I made what I think was a significant milestone: I successfully ordered a pizza for pickup, in Portuguese, over the telephone. For anyone learning a foreign language,…