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Tag Archives: henri lefebvre
Pragmatism not idealism
keeping in contact with old friends It was twenty years ago today, went one of the contenders for greatest album ever. It was twenty years ago today since I and my friend Nathan made the eager after-school trip to MVC … Continue reading
Doreen Massey (1944-2016)
I came into academia via a fairly circuitous route. After a degree in sound engineering (which I left pretty sure I never wanted to enter a recording studio again; although it did introduce me to some unexpected concepts like dada which, oddly … Continue reading
Posted in Space
Tagged cultural geography, doreen massey, feminist geography, geography, henri lefebvre, human geography, kilburn, space
1 Comment
Beauty is in the streets
The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it. Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach. I never realised that, like party politics, academia has a conference season. At least, March appears to be … Continue reading
Posted in half baked theories, PhD, Theory
Tagged art, detournement, Everyday Life, existentialism, graffiti, greil marcus, guy debord, henri lefebvre, jean paul sartre, martin heidegger, may 1968, paris, praxis, revolution, simone de beauvoir, situationism, situationist international, space, streets
2 Comments
The Other immigrants of Carribee Island: Wolverhampton’s Jewish community 1
My PhD research focuses on a small section of Wolverhampton town centre in the nineteenth century that was well-known – perhaps notorious, even – for it’s substantial Irish immigrant population. “Carribee Island” and the “Stafford Street district” became by-words when … Continue reading
Posted in Housing, Space, Wolverhampton
Tagged black country, canal street, carribee island, cemetery, census, fryer street, graveyard, henri lefebvre, immigration, jew, jewish, judaism, map, martin daunton, other, prussia, st james square, stafford street, synagogue, urbanisation, wolverhampton
1 Comment
“Slums” of the Black Country: Darlaston
I’ve ummed and aahed a bit about what to write about the Post‘s report on Darlaston. It’s really the same old story: surface drainage, evils, abomination, bubbling and seething, stagnant, over-flowing, the cholera, back courts, and so on; there’s not a lot … Continue reading
Posted in Black Country, half baked theories, History, Housing, Maps, Poverty, Public Health, Slum
Tagged alleys, black country, courts, darlaston, henri lefebvre, housing, john wesley, map, poverty, pub, slum, Slums of the Black Country, spatial history, Staffordshire, streets, urban history, wolverhampton
2 Comments
“Slums” of the Black Country: Eel Street, Oldbury
The Post’s next community is one I’m loathe to try and explain in detail. Oldbury was infamous as one of the most polluted towns in the country – so much so that Dr Janet Sullivan recently completed a top-notch PhD thesis on … Continue reading
Posted in Black Country, Canal, environment, Everyday Life, History, Housing, Maps, Public Health, Slum
Tagged back-to-backs, black country, brick, canal, china clay, courts, henri lefebvre, housing, map, oldbury, public health, sanitation, Slums of the Black Country, social history, spatial history, urban history
5 Comments
“History breaks down into images not into stories”
On the night of 25th September 1940, a middle-aged German-Jewish academic took his own life with an overdose of morphine in the Hotel de Francia, Portbou, on the Spanish side of the Pyrennean border. He’d been hoping to flee to … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday Life, Housing, Staffordshire, Wolverhampton
Tagged arcades, arcades project, black country, capitalism, david harvey, geography, henri lefebvre, history, housing, maps, paris, space, walter benjamin, wolverhampton
2 Comments
Land of my fathers
I’ve been reading Henri Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis lately. I’m no expert on continental philosophy or cultural theory really, so I’ve enjoyed this – it’s light and possible to read in an impressionistic sort of way, glossing over all the Bachelards and Nietzsches, the … Continue reading
Posted in half baked theories, Space, time
Tagged briercliffe, britain, burnley, city, henri lefebvre, history, lancashire, memory, moorland, moors, pennines, rhythm, rhythmanalysis
1 Comment
All the pieces matter
Disclaimer: I’m no expert on American history, not at all. I’m keen that any theory I want to study be portable though, so I’m attempting here to look at a TV series I’ve been re-visiting through a particular lens. No Black … Continue reading
Posted in environment, Housing, Space
Tagged baltimore, henri lefebvre, history, housing, maryland, natalie zemon davis, projects, row houses, space, spatial history, the wire
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Empty space
Warning again: I’m going to be talking Black Country history a little further down, but I’ve been interested in what maps do and don’t show, so the preamble is a bit… vague and theoretical. Maps are complex beasts. They show what … Continue reading
Posted in Black Country, half baked theories, Maps, Space, Stourbridge
Tagged agenoria, black country, canal, google maps, henri lefebvre, industry, ironworks, maps, michel de certeau, openstreetmap, ordnance survey, place, space, steelworks, stourbridge
1 Comment
