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Space vs place: 

Eco-opolis & the urban Collective Human Intelligence

International Round Table »Does Space Have a Guardian?« –

MOS Ši »House of Art Arsen Dedić«, Obala hrvatske mornarice 1, 22000, Šibenik

Program of speakers –FE Schedule of presentations

This is an abstract of the presentation by Joe Ravetz –  slides 

We also have a ‘book launch’ on 25th –

 

PROPOSITIONS

QUESTION –  GUARDIANS OF THE SPACE OR PLACE??

  • What is ‘space’ – material thing / relationships…. what is ‘place’ – collective experiences, co-productions, emerging realities??
  • Can we make a proposition – ‘spaces of resources & functions – VS – ‘places of relationships & experiences’ ??

So this presentation is about Spaces vs places: Eco-opolis & the Collective Human Intelligence

  • This ‘CHI’ emerges by communication, learning, innovation and co-production – with:
  • wider community of stakeholders,
  • deeper layers of value,
  • further horizons of change & transformation.

 

DYNAMICS & CHALLENGES to spaces & places – –

  • Multi-locality:  new geographies of living / working / education / leisure –
  • multi-globality: new patterns of global value chains / extraction / colonization / migration –
  • Meta-versity:  new levels of inter-penetration of material & virtual worlds (‘CHAI’) –
  • Dynamic cycle of urban evolution & co-evolution

 

DESIGNING THE ECO-OPOLIS –

  • Co-learning loops for local CHI –
  • Design process as guardian of local CHI

 

BACKGROUND

 

In the UK, and many other places in this hi-tech 21st century, we have a long running problem – how to provide housing for the people?? 

 

In previous decades, a socialist-type government could build 1 million units, with industrial production methods – but many of these ‘projects’ are now falling apart, physically and/or socially.  In the neo-liberal follow-on, the real estate market took over, building units for profit by developers and/or house-owners – but many of these are projects of gentrification and exclusion.

 

From all the debate and research and design ideas, it seems the ideal is still a common vision – how to make places which work for families and communities, especially the excluded and marginal out there. Such places can enable synergies and positive interactions, between a wider community (not only high income), with deeper layers of value (not only economic) and further horizons of change – beyond short term problem fixes, towards the co-evolution of human potential.

 

So we have a challenge and opportunity – how to move from ‘Space for functional needs / private profit’ – towards a system of place-making for synergies?’

 

This presentation draws on work in progress, applying the insights on ‘collective local intelligence’ from the book www.manchester.ac.uk/synergistics/deeper-city-book/  to real-world cases in the north of England.

The University of Manchester