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 two topics I addressed were “Why Do Old Places Matter? What the Social Sciences Can Tell Us” and “Principles for Integrating Social Science Research Methods …
UFPE mini-course: old places, significance, and a social science approach Read More »
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. Elliott had a profound effect on my doctoral research when I came across his 2002 article on “radical preservation” in the National Trust for Historic …
Shards of the Past: Remembrance & Foreshadowing by Jack D. Elliott, Jr. Read More »
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). In this course, I’ll be lecturing on a number of topics that address critical heritage studies theory, the use of social science research methods in …
Mini course at UFPE on the social sciences and heritage conservation Read More »
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’ should be used in preservation to describe places whose physical character and matrices of historical, mythical, and social associations can and do evoke experiences of awe, …
Bringing phenomenology to the people (but don’t call it that) Read More »
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, quite liberally, from the movie Dune. I can still hear the phrase, “the spice must flow” in my head.) So how does this relate to …
The conservation of the historic environment: the void dweller Read More »
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 and Dörte Martens describe how the environmental design and behavior movement that started in the 1970s and peaked in the 1980s now seems to be …
A love affair with environmental psychology and the historic environment Read More »
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 the nature of meetings, facilitation, and various techniques to engage participants in community workshops. While not easy, facilitating community workshops can be very rewarding especially …
Facilitating community workshops and community-based participatory research Read More »
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, the telephone can be a communication nemesis. When talking to someone in person, you have lots of body language cues in addition to the words …
This evening I finally completed my “IRB” (Institutional Review Board) application which specifies how I will be protecting my human “subjects” from potential harm for my proposed research project. Ostensibly, this is a very good process to undergo because, in the past, researchers have abused and manipulated people under the guise of “scientific” research. The …
This Sunday, my host professor and his family gave my family and I a wonderful tour of Recife Antigo. Technically, “Recife Antigo” is a manufactured name designed to market the part of the Bairro Recife located on the island of Recife, which contains the original Dutch settlement from the 17th century. Long abandoned for most …
