Doctoral Scholarship – Institute for Culture and Society

The University of Western Sydney’s newly-formed Institute for Culture and Society (which incorporates the Centre for Cultural Research) invites applications for PhD scholarships.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE
The Institute for Culture and Society encourages theoretically-directed empirical research on the transformations in culture and society in the global era. The Institute is home to a number of internationally renowned scholars, contributing to the University of Western Sydney receiving the highest ranking for research quality – well above world standard – in Cultural Studies (as part of the Excellence in Research for Australia 2010).
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Der autoritäre Kapitalismus ist der Gewinner der Krise; Slavoj Žižek

Aber das größte Problem ist Europa selbst. “Was will Europa?”, lautet die Frage – um Freuds “Was will das Weib?” zu paraphrasieren. Die heutige Krise ist eine Krise des technokratischen Brüsseler Modells von Europa. Nur eine erneuerte Linke kann Europa retten.

http://www.zeit.de/kultur/2011-08/slavoj-zizek-interview/seite-1

Utopia in bester Lage

Seit 40 Jahren folgt die Kopenhagener Hippie-Kolonie Christiania eigenen Gesetzen. Jetzt will der Staat sie verkaufen

http://www.zeit.de/2011/16/Kopenhagen-Christiania

When Art and Energy Were SoHo Neighbors

We were talking by phone one recent evening about what once appeared to be the end of days for New York City during the early ’70s, when SoHo dawned. “Like New York, we were all broke,” she reminisced. “We thought of ourselves as workers, conquering someplace inhospitable, and we had a real sense of place.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/arts/design/laurie-anderson-trisha-brown-gordon-matta-clark-stars-of-70s-soho.html?_r=1&hp

Wonderfull introduction to de Certeau in Dutch…

For the dutch-speaking, I can recommend the following book as a very readable introduction to Michel de Certeau by Rudy Laermans: Sluipwegen van het denken. (1996)
http://www.literatuurplein.nl/boekdetail.jsp?boekId=27850&pMode=boek&pFuzzy=0&pTekst=sluipwegen%20van%20het%20denken

Rio World Cup demolitions leave favela families trapped in ghost town

Homes are being torn down and pests and squatters are taking over the rubble of Favela do Metrô, but hundreds of families remain with nowhere else to go…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/26/favela-ghost-town-rio-world-cup

The Modernist

20th century modernist design and architecture in the NW of England, from Runcorn’s lost utopia to Blackpool Casino, from Forton Services to Manchester’s UMIST campus.

If you love the 20th century architecture and design of the NW, from Cheshire to Cumbria, Blackpool to Blackburn… Manchester, Liverpool, Preston and the rest, the modernist magazine is just the ticket, we regularly feature articles, interviews, news, reviews and travel.

We’ve handpicked a team of experts, and dilettantes alike, to bring you news, musings and delightful titbits about modernist architecture and design in the NW.

http://www.the-modernist-mag.co.uk/

University cities thrive on students

If student numbers in cities fall as more young people choose to stay at home while they study, will we really be better off? Or will university cities become ghost towns?

Demolition of London housing estate to begin

Demolition teams are to move in to one of Britain’s best known housing estates on Friday.

The sprawling Heygate estate in Walworth, south-east London, is close to the Aylesbury estate, which Tony Blair visited hours after his 1997 election victory. In his first leadership speech he described the residents as the “forgotten people” and pledged to tackle social exclusion in the are.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/15/demolition-london-housing-estate-begins

The Great Estate: The Rise & Fall of the Council House

Journalist and author Michael Collins presents a hard-hitting and heartwarming history of one of Britain’s greatest social revolutions – council housing.
At its height in the mid-1970s, council housing provided homes for over a third of the British population. From the ‘homes for heroes’ cottages that were built in the wake of the First World War to the much-maligned, monolithic high rises of the 60s and 70s, Collins embarks on a grand tour of Britain’s council estates.
He visits Britain’s first council estate, built as an antidote to London’s disease and crime-ridden Victorian slums, the groundbreaking flats that made inter-war Liverpool the envy of Europe, the high rise estate in Sheffield that has become the largest listed building in the world, and the estate built on the banks of the Thames that was billed as ‘the town of the 21st century’.
Along the way he meets the people whose lives were shaped by an extraordinary social experiment that began with a bang at the start of the 20th century and ended with a whimper 80 years later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0109dvs