Week 12: Visions of the Future of NYC: Waste, Energy and Complexity
Participatory challenge: individually or in self-selected teams, construct a tableau for the future of NYC in a year of your choice.
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
PlaNYC 2030 Solid Waste http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/theplan/solid-waste.shtml
Urry, John. “Ch. 4: Networks and Fluids,” in Global Complexity. Cambridge: Polity, 2003. 50-103. (e-reserves)
Tagged PlaNYC, complexity
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Week 11: Practice Presentations
I will be attending the 21st Annual North American Waste-to-Energy Conference in Ft. Myers, FL. http://nawtec.swana.org/
You will practice your presentations in consultation with Ben Miller, Instructional Technology Fellow.
No readings!
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Week 10: Environmental Justice; Plastics in NYC
What’s due: Annotated Bibliography
Participatory challenge: Identify and photograph a neighborhood in NYC impacted by industrial facilities, evidence of plastic pollution, or another visual closely related to this week’s assigned readings.
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
Pellow, David Naguib. “Ch.4: The Global Village Dump,” in Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice. MIT Press, 2007. 73-96. e-reserves
Click to show optional readingsMacBride, Samantha. “Ch. 5: Extended Plastics Responsibility” in Recycling Reconsidered: the Present Failure and Future Promise of Environmental Action in the United States. MIT Press 2012. 174-215 Zotero
Optional readings:
Liboiron, Max. “Defunct Models of Pollution: Starring Oceanic Plastics and Body Burdens” Discard Studies http://discardstudies.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/defunct-models-of-pollution-starring-oceanic-plastics-and-body-burdens/
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Week 9: Planning and the Right to the City
Participatory challenge: Using the internet try to understand how the term “Right to the City” (coined by Henri Lefebvre) has been interpreted and used in the US context.
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
Anderson, Nadia M. 2011 “Social Infrastructure as a Means to Achieve the Right to the City” Design Activism and Social Change, Proceedings of the 2011 Design History Society International Conference, Barcelona, Spain, September 7-10, 2011. http://www.historiadeldisseny.org/congres/#papers
Click to show optional readingsFrug, Gerald. “Ch. 3: Strategies for Empowering Cities,” in City-Making: Building Communities Without Building Walls. Princeton University Press, 1999. e-reserves.
Optional readings:
Frug, Ch. 6 “Community Building”, Ch. 7 “City Land Use” (113-164) “Ch. 4 The Situated Subject”, “Ch. 5 The Post Modern Subject 54-112, in City-Making: Building Communities Without Building Walls. Princeton University Press, 1999. e-reserves.
Purcell, Mark. “Excavating Lefebvre: The right to the city and its urban politics of the inhabitant.” GeoJournal 58, no. 2 (2002): 99-108. [Zotero]
Tagged cities, modernism, right to the city, planning, postmodernism
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Week 8: Transportation systems: Transhumanism
What’s due: Memo 2: 100 year history timeline of the topic, annotated, with references – 3 pages minimum
Participatory challenge: Bring me up to date on transhumanist-tending technologies that are of cutting edge interest to you.
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
MTA. Greening Mass Transit & Metro Regions: The Final Report of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainability and the MTA (http://www.mta.info/sustainability/pdf/SustRptFinal.pdf)
Click to show optional readingsOptional readings:Stutz, Bruce, “Battered New York City Looks For Ways to Hold Back the Sea”, Yale Environment 360 http://e360.yale.edu/feature/ battered_new_york_city_looks_for_ways_to_hold_back_the_sea/2589/
Muehlhauser, Luke, and Anna Salamon. “Intelligence explosion: Evidence and import.” The Singularity Hypothesis. Springer (2012). [Zotero]
New York Metropolitan Transportation Council 2003 “Freight Basics”. http://www.nymtc.org/files/FreightBasics.pdf
New York City Solid Waste Management Plan 2006. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/downloads/pdf/swmp/swmp/swmpweb.pdf
Nicolelis, Miguel L. “Coming Soon: Artificial Limbs Controlled by Thoughts” Scientific American, Wednesday, August 29, 2012. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=artificial-limbs-controlled-by-thought&print=true
Dewdney, Christopher. “Ch. 3: Television,” in Last Flesh: Life in the Transhuman Era. Harper, 1998. 40-47. Dewdney, Christopher. “Ch. 8: Artificial Intelligence,” in Last Flesh: Life in the Transhuman Era. Harper, 1998. 113-119. e-reserves
Dewdney, Christopher. “Ch. 13: Jumping Ship: The Posthuman Era,” in Last Flesh: Life in the Transhuman Era. Harper, 1998. 168-185. e-reserves
Tagged climate change, climate change adaptation, transhumanism, transportation, artificial intelligence
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Week 7: Water in NYC; Futuring methods
Research Challenges. Using visuals, present a brief introduction to the class on the following examples of contemporary futurism (note – you must go beyond wikipedia):
