Transcript my presentation

THE FUTURE OF LOCAL MEMORY WEBSITES
AS EMPOWERING NICHES
IN AMSTERDAM
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DYNAMICS
MIKE DE KREEK
WORKSHOP
SOCIABLE SMART CITIES
AT THE 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON INTELLIGENT ENVIRONMENTS
JULY 16-17
2013
1
THE RED THREAD
1.
2.
3.
4.
THREE TIMES A MEMORY OF …
LOCAL MEMORY WEBSITES AS EMPOWERING NICHES
CITY-WIDE THEMES AS RIPPLES IN THE POND
CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A SOCIABLY SMART CITY
HOW AND WHY DO WE WANT TO PUT AN EFFORT INTO
INTERCONNECTING EXISTING LOCAL MEMORY
WEBSITES IN AMSTERDAM?
2
1. THREE TIMES A MEMORY OF …
MEMORY OF EAST
Museum 2003
Cohesion, skills, belonging, …
Interviews, meetings, life-writing
Memories from every day life
2.500 memories
22.000 comments
200.000 visitors 2012
Steered by residents (2009)
MEMORY OF WEST
Local government 2004
Inclusion, confidence, tolerance, …
Interviews, life-writing
Journalistic  every day life
1.600 memories
8.000 comments
87.000 visitors 2012
Organized as an association (2006)
MEMORY OF DISTRICT SOUTH
Individual initiative 2003
History: art, architecture, WW II, …
Life-writing
Factual and from every day life
500 memories, 50 memorials
1.300 comments
65.000 visitors 2012
Organized as an association (2005)
3
2. THREE TIMES A MEMORY OF … AN EXAMPLE
The Escaped Cow
A personal story about being able to look out over
the abattoir and the cattle market in 1973. Once
in a while a cow escaped and the narrator made
a picture of it. (keywords: animals,
entrepreneurship, neighborhood, …)
Some comments (in total 34):
Moral discussion
Recognition of fear
Meeting again
Same work
Canada
Personal publicity
Appointment
4
2. LOCAL MEMORY WEBSITES
AS EMPOWERING NICHES
Constructs …
Kreek, M. de & Zoonen, L. van
(2013).
New directions in research on
local memory websites.
Journal of social intervention,
22(2), 113-130.
Facilitates …
Fosters …
5
2. LOCAL MEMORY WEBSITES
AS EMPOWERING NICHES
Citizen ‘own’ representation
of neighborhood’s past
for future use.
An ‘independent’ cultural public sphere
were meaning in the present is
negotiated and cultural value is
judged by ordinary people.
For example, the poems containing
critical statements towards current
local policy.
For example, the extended
representation of
deported Jews in WW
II.
Emergence of discourse in ‘new’ networks in
favor of collective action or social power.
For example, disgust about deportation of
Jews and tolerance towards
newcomers.
6
2. LOCAL MEMORY WEBSITES
AS EMPOWERING NICHES
An ‘independent’ cultural public sphere
were meaning in the present is
negotiated and cultural value is
judged by ordinary people.
Citizen ‘own’ representation
of neighborhood’s past
for future use.
… the digital memories that we create in the
present “result from a combination of recall
and desire, which in turn are incentives to
remodel our past and fashion our future” …
Here, this happens within a local collective.
Emergence of discourse in ‘new’ networks in
favor of future collective action or social
power.
7
3. CITY-WIDE THEMES AS RIPPLES IN THE POND
THEME
MEMORY OF WEST
CORNER STORES
MEMORY OF EAST
8
3. CITY-WIDE THEMES AS RIPPLES IN THE POND
LESSONS LEARNED
• Unequal authority w.r.t. decisions.
• Exhibition non co-creative.
• Continuity unsure.
GOOD PRACTICE
• Variety participants.
• From many districts.
• Strengthen the existing memory
communities
9
3. CITY-WIDE THEMES AS RIPPLES IN THE POND
THEME
JOHAN CRUIJFF
MEMORY OF WEST
DIGITAL HEART OF AMSTERDAM
MEMORY OF EAST
10
MEMORY OF DISTRICT SOUTH
3. CITY-WIDE THEMES AS RIPPLES IN THE POND
Digital Heart of Amsterdam
•
Theme spreader
•
Participant community
•
Story harvester
•
Digital exhibition
•
Transcending
empowering niche
Four dominant discourses on corner
stores
•
Dislike decrease classical.
•
Dislike Increase supermarket.
•
Like increase multi-cultural store.
•
Dislike increase multi-cultural
store.
11
4. CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A SOCIABLY SMART CITY
Back to the ‘why’ of the interconnection of local
memory websites (why not leave them alone?)
1. Assume that local memory websites represent
empowering niches, then a city-wide theme
2. reinforces the memory communities by introducing
new incentives in them and it
3. adds another layer of possible empowerment
processes on macro level (discourses, but also
‘own’ representation ).
12
4. CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A SOCIABLY SMART CITY
From local memory websites as empowering niches to a – sociably –
smart city
“when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport)
and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable
economic growth and a high quality of life, with a wise management
of natural resources, through participatory governance.”
1. Yes, social infrastructure for memory sharing found
2. technological infrastructure and they dance together
3. ‘fueling’ a high quality in life.
13
4. CONCLUSIONS: TOWARDS A SOCIABLY SMART CITY
1. However, we show that this quality manifests itself on 3 levels:
2. the individual, the group and the community,
3. catalyzed by every local memory inhibiting a wish of how the quality of
future life in that locality should look like.
4. These wishes can become concrete pursuits for an individual, a group
or a community.
We believe that the interconnection contributes to:
1. Social instead of authoritive power.
2. Social sustainability in addition to economic sustainability.
14
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How to find interesting patterns, indicating empowerment processes, in
these big sets of data when
“Organizational and community empowerment, however, are not
simply the aggregate of many empowered individuals.” (Zimmerman,
2001)
15