Placemaking and social entrepreneurship in Dubai

Creative Place making is an aspect of making places that uses art and culture in order to promote community engagement in urban space programs - connecting its different social groups and revitalize it . So, in this post, I want to take you into my journey to discover how creative Place making is unraveling through grass roots community initiatives and most importantly how it gives a quick sketch of social entrepreneurship in Dubai .

The journey will take three stops; the archives, the screening of a movie and the presentation of an artist.

First, The Archives has been an endeavour carried out by two entrepreneurship enthusiasts who wanted to provide for young artists ,entrepreneurs and the wider community a space to network, work and present and specially read about art . They chose a rundown facility in SAFA Park and transform it into this thriving hub. The space became a gate to a wider array of spaces -be it reading a book about Moroccan architecture, working on your computer on a new poster for an event somewhere or attending the events that this blog is describing.The capability of the space to open up mentally, emotionally and spatially is echoed by its transparent architecture where culture (symbolised by books) is the tangible aspect within light . Safa Park fifth and fourth gate became redefined from gates to the park to gates to this space of art,culture or even just reflection.

Second, I was invited by Rana Askoul – founder of changing Pink to attend the screening of Girls rising movie at the Archives Dubai. The invitation touched different spots in my consciousness; it was about education for girls, run by a local based women empowerment platform in a space designed and managed by entrepreneurs. This event epitomizes for me creative Place making through grass roots activities in many aspects through using ''The archives'' open architectural space in order to insert a community awareness event.

Changing pink launched by Rana Askoul is an ambitious initiative on empowering women in the corporate environment .It has dedicated an online interface on connecting established female role models in UAE community with the budding young female entering the market ;even the space of the internet becomes a medium to further expand our reach.As an entrepreneur, it aroused my curiosity the linkages this platform has established with internationally recognized charity institutions through the holistic view it has presented on our engagement on women’s day – Read , watch, empower, write. This multi-dimensional view on how a social event shared globally can be tackled locally is of interest to many entrepreneurs who works on an idea inspired by a local problem and reaches a point where the solution touches the Globe. This takes me to the third aspect- art,movies and social causes.

The screening of girls rising in a women day in a park was run within The silence and the peace one finds in a natural setting ;This brought more emphasis to the individual struggles of each of the girls who appeared in the movies; a struggle for a basic need – Education within environment hot by hunger, war,racism,poverty,ignorance. The movies as an art form dedicated to a human cause was interesting for it has dedicated for each of the girls, a female writer who can present her story and an actor who would give her a voice; the human tones of the voices and the mis -en-relief of the writers enveloped the still space of the archives and impressed points of awareness .Again, write, read and talk becomes an artistic experience blending within the settings of the archives. That experience at that moment, for me , was the optimal hands on personal understanding of what creative Placemaking is – Art ,Community, well being and humanity connected with a point in space and time and transcending the local space (archives)and the local time (Dubai ) to embrace all of us as humans living on earth .

I also attended Sustainability and capacity building presentation by internationally acclaimed artist Samar jodha brought by Promise Of A Generation -a platform for discussion and action which facilitates a candid exchange of ideas, experiences and concerns in order to fulfill the promise of a generation to improve our world.I was expecting the presentation of multiple black and white photographs depicting the lives of the threatened local communities in India. As I walked towards the archives, I saw a glimpse of a container photo on the screen. Samar has chosen to show us in a space-time experience his installations. So, he took us through three short movies- Bhopal installation, Outpost and express and aspire. Samar is an entrepreneur like us and his expression is based on the mediums of photography and films to raise awareness on the issues of intrusive development and conservation. The movies carried in them a silence broken by acute sounds as if the sounds are ways to wake us up; he always chose the sounds of the environment he wanted to take us through. In Bhopal, it was the sounds of the chemical alarms, in Outpost, it was the sounds of drops of rain on the metallic structures of the community he was portraying and in Express and aspires, and it was the sounds of the children. Sounds here became a medium to connecting us to the places he is actively involved in sustaining them through his installations. His other medium was metal ;whether printing on them or sculpting them, the forms in which metals was used to portray the human condition made us as human to be aware of the immensity of pain one feels when his own community is threatened. That is what an entrepreneur would want at the end; using a medium of presentation-visuals, movies, 3D models, prototype, reports even blogs- to take people through his thinking process into the human dimension that unites all of us and then working actively to sculpt and transform this medium as if it becomes the concept similarly to what Steve Jobs did with his IPAD - it is the thin and simple design that embodies the simple and user friendly interface of its systems.

