Velcro City Tourist Board

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a blog by Paul Graham Raven

science fiction / social theory / climate futures / infrastructure / utopian narratology / sometimes cats

unknowable differences populating an imagined horizon

Struggling to write on sociological topics (or indeed on anything that engages significantly with social dimensions, whether academically or otherwise)? David Beer is, too: … beyond the problems of the speed of change and a lack of focus, there is also a sense that the thing I’d normally be analysing – society – will not
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Social Theory 🙜 Sociology 🙜 Writing

7 May 2020
06MAY20 / accessions

Some goodies from Meatspace Press.
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Accessions

6 May 2020
In search of a dialectical utopianism : Harvey (2000), Spaces of Hope

Harvey, D. (2000). Spaces of hope. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Uni. Press. Focussing here, for reasons presumably obvious to long-term readers of this site, on Chapters 8 (“The spaces of Utopia”, p133-81) and 9 (“Dialectical utopianism”, p182-95) of what is now a vintage part of the David Harvey canon. Reading these pieces really brought home just how
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Politics 🙜 Reading Journal 🙜 Social Theory

1 May 2020
“A sterile and decontextualised narrative”: Grossi & Pianezzi (2017), Smart cities: Utopia or neoliberal ideology?

Grossi, G., & Pianezzi, D. (2017). “Smart cities: Utopia or neoliberal ideology?”. Cities, 69, 79-85. Pretty simple paper, this one, in the sense that it does exactly what it says on the tin; the specific case (Genoa, Italy) is not of great relevance to me right now, but I want to drag some quotes out
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Futures 🙜 Reading Journal 🙜 Social Theory 🙜 Technology

1 May 2020
neither unprecedented nor revolutionary / bioethics, biopower and the pandemic

OK, this is gonna be a long one. And if the C19 situation is fraught for you, then consider this a content warning—I’m going to talk about mortality and our societal attitudes to such. I’ve been wanting to write something like this for a good few weeks, but have frankly been too much of a
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Politics 🙜 Social Theory

28 Apr 2020

Who is Paul Graham Raven?

“… who, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with [his] voice, thanks to the god in [him].”

Paul is consulting writer, researcher, theorist and foresight practitioner, as well as an author and critic of science fiction literature. More details can be found on the About page of this blog.