1

/X\

2

CITYZENSHIPPraxis in the Urban Environment

3

t is not enough for people to come together in dialogue in order to gain knowledge of their social reality.They must act together upon their environment in order critically to reflect upon their reality and so transformit through further action and critical reflection.

­Paulo Freire

Prolegomenon

Examination of the city through a design­ecological lens yielded salient insights into

urban intervention as both art and science. While Paul Knox’s “explores the complex

relationships between design and urban environments” in his Cities and Design, Dennis1

Dalton used his Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action to flesh out Gandhi’s

concept of swaraj and satyagraha before drawing parallels between Gandhi on one hand,

and Malcolm X and Dr. King on the other. The scholarly insight of both authors

complemented the urban interventions of the course’s guest lecturers. For example,

Christine Gaspar of CUP spoke about “urban pedagogy,” the practice of taking complex

issues and breaking them down into “simple, accessible, visual explanations” ; Paul White2

of Transportation Alternatives spoke on transportation networks via legislative advocacy;

and Dr. Vera Tangari commented on sustainable urban habitation and Nature­man

mediation. These two lens provoked a serious inquiry into my identity, behavior, and

practice as an urbanist.

The twin themes of reflection and action inform urban practice as art and science.

The intersection of reflection and action generates new psychological awareness of and

insights into notions of identity (who to be), behavior (how to conduct oneself), and practice

1 Course syllabus2 http://welcometocup.org/ (Accessed on 12/13/12)

4

(how to intentionally intervene) to affect conscientization in the urban environment. This3

conscientization, embodied in the CITYzen concept, reflects a strong, personal connection

to the urban environment in order to intervene strategically and effectively. This essay

offers a proposal for what this can look like. The section entitled “Disruptive Design”

introduces the primary facets of the CITYzen model and its disruptive approach. “Finding

MyMo” explores the connotative aspect of the CITYzen model that is instrumental in

generating new psychological insights. The final section entitled, “What Next,” posits

practical ways in which the CITYzen model can be adopted in the urban environment. The

CITYzen model represents a praxis approach rooted in the urban environment.

Disruptive Design

By its very design, the CITYzen model is disruptive to normative processes of

identity and expression. It is more than a play on words, substituting the letter “i” for “y”;

rather, it is the political, social and personal recognition of one’s particular identity,

behavior, and practice in the city. The reflection­action axial plan functions as the creative

source of the CITYzen model; conscientization cannot take place without it.

The Reflection-Action Axis

The axis’s decumanus, reflection, involves the rumination of a limit­situation and its

design in order to detect its disguise­conceal­transform logic. In Gandhian terms, this

meant swaraj, “personal rule or self­realization, attained through knowledge and

3 The process of developing a critical awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action. Fromhttp://www.freire.org/paulo­freire/concepts­used­by­paulo­freire/ (Accessed on 12/12/12)

5

examination of oneself.” The individual who strives to be a CITYzen must first achieve this4

“inward freedom” in order to effect freedom outward. In New York City, contestations about

identity are concerned with primary classifications of race and sex and with more nuanced

categories based on neighborhood, religion, and social tastes. Beneath the identity

perceived by the observer is the identity that is being constructed and seeking

self­expression by the observed.

The axis’ cardo, action, requires intervention in the urban environment that seeks to

bring the products of the reflective moment into fruition. This “acting upon” the urban

environment generates new ideas, images, and moments that can enter into the reflection

process following the active moment. For Gandhi, this meant the ability to convert “inward

freedom” into political action. This satyagrahi must be able to “concentrate on the common

interest and strive not for retribution but to transform a conflict situation so that the warring

parties can come out of a confrontation convinced that it was in their mutual interest to

resolve it.” This does not mean that such action lacks teeth or should be thought of as “a5

weapon of the weak”; Gandhi made sure to point out that “economic equality is the master

key to non­violent independence.” The 1964 Montgomery Bus Boycott drew on Gandhi’s6

“martial imagery of a nonviolent army armed with “truth­force.” Besides catapulting Dr.7

King to the national spotlight, it confirmed Gandhi’s economic observation in an irrefutable

way. The non­violent, economic boycott of the bus company led to the desegregation of city

buses and sparked the national civil rights movement.