In these three expressions of entrepreneurship, I found out that what we define as social entrepreneurs are colleagues, friends and fellow artists who are trying to raise us above our local differences into the realm of the human that we all share .In that scope, Social entrepreneurship uses creative Placemaking strategies to transport us from the local point of space to the global space of flows .Its ability to transport us depends also on the attributes of the space that we are in. Without the existence of ''the archives'' , I would not be writing this blog and without social entrepreneurs , you would not be interested in reading how as humans ,we entrepreneurs from all walks of life and industries , are all connected ……

Michigan Leads the Way « Project for Public Spaces - Placemaking for Communities

Placemaking for Communities ,a way for economic regeneration

Permeability - shaping how people move within cities

Permeability and crowdsourcing

Permeability is defined by the ability of the urban tissue to offer different routes, through and within it and measures opportunity for movement. Accessibility is a product measure of permeability; it is actually the product of the individual and the cadastral system the cadastral street patterns which is the layout of urban blocks shows the public space network and pinpoints pain areas that are blocking permeability in an urban area.

By defining the spaces that define the blocks ,we can analyze the nature of the tissue of the development.

By analyzing the tissue, we can understand better the relationship between the buildings and the space around them; this relationship will give us insight on their permeability.

Riba student winner award, restituted spaces ,Piotr Lesniak,University of Edinburgh Edinburgh UK

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Old Souk,Dubai - http://www.dubaiwall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/old_souk.jpg

is the availability of vistas, which are the views corridors in a tissue

represents the ability to seek different routes .

The measure of permeability is the degree of the grid texture; finer grid permits higher visual and physical permeability than coarser grids.

http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-city-old-urbanism.html

links essentially to the mental map of the city for its visitors and residents-

it is the amenability of its tissues for new imprints-

new crowd courcing techniques are rewriting the way permeability has been deisgned - the sheer volume of information relating to how citizens view their city permeability means that designers ,urban planners and policy makers may be more and more challenged - 

NYC launched a competition last year AND GUESS WHO WINS- A WAY FINDING APPLICATION -this gives a real indication that permeability is one of the most important quality that citizen look in cities because it is what helps moveand experience its spaces.would be interesting to see what types of urban information such application might tell us ?

So What is Accessibility for Public Spaces?

Public space should be accessible to and used by all. (Arendt ,1958) It is particularly important, as Fraser (1990) and Hartley (1992) argue, that by claiming that public space as an embodiment of the public realm, it should include and foster interactions between different groups of the society. It should also offer excluded groups an opportunity to claim their rights of representation within the general community.

Demographic accessibility refers to the link between the production activities of the space and the output generated to the entity operating it whether it’s a public or private agency. The production activities,  such as retail, can be analyzed through the formal and informal programs that the implemented design generates as well as the one designed for [N1] [N2] .The inclusivity of the public space is established collectively through the diverse groups that uses is to engage in dialogue, debate and oppositional struggles. Key aspects of inclusive public space are its suitability for gatherings and encounters and its accessibility as an arena through which privacy is contested (Mitchell 1995)>Inclusive public space also encompasses the range of wage groups it serves and being served to. Demographic accessibility is important since it allows for various perceptions of the space to surface. In fact, (Ramon, 2004) advocates that variables such as age, sex, social class and ethnic identity affect the way urban life is perceived[N3] .

Physical accessibility is defined by the nature of the network that links the urban space to its surrounding urban fabric. The nature of these networks , highway or a pedestrian street, can change their role from  linkages to obstructions facilitating or preventing exchange processes and therefore the inclusivity as a quality of Publicness. “Environments, individuals and/or groups perceived either as threatening, comforting or inviting may affect entry into a public space” (Tiesdell and Oc, 1998: 648).

Symbolic accessibility can be distinguished by the degree of users’ engagement with the space in terms of active/passive engagement. The nature and the scope of activities incorporated in the public spaces can either allow or prevent the emergence of spaces of representation. The impact of the spaces of representation vary depending on the flexibility of such a representation. If it is narrow, it would only allow for representations of selected groups, if it is wide, it would allow for overlapping representations and increase its circle of influence beyond the development to the city scale.

