Companion to Public Space


Book Description

The Companion to Public Space draws together an outstanding multidisciplinary collection of specially commissioned chapters that offer the state of the art in the intellectual discourse, scholarship, research, and principles of understanding in the construction of public space. Thematically, the volume crosses disciplinary boundaries and traverses territories to address the philosophical, political, legal, planning, design, and management issues in the social construction of public space. The Companion uniquely assembles important voices from diverse fields of philosophy, political science, geography, anthropology, sociology, urban design and planning, architecture, art, and many more, under one cover. It addresses the complete ecology of the topic to expose the interrelated issues, challenges, and opportunities of public space in the twenty-first century. The book is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students for whom it will provide an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current thinking across the range of disciplines that converge in the study of public space. The Companion will also be of use to practitioners and public officials who deal with the planning, design, and management of public spaces.




Composing Public Space


Book Description

"The public classroom is a place where ideas can be engaged, interrogated, argued for, and investigated without fear of reprisal and in the spirit of inquiry- every idea can be questioned and critiqued, even the teacher's." -Michelle Comstock, Mary Ann Cain, and Lil Brannon Creating public space allows diverse voices to be heard and engaged. It enables all participants to explore the contradictions, coherences, and conflicts of their identities in relation to one another. Drawing on multidisciplinary research, Michelle Comstock, Mary Ann Cain, and Lil Brannon explore what counts as research in composition, discuss whose voices matter, and demonstrate how teachers can foster and support diverse classroom perspectives. Composing Public Space: highlights and critiques the problems of privatizing public debate encourages teachers to engage with students in investigating assumptions and ideas provides models and methods for working toward collective action to resist privatization. Teaching must foster genuine inquiry, critical thinking, and the oral and written representation of individual and collective identities. Composing Public Space invites you to take a stand and make a case for the creation of public space and collective civic engagement in every classroom.




Composing Place


Book Description

Composing Place takes an innovative approach to engaging with the compositional affordances of mobile technologies. Mobile, wearable, and spatial computing technologies are more than the latest marketing gimmick from a perpetually proximate future; they are rather an emerging composing platform through which digital writers will increasingly create and distribute place-based multimodal texts. Jacob Greene utilizes and develops a rhetorical framework through which writers can leverage the affordances of these technologies by drawing on theoretical approaches within rhetorical studies, multimodal composition, and spatial theory, as well as emerging “maker” practices within digital humanities and critical media studies, to show how emerging mobile technologies are poised to transform theories, practices, and pedagogies of digital writing. Greene identifies three emerging “modalities” through which mobile technologies are being used by digital writers. First, to counter dominant discourses in contested spaces; second, to historicize entrenched narratives in iconic spaces; and third, to amplify marginalized voices in mundane spaces. Through these modalities, Greene employs Indigenous philosophies and theories that upend the ways that the discipline has centered placed-based rhetorics, offering digital writers better strategies for using mobile media as a platform for civic deliberation, social advocacy, and political action. Composing Place offers close analyses of mobile media experiences created by various artists and digital media practitioners, as well as detailed overviews of Greene’s own projects (also accessible through the companion website: www.composingplace.com). These projects include a digital “countertour” of SeaWorld that demonstrates the ways in which the attraction is driven by capitalism; an augmented reality tour of Detroit’s Woodward Avenue; and a mobile advocacy project in Jacksonville, Florida, that demonstrates the inequitable effects of car-centric public infrastructure. Ultimately, by engaging with these theoretical frameworks, rhetorical design principles, and pedagogical practices of mobile writing, readers can utilize the unique affordances of mobile media in various teaching and research contexts.




The Writing Public


Book Description

Inspired by the reading and writing habits of citizens leading up to the French Revolution, The Writing Public is a compelling addition to the long-running debate about the link between the Enlightenment and the political struggle that followed. Elizabeth Andrews Bond scoured France's local newspapers spanning the two decades prior to the Revolution as well as its first three years, shining a light on the letters to the editor. A form of early social media, these letters constituted a lively and ongoing conversation among readers. Bond takes us beyond the glamorous salons of the intelligentsia into the everyday worlds of the craftsmen, clergy, farmers, and women who composed these letters. As a result, we get a fascinating glimpse into who participated in public discourse, what they most wanted to discuss, and how they shaped a climate of opinion. The Writing Public offers a novel examination of how French citizens used the information press to form norms of civic discourse and shape the experience of revolution. The result is a nuanced analysis of knowledge production during the Enlightenment. Thanks to generous funding from The Ohio State University Libraries and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes, available on the Cornell University Press website and other Open Access repositories.




Urban Composition


Book Description

Cities and towns are among humanity's greatest achievements, yet no single individual or organization creates them. The buildings, streets, and gardens of even a small town embody substantial investments of money, natural resources, and political capital. Much more than the sum of its parts, a settlement's vitality comes from its collective composition. Sometimes the cities and towns that emerge are glorious places, but too frequently they have only fragments of greatness or are soulless and environmentally unhealthy. Our new Architecture Brief Urban Composition shows architects, planners, artists, and engineers of individual projects how they can best fulfill their public trust to help make meaningful urban places. Each chapter contains a set of design queries followed by a discussion, illustrations, and references for further research. This accessible primer on urban design provides guidelines for designing buildings or plans for large cities or small towns. Urban Composition showcases projects across the United States and internationally, in metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Seattle, and London, and small communities such as Marfa, Texas.