4 Dalton, p. 65 Dalton, p. 96 Dalton, p. 87 Dalton, p. 95

6

Conscientization

According to Paulo Freire, conscientization is “the process of developing a critical

awareness of one’s social reality through reflection and action.” At once, this awareness8

indicates the intervention of the creative spirit in the urban field and dangers that arise from

such interventions, both internally and externally. Again, Gandhi’s experience is illustrative.

In preparation for his salt march, Gandhi recruited from members of his own ashram

because they possessed training that “steeled them not only for the trek to Dandi, but

perhaps more importantly for the months of rigorous imprisonment that would follow.”9

The CITYzen model generates creative tension with its sonically­related namesake,

citizen. This tension comes from the fact that while the primary cultural definition of citizen

denotes someone who “a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes

allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection” , CITYzenship lacks social10

currency, validity, or definition. The secondary definition of citizenship carries greater

promise­ “an inhabitant of a city or town, especially one entitled to its privileges or

franchises.”

The CITYzen model generates internal conflicts as well. Freire recognized that “we

all acquire social myths which have a dominant tendency, and so learning is a critical

process which depends upon uncovering real problems and actual needs.” Envisioning11

oneself as a CITYzen means that critical examination of the internalized assumptions and

pre­judgments results in a psychological experience akin to the swallowing of Jonah by the

8 http://www.freire.org/paulo­freire/concepts­used­by­paulo­freire/ (Accessed on 12/12/12)9 Dalton, p. 10410 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/citizen?s=t&ld=1128 (Accessed on 12/12/12)11 http://www.freire.org/paulo­freire/concepts­used­by­paulo­freire/ (Accessed on 12/12/12)

7

whale. This passage of the threshold from old to new ways of thinking is a form of

“self­annihilation” that allows one to pass “back and forth across the horizons of the

world...through all the contraries of the phenomenality” because there is nothing to fear.12

Malcolm spoke of this “belly in the wahle “ experience when he recounted his rite de

passage of sinking “to the very bottom of the American white man’s society.” Malcolm’s13

contestation with American society, branded as “the serpent, the dragon” when he was a

minister in the Nation of Islam, can be seen as a reference to the mythologically slaying of

the dragon by the hero (St. George). More importantly, these external references reflected

an inner, psychological turmoil between the identity­conduct­practice he received from his

father and that received from white society. The implications of this experience would

eventually lead to the establishment of an urban practice in Harlem, NY.

Community of Practice

The CITYzen interventionist approach envisions a community of practice that is

composed of a network of actors interacting at the local, county, and the city levels in five

key paradigms of urban life­ education, public safety, the economy, social relations, and

politics. The efficient functioning of society and modern life requires that these needs be

addressed and satisfied. Schools shelter and educate the young; work provides and

generates income to meet individual needs and societal responsibilities; public safety

preserves a safe environment to live in; social emphasizes a “system of sentiments” for

viewing and ourselves and interacting with other; and the political brings leaders of various

political divisions to address and solve city­wide and local problems. The ecology

12 Cambell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 9313 Dalton, p. 172

8

generated from the built environment and the producers and consumers in those settings

reflects a field for intervention. For example, the education field is composed of teachers

and administration in the local schools, superintendents and networks at the borough level,

and educrats (commissioner) at city hall.

South Africa “provided the laboratory for Gandhi’s experiment; it proved an excellent

testing ground” for his intervention as a CITYzen of South Africa; the mass meeting on14

September 11 is an exemplar. Gandhi’s call for resistance of the Draft Asiatic Law

Amendment Ordinance through civil disobedience sought to bring the plight of the Indian,

Arab, and Turk communities (local) to the Transvaal government (provincial). The political

implications were not lost on Gandhi as he acknowledged that “our very existence in South

Africa depends upon our fully observing it.” Gandhi possessed a view of the law that was15

connected to notions of citizenship and official recognition by the state. In taking a stand

against the government, Gandhi demonstrated that it is possible to be a CITYzen even

though one’s citizenship is threatened or excluded. In so doing, the individual expands the

boundary of what is possible. Gandhi not only asserted his CITYzenship despite being a

member of a despised group, he proposed the acquisition of citizenship through

CITYzenship.