This could even extend to national scale especially in extraordinary events such as the place de martyrs in Beirut in becoming an arena for multiple representations for Lebanon over the past two years. By outlasting mortal lives, it memorializes and thereby conveys a sense of history and society (Arendt 1958). Public spaces are defined in terms of the social encounter and exchange “where groups’ interest converge ’( Borja and Muxi ,2001;Glazer and Lilla 1987;Vernez Moodar 1992;Sorkin 1992;Tibbalds 1992;Worpole 1992). It reinforces the collective identity of the community (Valle Del,1997; Franck and Paxson,1989;Gehl,1987;Lynch 960;Whyte,1980;Kenstler 1993;Ruddock 1996). 

Reinforcing residents’ feelings of belonging to the city is attributed to the actions that can be carried out in public space which reflects an opportunity to urban justice (Borja, 2000).

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why research on public space is now more important for policy makers?

In an era of globalization, the role of public policy makers and urban designers is increasingly concerned in marketing their cities by advocating that they are integrated into the global map. Technology, and most precisely the upgrade of information technology sector, becomes essential in marketing the urban space as being connected with the global flows of capital, people (Porter et al. 2000 cited in Marshall 2003:18).

Subsequently, global urban projects described as  large scale developments built to accommodate high-end functions, are  increasingly initiated such as Cyberport (Hong Kong) ,Tokyo Rainbow Town, Muang Thong Thani(Thailand), Luijazui and the  Pudong Redevelopment Area (Shanghai),New Downtown(Singapore), Putrajaya (Malaysia) (Olds 1995,Marshall 2003).

 However, under the pressure of economic development and global agenda, Public spaces are increasingly privatized and purified   (Graham and Aurigi   1997, Graham and Marvin 2001).

As a result, investigating interventions that aim at providing inclusive public space in the context of a global agenda will provide linkages in between the growing urban research on the privatization of public space and the actual urban design practices and products.

Therefore, the study of possible urban interventions targeting the public space of suburban developments spurred by the global agenda is important.

These interventions need to be based on a conceptual framework that will synthesize the design attributes of  public space with the development goals set by the global agenda.

In particular, there needs to be a more thorough exploration on  how the purification and privatization of public space can be reversed through urban interventions that can benefit from the recent growing research on retrofitting suburbs that share the same attributes of global projects .

In addition, the analysis needs to take into consideration how public space were conceived  in the context and the reasons behind the particular design and policy decisions which lead to the particular characteristics of these spaces.

Importance of  global projects

Research on Globalization developed intensively (e.g. Castells 1989; Harvey 1989; Giddens 1990; King 1993; Sassen 1991) during the last decade although it is believed to start during 1970’s (Waller stein 1974; Castells 1989; Harvey 1989; Giddens 1990; King 1993; Sassen 1991).

However, the focus of the research was on mainly economic and political processes that generalized globalization debate into abstract forces affecting the urban space. Global projects are emerging concepts that deal with the specificities of the urban space being remodeled to respond to global agenda. As such, they offer an opportunity to investigate specific articulations in space and time.

Urban research on globalization based on a locale is needed as it provides new directions in term of being more empirical and specific and leading to practical interpretation of theoutput of the design process .

 

§  Importance of the study  public space

Although privatization of public space has been researched on since 1980, the research focused more in identifying the problems and ills of such a privatized ’’public space’’.

Starting from a more activist perspective, there needs to be more  thinking on interventions that capitalize on existing research and address the possibility of the success of such interventions within the global context.

The  approach will be essentially more multidisciplinary as public space is defined by integrating multiple layers in terms of anthropology than sociology, urban interventions formulated shall offer the opportunity of a holistic integrative approach

urban developments - urban space vital to city development

            GLOBAL PROJECTS

The literature review chapter tackles three main themes that formulate the conceptual framework fro intervening to retrofit Big Urbanism projects influenced and intensified by globalization – I call them Global Projects

THIS IS  about defining global urban projects” as an emerging concept with its related challenges and investigates the forces that have lead to the sterility of their urban spaces. The public space definitions have been studied through different disciplines .Each discipline has studied its primordial characteristics and offered a partial perspective depending on the layer of analysis tackled. Few cases of research have attempted to present a comprehensive view or an overreaching concept (Low 2000). 

Global Urban Projects

Global urban projects represent the local articulation of global processes with the physical space of the city. They represent the materialization of the globalization forces in the urban territory. They are referred to as the “new urban form’’ (Forbes 1999, Lin 1994) that links city regions, or spans across borders or even become an extended ‘’metropolitan regions’’ (Rohwer 1995, Marshall 2003)

Their spread encompasses the five continents although most of the literature focused on their emergence in the Asia –Pacific region (Olds 1995, Marshall 2003).Most of the public spaces in these projects suffer from such as Pudong Area China.

