TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring the non-measurable
T2 - On mapping subjectivities in urban research
AU - Radović, Darko
N1 - Funding Information:
The project presented in this paper was funded by the Japanese Government – MEXT Strategic Senryaku Grant (2011–14) and was supported by Keio University , Faculty of Science and Technology. The work was conducted in collaboration with a number of colleagues. Particular thanks go to the members, students, assistants and associates of co + labo Radović, at Keio University and especially to Davisi Boontharm (Keio University and Sophia University, Tokyo). Further thanks to the research teams of partner institutions that took part in various dérive sessions: the Chinese University of Hong Kong (headed by Hendrik Tieben and Thomas Chung), Chulalongkorn University (Issarathumnoon Wimonrart) and Silapakorn University (Apiradee Kasemsook and Nuttinee Karnchanaporn), Bangkok, and National University of Singapore (Heng Chye Kiang).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - This essay offers for discussion two contentious issues: the need for non-reductive approaches to investigations of the urban and the need for explicit inclusion of subjectivities and sensuality in urban research. It presents fragments of a major international research project into urban intensity, Measuring the non-Measurable (Mn'M), which was conducted at Keio University, Tokyo. It is polemological as, in de Certeau's tradition, it hopes to help "force theory to recognise its own limits." The main emphasis of issues of subjectivity and sensuality are found in: (1) our efforts to define urban intensity/quality, (2) various techniques to find and identify such qualities, and (3) ways of capturing, (re)presenting and sharing those subtle urban energies which escape easy, if any, definition. Capturing and representing the urban is viewed here as the task of mapping - of a non-traditional kind. A discussion about mapping subjectivities and sensualities constitutes the main body of the paper. The first part outlines key aspects of the theoretical background, then presents concrete examples constituting fragments from a number of dérive sessions conducted in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. The pattern of the second part of the essay changes in order to present prospects for further research and different practices opened up by those dérive sessions, or drifts. The style in the second part of this article abandons standard journal formatting in order to enable concepts to flow and cascade, drift and stutter. A text about mapping takes the form of a map. Such writing-as-mapping aims to stimulate readings other than those intended by the author. It asks questions and hints at the answers. What is a map? Why map? How to map? How to map what is difficult to even define? Or, indirectly, might maps capture qualities such as the earthiness of terra, or the sensuality of the human?
AB - This essay offers for discussion two contentious issues: the need for non-reductive approaches to investigations of the urban and the need for explicit inclusion of subjectivities and sensuality in urban research. It presents fragments of a major international research project into urban intensity, Measuring the non-Measurable (Mn'M), which was conducted at Keio University, Tokyo. It is polemological as, in de Certeau's tradition, it hopes to help "force theory to recognise its own limits." The main emphasis of issues of subjectivity and sensuality are found in: (1) our efforts to define urban intensity/quality, (2) various techniques to find and identify such qualities, and (3) ways of capturing, (re)presenting and sharing those subtle urban energies which escape easy, if any, definition. Capturing and representing the urban is viewed here as the task of mapping - of a non-traditional kind. A discussion about mapping subjectivities and sensualities constitutes the main body of the paper. The first part outlines key aspects of the theoretical background, then presents concrete examples constituting fragments from a number of dérive sessions conducted in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. The pattern of the second part of the essay changes in order to present prospects for further research and different practices opened up by those dérive sessions, or drifts. The style in the second part of this article abandons standard journal formatting in order to enable concepts to flow and cascade, drift and stutter. A text about mapping takes the form of a map. Such writing-as-mapping aims to stimulate readings other than those intended by the author. It asks questions and hints at the answers. What is a map? Why map? How to map? How to map what is difficult to even define? Or, indirectly, might maps capture qualities such as the earthiness of terra, or the sensuality of the human?
KW - Alternative practices
KW - Dérive
KW - Mapping
KW - Sensuality
KW - Subjectivity
KW - Urban research
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ccs.2015.10.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ccs.2015.10.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84960117257
SN - 1877-9166
VL - 7
SP - 17
EP - 24
JO - City, Culture and Society
JF - City, Culture and Society
IS - 1
ER -