Like Gandhi, Malcolm made the linkage between citizenship and CITYzenship,

offering the corollary that it is through CITYzenship that citizenship is actually experienced

and realized. Malcolm located his practice in Harlem, choosing it for its historically,

culturally, and economically significance. In fact, Malcolm was deliberate in his urbanist

14 Dalton, p. 1515 Dalton, p. 13

9

approach, stating in 1964 that “we start in New York City first. We start in Harlem...start

right here in Harlem, which has the largest concentration of people of African descent that

exists anywhere on this earth.” Through his non­profit Organization for Afro­American16

Unity, Malcolm developed a five­prong plan that included public safety, the economy, and

urban politics. For example, his political program sought to increase participation in the

political system through a voter registration drive, aligning him with his counterparts in the

south.

Finding MyMo

The CITYzen model anticipates intervention in the urban environment that will

inspire new modes of production and consumption through mythological moments. Gandhi

provides another exemplar in his march to the sea to protest the British tax on salt.

Gandhi’s preparation for the walk reminded one observer of “Lord Buddha’s Great March

to attain wisdom...it was just like Buddha’s march of renunciation.” And upon reaching the17

sea, Gandhi deployed a set of symbolic actions and language to evoke the mythological

moment. His submergence in the Indian Ocean and emergence from it represented the

successfully completion of one stage and the beginning of another. Afterward, he would

pick up a grain of salt to signal defiance against the tax of the British government.

The mythological moment was also created through “a series of monumental

movements” to bring the Shuttle Enterprise to the Intrepid Air & Space Museum. The

choreographed flight of the white plane past the Statue of Liberty along the Hudson River

16 http://www.blackpast.org/?q=1964­malcolm­x­s­speech­founding­rally­organization­afro­american­unity(Accessed on 12/12/12)17 Dalton, p. 109

10

corridor signalled a new era for New York City­ the emergence of the STEM industry as an

economic engine in the 21st century.

The CITYzen model posits the urbanist as one who deploys images, symbols, and

other visuals to produce a shift in perspective. An example of this comes from a semester

long project on heritage designation in Sunset Park. Within this waterfront neighborhood in

Brooklyn, the federal government recognized a square patch as a historical district for its

architecturally significant churches, schools, and residential buildings. A CITYzen

interested in Sunset Park can activate the historical significance of this neighborhood

through a process that re­imagines its identity as a plaza embedded with science,

technology, engineering and math in the built environment, rituals, and performances. Such

a space is relevant to the lingual communities living there­ it evokes the economic activity

of Brooklyn’s other plaza, Kings Plaza and the large plazas of Latin America and Asia. This

would place the Sunset Park community at the intersection of the bio and agricultural

science sciences at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, the water sciences at the waterfront, and

the health sciences at Lutheran Medical Center.

Sunset Park’s strategic location allows the employment of various nomenclature to

identify and characterize it; while its official nomenclature would remain the Sunset Park

Historical District, CITYzens of Sunset Park would see it in more granular ways. As “STEM

Campus”, there are scientific linkages to the waterfront. As “(La) Plaza,” it is recognizable

to Latinos, Asians, and English­speakers. As “the Heights,” Sunset Park is the community

on the hill that retains a cool image for its young people. And as “Earthrise,” the Sunset

Park community is one that is not on the decline as the name faintly evokes with the image

11

of a setting sun. Rather, it boldly states that Sunset Park is on the rise.

What Next?

As a naturalized citizenship of the United States, I straddle two worlds. One world is

the one left behind to come to this new world. I have attended school, found employment,

and left (but always returning) since my arrival in New York City 24 years ago. In this new

incarnation of my presence here, I have grown to appreciate just how immense and

complex this city is. This is what makes it so attractive and so dulling at the same time. I

have also appreciated how difficult the work is of generating change. The simplest ideas

may take years to materialize and change is measured in decades and centuries, leaving

very little time to see the change so hotly contested for. But I am assured in a real and vital

way whenever I gaze at the Statue of Liberty that it can be done. Seeing her hold her torch

from the Manhattan Bridge reminds me to pursue and capture that golden moment in my

life that her torch represents.

My years as a New Yorker has brought me to this moment where I can begin to

detect the possibilities of my place in New York City; I can conceive of my presence and

participation as a CITYzen of this city. I am empowered to develop a specific strategy to

intervene in my own community and to say with urban fluency: “It is in the creatures of this

world that the Delectable Mountains of our Pilgrim’s Progress are discovered, and where

the radiance of the City of God is recognized as Man.”18

18 Campbell, The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, p. 26