Further to the post on Guattari here is a nice nugget:
"It seems to me that mass media fatalism equates to a misunderstanding of a number of factors:
(1) sudden mass consiousness-raising, which always remains possible;
(2) the progressive collapse of Stalinism in all its incarnations, which leaves room for other transformative assemblages of social struggle;
(3) the technological evolution of the media and its possible use for non-capitalist goals, in particular through a reduction in costs and through miniaturisation;
(4) the reconstitution of labour processes on the rubble of early twentieth century systems of industrial production, based upon the increased production - as much on an individual basis as on a collective one - of a 'creationist' subjectivity (achieved through continuous training, skill transfer and the 're-tooling' [ressourcement] of the labour force, etc)." (Guattari, 2000 p.40-41)
I've underlined the aspects which I think are of particular relevance or that could provide some theoretical grounding to what we propose.
Do you think its worth carrying out a mapping of current skills on the site based on the employment sectors research? We can then try to transpose them onto some sort of new industry maybe?
Sounds great to me . We could map the kind of new media potential and then overlay it onto the physical potential. So theres the physical architectural impact upon the master plan and then the more veiled ICT element. (I'm reading Guattari now for the next essay btw)
ReplyDeleteOne of the criticisms of both of our site analysis groups was that we didn't consider wider context. Maybe this skills mapping element could be carried out on Birmingham as a whole, the idea being that people who back the cause will repopulate the area. There aren't many people living there at the moment (0.15% Birmingham) so people need to come from somewhere.
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