Absent urbanism is reflected in the absence of a deliberate articulation of the physical and non-physical characteristics of urban space which Results in the absence of the link bonding it to the encompassing public realm of the territory it occupies. Thus, the space is not enabling multiple meanings and facilitating multiple perceptions or readings by its users. It becomes flat, purified and abstract.

Global urban projects sprang out of the political, economic and cultural forces of globalization. The below section will try and analyze the entrenched aspects of these forces contributing to the absence of urbanism 

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Global urban projects are seen as a marketing tool to put their host cities on the global map .In order to make foreign capital move efficiently, the projects disconnect themselves form their hosts and become isolated from the complexities of the territory surrounding them.

In the emerging urban economic base, cities compete mainly in terms of global competitiveness and connectivity which are the main criteria to determine their status (Short et.al 2003). In order to claim a position in the urban hierarchy, these cities establish global projects (Friedman 1995). According to Short (ibid.), the world city status is seen as a guaranteed enhanced level of prosperity in the contemporary urban economy (Dieleman 1994 in Short ibid.).

The connection to the global flow of capital means confining connectivity to a global network of information and people that are essential to sustain the activities of these nodes. The dependence on the foreign direct investment and the relocation of transnational companies make it essential to remove risks associated with local conditions.

Castells (1989) argues that ‘the suppression of places by the network of the information flows is essentially to avoid the complicated different layers of the urban space’. Therefore, developers of such spaces are taking advantage of the liberalization policies and consumerism by developing the spaces and the infrastructure supporting these spaces as a closed network .By filtering the boundaries of these projects and enhancing global connectivity via transportation and information highways, they risk a disconnection from the local context (Graham and Marvin 2001).

This disconnection will impact the life and life cycle of the urban spaces created in the global urban projects since they will become only a transient space for Multi National Companies  employees or Foreign Direct Investment guests. This transient character and the lack of connection with the existing fabric and community render their urbanism absent.

The dislocation and disconnection form the urban life of its host city, impacts negatively the input of these projects into the culture of the city.

Why their connection to the Cultural Dimension is lacking and is important to be restored?

The research proved that in practice these projects, although implemented due to the cultures diversity of either the consultants working on the project or the investors developing them, lack the multiplicity of spaces needed for representation and interaction. Although policy makers emphasizes the role of economic forces and political forces in the success of global projects ,their sustainability can not be attributed only to economic factors such as accessibility to global networks or agglomeration of producer services firms.

Current research stresses on the importance of social and cultural factors in their economic long term life  (Lee1995; Budd 1995; Amin and Thrift 1992, 1994).Global urban projects are essentially dependant on people. In his study of the Asian global urban projects, Olds argues that at the origin of the capital flows and mega urban developments between Hong Kong and Canada, lies essentially a cultural flow facilitated by the influential Chinese families and multinational consultants migrating Global projects are directly influenced by the cultural globalization that has been facilitated by the continuous flow of ideas, information, commitment and values across the world (Waters, 1995).

1.       Epidural (1990, 1996) propose five dimensions of these global cultural flows:

2.       -Ethnos capes: The movement of tourists, refugees and guest workers

3.       -Medias capes: the international flows of printed media

4.       -Techno capes: the spread and distribution of technologies

5.       -Financscapes: the flows of international capital

6.       -Icescapes: the flows of political ideas and values.

Another factor that proves the importance of the social and cultural aspects of these developments is the importance of livability or what is referred to formally as “Quality of Life”. This is depicted in the quantitative models developed by international institutions such as World Bank and IMF; Quality of Life encompasses aspects such as availability of public spaces, open spaces as well as the array of cultural activities available .It is the absence of these spaces that impedes these projects from achieving sustainability and fostering social and cultural interaction (Knight 1995).. The reason for this could arguably be a disconnection from the local dimension resulting in lack of spaces of representation and therefore the absence of urbanism in the spaces of these projects.

