Stepping down as Society and Space: Environment and Planning D editor

epdI have recently come to the end of my time as an editor of Society and Space: Environment and Planning D. I took over from Gerry Pratt in autumn 2006, officially becoming editor with the first issue of 2007. The continuing editors – Deborah Cowen, Natalie Oswin and Mary Thomas – have written a very generous piece for the open site about this transition. It draws on my opening editorial back in 2007 and discusses what we’ve achieved since then, and a little on their plans for the future.

In addition, Sage have recently bought Pion, publisher of the Environment and Planning series, so this is a time of much change for the journal (more on the sale at The Bookseller). It’s in excellent hands with Deb, Natalie and Mary, and they will be appointing a new editor and review editors shortly. I’ll be continuing an involvement with the journal as an ‘honorary editor’ – joining Michael Dear, Gerry Pratt and Nigel Thrift – and as editor of a ‘Society and Space’ book series with Sage.

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Please donate to Punctum Books – open-access does not mean no production costs

Sharing the appeal from Punctum Books. I’ve donated a little in the past, but it’s surprising how few people do. Books cannot be produced for zero cost. I’ve shared lots of links to their books in the past, have contributed to one, and have pieces in two forthcoming collections. But I’m also a reader. Please take a look at their wonderful collection, but please do consider a donation.

ship-of-fools-woodcut2

Every time someone downloads a book from punctum’s website, they see a pop-up window that asks them to consider donating something (no matter how small) for the gift of all of these free books and cultural resources, but less than 2% of all readers actually make a donation (but: THANK YOU beautiful 2-percent-ers!). We understand that to really work any stream of donations, you have to be aggressive, although in our already overly crowd-sourced and attention-compromised world,… we despair a little at our needing to be shouted at above and through the madding fray. That said, if you care about and/or have benefited in any way from punctum books, and/or you simply want to support the cause of Open Access publishing (which also means to support the cause of more authors having access to the means of publication, not just supporting the cause of readers having more access to more titles), please consider helping punctum in one of 2 ways — by actually making a donation, or purchasing one or more of our titles in print. VIVE LA OPEN ACCESS! http://punctumbooks.com/category/titles/

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General bibliography on open-plan office design (2015)

A bibliography on open plan offices, following up from one of the pieces I linked to last week.

Clare O'Farrell's avatarRefracted Input

Still from Jacques Tati's film Playtime (1967) Still from Jacques Tati’s film Playtime (1967) I have put together a general – but still very select – bibliography of material on open-plan office design, which you can download as a PDF. All items have links for easy consultation.

The bibliography includes the following subheadings:

  • Academic articles on open-plan: General
  • Academic articles on open-plan: Universities
  • Online newspaper and magazine articles/Websites: General
  • Online newspaper and magazine articles/Websites: Universities
  • The history of open-plan office design
  • Articles/Websites on the ‘combi-office’
  • Sick building syndrome
  • Audio-visual
  • Books

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Two Uses of Michel Foucault in Political Theory: Concepts and Methods in Giorgio Agamben and Ian Hacking (2015)

Requires subscription, but looks interesting.

Clare O'Farrell's avatarFoucault News

Colin Koopman, ‘Two Uses of Michel Foucault in Political Theory: Concepts and Methods in Giorgio Agamben and Ian Hacking’, Constellations (1), 0 Article first published online: 19 MAY 2015

DOI: 10.1111/1467-8675.12153

First paragraph in lieu of abstract

Putting Foucault to Work

It is difficult to locate a single area of intellectual inquiry in the humanities and social sciences where the work of Michel Foucault is not taken seriously today. Foucault’s influence is perhaps most incisive where the humanities and social sciences come into contact with politics as an object, site, or field of inquiry. Foucault’s influence and importance may then be a function, at least in part, of the fact that in so many disciplines today politics and politicization are crucial domains for the work of critical thought. Consider, in this light, the following quick list of Foucauldian neologisms that are pervasive in almost every field of study that purports…

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“Exercises in the History of Ideas”: An Interview with Stuart Elden by Dale Leorke and Suneel Jethani at the Theory, Culture and Society website

download“Exercises in the History of Ideas”: An Interview with Stuart Elden by Dale Leorke and Suneel Jethani at the Theory, Culture and Society website – open access. This is an edited version of an interview conducted last year in Melbourne and covers much of my past, present and future work. Many thanks to Dale and Suneel for their efforts and their engagement with my work.

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Books received 4 – various: Meillassoux, Trawny, Eco, Butler, Krell, Naas, Funambulist papers, journals

And everything else that was in the pile of post as I returned from the US. Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis; Quentin Meillassoux’s Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction; Peter Trawny’s Freedom to Fail: Heidegger’s Anarchy; The Funambulist Papers Volume 2 (in which I have a piece); Judith Butler, Senses of the Subject; David Farrell Krell, Postponements; Michael Naas, The End of the World and Other Teachable Moments, and the new issues of RIPE, TCS, Society and Space and Area.various

Posted in Books, David Farrell Krell, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Martin Heidegger, Quentin Meillassoux, Umberto Eco | Leave a comment

Books received 3 – books from publishers or authors

publishers

Complementary copies from publishers or authors. Mark Salter’s Making Things International 1, Christopher Roth’s Let’s Split! – a guide to secessionist states; Oli Mould’s Urban Subversion and the Creative City; Hughes Lethierry’s Agir avec Henri Lefebvre and Shannon Mattern’s Deep Mapping the Media City. Thanks to all.

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Books received 2 – various things for the Foucault projects

Books received – various things for the Foucault projects, including the new lecture course, background on May 68 and the abortion rights struggle in France, one of Foucault’s major sources on the revolt of the Nu-pieds, and a book about his apartment…

Foucault

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Books received – review work for Routledge: Marcuse, Pugliese, Valverde, Barry and Born, and Parker

Books received in recompense for review work for Routledge: Marcuse, Pugliese, Valverde, Barry and Born, and Parker.

Routledge

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Wilderness Group Tour: PhD dissertations and writing/support/accountablity groups

This is the post that sparked the two reflections on writing I shared earlier today. Interesting reading on ‘writing groups’. I firmly believe there is no one way to write that will work for everyone (or even for the same people for different projects), but there are so many people continuing to struggle with ways that don’t work for them, I think these kinds of discussions can only be valuable.

Michael Collins's avatarThe page “Newfoundland Literature” does not exist

I was recently asked to make a brief presentation about dissertation writing/support groups. I was one of four presenters at a workshop hosted by the University of Toronto’s School of Graduate Studies. I had a few thoughts about these writing groups, why there is such a hunger for them among PhD candidates, and why they usually seem to be of limited success. What follows is a modified script of my presentation. It speaks primarily to my experiences at the University of Toronto, but may be of broader interest and use.

I’ve been a member of at least three writing or accountability groups since beginning work on my dissertation, and I’ve been invited to join more.

One group met (still meets) weekly (usually), at a café on campus, to set goals for the week ahead and to review how each member did (or did not) meet goals set at the previous…

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