- Ray Kurzweil
- the Tellus Institute
- Steampunk
Required readings:
New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The NYC DEP Climate Change Program Assessment and Action Plan http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/news/climate_change_report_05-08.shtml
Click to show optional readingsOptional readings:Cornish, Edward. “Ch. 5: Systems, Chance and Chaos,” “Ch. 6: Futuring Methods”, “Ch. 7 Knowing the World Around Us”, “Ch. 8 Using Scenarios” in Futuring: the Exploration of the Future. World Future Society, 2004. 49-105 e-reserves
Ratcliffe, John, and Ela Krawczyk. “Imagineering city futures: The use of prospective through scenarios in urban planning.” Futures 43, no. 7 (2011): 642-653. [Zotero]
Vision 2020: New York City’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/cwp/index.shtml
Anderson, Nicole, “Sandy Who? New developments prevail on Brooklyn’s waterfront in the wake of Hurricane Sandy”. Architect’s Newspaper, 12/13/2012 http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6402
Tagged water, systems theory, Sandy, waterfront, climate change adaptation, futurism, energy
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Week 6: Energy in the City, Concepts of Time and Place
Reference Challenge: “Energy in Context.” What is a lot of energy, what is a little, and how do watts, joules, and calories relate to each other? Present a useful reference graphic to help us understand energy metrics.
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
Zimmerman, Rae, and Craig Faris. “Infrastructure impacts and adaptation challenges.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1196.1 (2010): 63-86.
Click to show optional readingsOptional readings:New York City Energy Policy: An Electricity Resource Roadmap Prepared by the New York City Energy Policy Task Force January 2004 www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/energy_task_force.pdf
Marritz, Ilya. “Four Storms in Quick Succession Expose the Flaws in New York City’s Electrical System”, WNYC News, Friday, January 11, 2013 http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/jan/11/four-storms-quick-succession-expose-flaws-new-york-citys-electrical-system/
Abt, Clark C. “The Future of Energy from the Perspective of the Social Sciences.” What the Future Holds: Insights from Social Science. Ed. Richard N. Cooper and Richard Layard. MIT Press, 2003. e-reserves
Lynch, Kevin. “Ch. 1: Cities Performing,” in What Time is this Place?. MIT Press, 1976. 2-28. e-reserves.
Lynch, Kevin. “Ch. 4: The Future Preserved,” in What Time is this Place?. MIT Press, 1976. 90-116. e-reserves.
Lynch, Kevin. “Ch. 9: Environmental Change and Social Change,” in What Time is this Place?. MIT Press, 1976. 215-222. e-reserves.
Week 5: Old and New Waste Conversion Technologies, Italian Futurism
Oratory challenge: theatrically recite excerpts from the Futurist Manifesto (abridged). Listen to and watch this video in Italian for inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC1wBf-LJ20
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
New York City Department of Sanitation. RFP for New and Emerging Technologies Final March 6, 2012 [Zotero]
Click to show optional readingsOptional readings:GAIA and GreenAction. Incinerators in Disguise Case Studies of Gasification, Pyrolysis, and Plasma in Europe, Asia, and the United States (April 2006) http://www.greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IncineratorsInDisguiseCaseStudyReportJune2006.pdf
Sant’Elia, Antonio. “Futurist Architecture,” in Futurism: An Anthology. Ed. Rainey, Lawrence S, Christine Poggi, and Laura Wittman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. 198-201. e-reserves.
Marinetti, F.T. “The Founding Manifesto of Futurism,” in Futurism: An Anthology. Ed. Rainey, Lawrence S, Christine Poggi, and Laura Wittman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. 49-53. e-reserves.
Review resources on: http://www.energyjustice.net/incineration
Tagged waste-to-energy, incineration, waste management, Italian futurism, futurism, art, architecture, environmental justice
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Week 4: Research Strategies and Report from Biofuels Conference
This week I will be attending a waste-to-biofuels conference in Orlando, Florida. Ben Miller, your Instructional Technology Fellow, will guide you in using some research tools – including Zotero and Baruch’s library databases – so bring your computers and your research questions to class with you.
Participatory Challenges:
- Report to the class on something of interest that you follow up on from the conference website.
- View and recommend a site on Italian Futurism for next week (see below)
No readings assigned this week! However, next week we will be discussing Italian Futurism, an intellectual and artistic movement of the early 20th century. Click to expand video options for an introduction to this topic.
Italian Futurism Tribute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GLFnexueIg
M.M. The Founding of Futurism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uerIFAhuyzE
Sant’Elia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhsbpnGAYss
or search for your own videos on the subject!