Contested territories

Sassen argues that the corporate culture as a representation of expertise neutralizes the urban space by ordering it through technology, economic efficiency and rationality. The main actors are the ‘’business elites’’ who establish their identity by “aestheticizing urban space to overshadow the aspects that need to be controlled (Murray, 1995; Zukin 1991, 1992, 1995). Sites become designed for one user group mainly business elites and employees providing spaces which can host them  without taking into considerations the  needs of other surrounding communities that are disregarded The issues of representation are key to understanding how various types of firms that are not associated with globalization or information economy are excluded. These are referred to ‘’contested representations of globalism’’ (Hannerz 1991).The representation of the city is merging with aims of boosting the city world status. These representations, either external or internal consumption, emphasize on the needs of the corporate new class: the city as a place of social justice, democratic participation or creativity is therefore silenced.

‘’This new managerial class colonizes exclusive spatial segments that connects with one another across city, country, world; they isolate themselves from the fragments of local societies’’ (Castells, 1989).

Sassen (1994) argues that there is a new space emerging that is calling for a new transnational identity. It is placed in the center because of its unique location and is considered transnational because it is connected to distant places .It is coinciding with Massey’s (1993) call for a ‘’progressive sense of place’’ that is global by linking itself to places beyond.

Although these flows have enabled the formation of a globalized culture, their articulation between each other and the local context lead to their reinterpretation and reinvention as subverted micro narratives (Appadurai 1990). In this sense, globalization is not a one way process, it adapts culturally to the local settings. However, differentiation does not occur in between societies. Instead, differences occur when clashes are produced between local cultures and imported ones (King, 1997).

Hence, Globalization as it advances will create hybrid spaces whereby the local and global fabric will fuse together and produce spaces that celebrate diversity while creating its unique narratives to the host city it belongs to.

What‘s in it for the developers to care so much about inclusive public spaces? Why it is it a big issue?

When the space is abstracted and purified through rationalization, it ceases to acknowledge that attractive urban spaces throughout famous cities have always been sordid. Peter Hall (1989) deduced, after reviewing planning theory of the twentieth century, that’ Great cities have never been earthly utopias: they are place of stress and conflict, messy places, sordid places but places nevertheless superbly worth living in’’ (ibid: 998).

Moreover, such acute privatization of public space can lead to the loss of the same security that the global agenda strives to protect. Examining the psychological implications of the decline of the public realm,  Senett (1974) notifies that this turning inwards undervalues the importance of class and community relations with strangers, particularly those that occur in cities.

Third, inclusive public spaces add to the an important indicator in global marketing strategies, by enhancing opportunities of a more vibrant social life. Zukin (1995) elucidates the importance of public spaces because it reveals   how the city receives strangers and integrates them into their social life.  Where the public arena gives way to mingling with strangers, urban spaces are transformed into scenes of the civic life. Boyer (1994) highlights the importance of everyday street life and ordinary places of collective assembly that initiate the emergence of a shared public culture which the new consuming places fail to infuse. Furthermore, she points out that this level of every day practices construct ’social vitality and cultures of socialization, talk, negotiation and understandings’ (ibid: 260).  

Fourth, face to face encounters is still an essential component in increasing creativity and reducing economic costs of insecurity.  Stressing on ‘’the extraordinary social nature of modern economics’, Thrift and Olds (1996) argue that ‘’in volatile and globalizing economies , trust ,reciprocity and face-to-face relational networks become centrally important to many economic practices’’.

Fifth, Hybrid public spaces will cut on costs.   By encouraging the sense of belonging for a variety of social groups, such space will also increase economic potential by increasing social relations between different groups and therefore enhance employment opportunities in minority enterprises, third sector services, local education and technical centers. Hall (1995) views such diversity as producing better conditions for ‘economic adaptability since cultural mixing would allow innovative business formulas and practices’ (ibid cited in Amin A et al.1997:423).Diversity in the urban areas contribute culturally and economically to a vital style of life which will sustain social cohesion, mobility and opportunity (Castells 1989).

a holistic understanding of public Space and its dimension

I.     Public space 

 

Public space consists of outdoor/indoor spaces that come in forms of sidewalks, streets, plazas, parks, city halls, libraries (Madanipour,1992; Calthorpe 1993;.Braza 2003). 

he diversity of types and respectively of the activities they foster have been the object of study of different disciplines (sociology, political theory, urban design, anthropology ).In such case , public spaces can be defined from different yet complimentary perspectives. These different definitions can highlight the key characteristics of public space.

One notion is worth noting is that ‘’public space ‘’as a theory usually considered that its supply and definition most critical in the context of urban environments (which extends to adjacent suburban environments) .In rural settings, public space supply is relatively less critical because of cheaper land prices and lower densities.