The Locations of Composition


Book Description

The Locations of Composition examines how spaces, places, and locations define, problematize, and shape composition studies. From a wide variety of perspectives, including critical theory, rhetoric, cultural geography, genre theory, postcolonial studies, and media studies, the contributors explore the disciplinary boundaries and authority of composition studies, how teachers of writing can engage students in more place-centered pedagogies, and how compositionists can sort through the often hidden and intricate relationships between and among composition's places. The book reveals the complex ways that places are central to the field's history, identity, and ability to move and change.




Writing Spaces 1


Book Description

Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspectives on a wide-range of topics about writing, much like the model made famous by Wendy Bishop’s “The Subject Is . . .” series. In each chapter, authors present their unique views, insights, and strategies for writing by addressing the undergraduate reader directly. Drawing on their own experiences, these teachers-as-writers invite students to join in the larger conversation about developing nearly every aspect of craft of writing. Consequently, each essay functions as a standalone text that can easily complement other selected readings in writing or writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at any level. Topics in Volume 1 of the series include academic writing, how to interpret writing assignments, motives for writing, rhetorical analysis, revision, invention, writing centers, argumentation, narrative, reflective writing, Wikipedia, patchwriting, collaboration, and genres.




Creating Vibrant Public Spaces


Book Description

Public space and street design in commercial districts can dictate the success or failure of walkable community centers. Instead of focusing our efforts on designing new “compact town centers,” many of which are located in the suburbs, we should instead be revitalizing existing authentic town centers. This informative, practical book describes methods for restoring the health and vibrancy of the streets and public spaces of our existing commercial districts in ways that will make them positive alternatives to suburban sprawl while respecting their historic character. Clearly written and with numerous photos to enhance the text, Creating Vibrant Public Spaces uses examples from communities across the United States to illustrate the potential for restoring the balance provided by older urban centers between automobile access and “walkability.” In advice that can be applied to a variety of settings and scales, Crankshaw describes the tenets of contemporary design theory, how to understand the physical evolution of towns, how to analyze existing conditions, and how to evaluate the feasibility of design recommendations. Good design in commercial centers, Crankshaw contends, facilitates movement and access, creates dynamic social spaces, and contributes to the sense of a “center”—a place where social, commercial, and institutional interaction is more vibrant than in surrounding districts. For all the talk of creating new “green” urban spaces, the ingredients of environmentally aware design, he points out, can often be found in the deteriorating cores and neighborhoods of towns and cities across the United States. With creativity, planning, and commitment, these centers can thrive again, adding to the quality of local life and contributing to the local economy, too.




Theorizing Composition


Book Description

The last 25 years have witnessed extraordinary growth in the academic specialization variously described as composition studies or rhetoric and composition. What was noticeable about the field in its infancy was a preoccupation with practice, a lack of emphasis on theory, and an exclusive reliance on the writing process. As its disciplinary status has grown, the field has become far more theoretical. Composition studies has expanded its focus, reconceptualized the writing process, and embraced a wide range of critical perspectives. The result of this change is that terms such as poststructuralism, social construction, gender, and genre, which were largely unknown in 1965, now dominate discussion. This reference book is a guide to the multiplicity of theories that have emerged to form the disciplinary foundation of composition studies. The volume consists of 66 entries, each of which is written by an expert contributor and focuses on a particular theory or group of theories. While the entries show how various individuals have contributed to theoretical movements, very few concentrate on the work of a single theorist. Each entry first provides a critical summary of a particular theory or group of theories, including key elements, basic concepts and claims, and information about seminal or particularly influential works. It then reviews the theory's critical reception in composition studies and discusses its significance in the field. The bibliography at the end of each entry lists primary texts and major scholarship related to the theory and provides additional suggestions for further reading. The volume closes with a selected bibliography of important works.




Composing Egypt


Book Description

In this innovative history of reading and writing, Hoda Yousef explores how the idea of literacy and its practices fundamentally altered the social fabric of Egypt at the turn of the twentieth century. She traces how nationalists, Islamic modernists, bureaucrats, journalists, and early feminists sought to reform reading habits, writing styles, and the Arabic language itself in their hopes that the right kind of literacy practices would create the right kind of Egyptians. The impact of new reading and writing practices went well beyond the elites and the newly literate of Egyptian society, and this book reveals the increasingly ubiquitous reading and writing practices of literate, illiterate, and semi-literate Egyptians alike. Students who wrote petitions, women who frequented scribes, and communities who gathered to hear a newspaper read aloud all used various literacies to participate in social exchanges and civic negotiations regarding the most important issues of their day. Composing Egypt illustrates how reading and writing practices became not only an object of social reform, but also a central medium for public exchange. Wide segments of society could engage with new ideas about nationalism, education, gender, and, ultimately, what it meant to be part of "modern Egypt."