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Week 3: Climate Change in the City. Modernism, Post-Modernism and Uncertainty
What is due: Memo 1: Propose Topic
Research challenge: What important has happened last week with regard to NYC’s response to planning for climate change?
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
Yohe, Gary, and Robin Leichenko. “Adopting a risk‐based approach.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1196.1 (2010): 29-40. [Zotero]
Click to show optional readingsHorton, Radley, et al. “Climate observations and projections.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1196.1 (2010): 41-62. [Zotero]
Beck, Ulrich. “Living in the world risk society.” Economy and Society 35.3 (2006): 329-345. [Zotero]
Mann, Doug “Jean Baudrillard: A Very Short Introduction” http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/baudrillard1.htm
Norgaard, Kari. “Climate Change and Background Noise,“ in. Living in denial: Climate change, emotions, and everyday life. Mit Press, 2011. 179-205. e-reserves
Optional readings:
Baudrillard, Jean. “The Precession of Simulacra” in Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press, 1995. http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/baudrillard-simulacra_and_simulation.pdf
Dietz, Thomas, Amy Dan, and Rachael Shwom. “Support for Climate Change Policy: Social Psychological and Social Structural Influences*.” Rural Sociology 72.2 (2009): 185-214. [Zotero]
Jacob, Klaus, et al. “Indicators and monitoring.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1196.1 (2010): 127-142. [Zotero]
Reading tips: In the Yohe and Leichenko reading, concentrate on the lessons from the article that apply to New York City per se. The Horton reading is an overview of climate change. Concentrate on facts and figures that you have not heard about before. What areas do you feel you need to know more about? The Beck reading is about how risk is changing contemporary global society. Focus on what this means by thinking about your own life experience. In the Mann reading, concentrate on Beaudrillard’s thought starting with Simulacra and Simulations, and at least glance at his original text linked in the optional reading. What does “desert of the real” mean? The Norgaard reading is about the psychological bases of climate denial among students in the U.S. How much does it speak to your own experience?
Tagged risk, climate change adaptation, modernism, post-modernism, global warming
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Week 2: Overview of the Natural and Social History of New York, The Basics of New York City Government, Introduction to Waste Conversion Technologies
Research challenge: NYC has a strong mayor system. What does this mean? Diagram it in a powerpoint slide.
What is Due: Personal Statement
Click to show required readingsRequired readings:
Sanderson, Eric W. “Ch. 1: The Mannahatta Project,” in Mannahatta: a Natural History of New York City. Abrams, 2009. 10-33, 98-101, 137-169, 209-243. Available through Baruch e-reserves.
Jacobs, Jane. “Ch. 1: Introduction,” . “Ch. 22: The Kind of Problem a City is,”in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Vintage, 1992. 3-25. 429-448. Available through Baruch e-reserves.
Rosenzweig, Cynthia, and William Solecki. “New York City adaptation in context.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1196.1 (2010): 19-28. [Zotero]
Reading tips: As you read Sanderson, try to absorb the feeling of nature emanating from his historical account. For photos, google Mannahatta, and check out the Welikia Project. Jacobs is making a strong argument and her major points are in in pages 1 through 13 of the Introduction. In the Ch. 22, page 440’s bullet points are key. Focus on these, but do not neglect the rest of the reading. For the Rosensweig/Solecki reading, approach it as recent and current history. If someone were reading the article 20 years from now, what would they conclude from it. Don’t over-stress the agencies and reports, look for the overarching facts and themes.
Click to show optional readingsOptional readings:
DiBlasio, Bill. Guide to Community Organizing. http://advocate.nyc.gov/organizing-toolkit (Download PDF in your language of choice!)
New York City organizational chart: http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/orgchart/org_chart.html
British Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Energy from Waste: A Wasted Opportunity? 2010 http://www.wte.org/waste-energy-resources-a2985
General Historical Overview: Lankevich, George J. American Metropolis: A History of New York City. New York: New York University Press, 1998. (on hard reserve at Library, can be purchased used at Amazon.)
Tagged NYC politics, cities, Mannahatta, climate change adaptation
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Week 1: Introduction to the Course; Overview of NYC’s Waste Management System
We will spend today discussing the course — including content and expectations — and we will start getting to know each other.
In order to find out more about each student, I’ll administer a non-graded initial assessment questionnaire.
If possible, review this site before coming to class. It will be used as a resource throughout the semester. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/html/emerging_technology/
new_emerging_convtech_DSNY.shtml
Optional review:
New York City Solid Waste Management Plan 2006 http://www.nyc.gov/html/dsny/downloads/pdf/swmp/swmp/swmpweb.pdf
Tagged PlaNYC, waste-to-energy, incineration, waste management, recycling, composting, waste prevention
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