Ki Booth

What a Difference Place Makes Place Gestalt and Some Methodological Thoughts

Place is a recurrent yet contested theme in the social sciences, and an emerging theme within qualitative inquiry. How one understands place has significant bearing upon the difference that place makes to methodology. Accounts that rely on fixed, bordered, and exclusionist notions of place-based authenticity are problematic. A conceptualization of place as dynamic, open, and more-than-human offers other methodological possibilities regarding the representation of the self in relation to place. It also offers a rationale for research that engages with the more intangible elements that constitute sense of place such as emotions, dreams, and imaginings, and research that engages with how people construct meaning in relation to place-based phenomena.

Valuing third sector sustainability organisations – qualitative contributions to systemic social transformation

ABSTRACT The number and diversity of civil society or third sector sustainability organisations (TSSOs) have increased in recent decades. TSSOs play a prominent role in local approaches to sustainability. However, the contributions made by TSSOs are not fully understood, beyond a limited suite of quantifiable outputs and impacts. In this qualitative study, we examine how four TSSOs from two Australian regions, Tasmania and Queenslands Sunshine Coast, contribute to social transformation beyond discrete outputs. We examine the operation, ethos, scope and influence of these organisations over time. In so doing, we identify three common ways in which these organisations facilitate social change: by (i) enhancing social connectivity through boundary work; (ii) mobilising participatory citizenship and (iii) contributing to social learning. We conclude that TSSOs contribute significantly to the systemic social conditions that enable change for sustainability and the development of community resilience and well-being, but do so in ways undervalued by existing metrics, formal evaluation processes and funding models. Clearer recognition of, and strategic emphasis on, these qualitative contributions to social transformation is vital in ensuring that TSSOs remain viable and effective over the long term.

A more-than-human political moment (and other natural catastrophes)

Catastrophic events such as wildfires are predicted to increase and intensify because of climate change. This paper speculates on how politics may look within such a context by deploying Rancières political theorisations. We examine how a posthumanist re-configuration of this humanist notion of politics contributes to thinking about, acting for, and living within a rapidly changing climate. Specifically, we make a case for “more-than-human” political moments using the illustration of wildness – in the form of a wildfire – breaking free of wilderness and burning the settled lands of human habitation. In doing so, we draw on a relational ontology that re-configures agency and speech as “more-than-human”.

Deep ecology, hybrid geographies and environmental management's relational premise

The premise of environmental management pivots on managing the people-environment relationship . Yet this field remains dominated by the idea of managing the environment not the relationship, and as such continues to enact dualistic and reductionist traditions. Deep ecologys relational ontology offers a means of moving beneath and beyond such traditions. Specifically, the theory of internal relations as manifest within Arne Naesss gestalt ontology - if developed with regard to relational work emerging within cultural geography - is an aspect of deep ecology that has relevance and implications for environmental managements theory and practice. Such a stance provides qualified support for Warwick Foxs identification of the significance of Self-realisation within deep ecological philosophy, and counters attempts by some deep ecology proponents to write Fox and his work out of the history and future prospects of deep ecology.

The democratization of art: a contextual approach.

ABSTRACT Publicly funded museums and art galleries have been called upon to demonstrate their worth as nodes of social inclusion and facilitators of social change. Flagship galleries have been constructed to foster urban regeneration in part aimed at social inclusivity and transformation. A new museology has emerged that is perceived to be intrinsically more democratic for visitors. This focus on the democratization of art in academia and cultural policy is not matched by a focus on robust empirical research. There are few studies that demonstrate successful democratization and little work that considers methodological issues. This article responds to critiques leveled at three conceptions of the democratization of art to develop a fourth conception—the contextual approach. I argue that collecting visitor sociodemographic data is meaningful only in the context of an institutions social construction and the role of art in the everyday lives of visitors and nonvisitors. Understanding that a good life is possible without engagement with high culture must be part of a democratization agenda.

Risdon Vale: Place, Memory, and Suburban Experience

The author reflects upon the notions of personal memory, collective memory, myth, and evolved memory within her lived experience of Risdon Vale. These interrelated forms of memory influence understanding of place and sense of place. Personal memories corroborate and collaborate with intersubjective memories to inform collective memory. Both personal and collective memories are held within a fusion of cultural myths. Evolved memory binds us deeply within the history of the earth and the evolution of life. Risdon Vale provides fertile ground for considerations of place and memory. This former public housing suburb is adjacent to Risdon Cove, the site of first occupation by the British in 1803 and the site of the first massacre of Aboriginal Tasmanians in 1804.

It's a Museum, But Not as We Know It: Issues for Local Residents Accessing the Museum of Old and New Art

ABSTRACT The Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), in Australias island state of Tasmania, bears all the hallmarks of the new museology and a flagship museum. Located in a largely working class area, there are expectations of visitors from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, particularly local residents. However most visitors are tourists, middle-class, and highly educated. In this article, the authors ask, “What are the issues affecting accessibility to MONA for local residents?” In asking this, they aim to better understand local engagement with MONA and shed light on potential socio-cultural transformation. Using a survey, interviews, and focus groups with local residents, the authors found that accessibility at MONA is defined along familiar socioeconomic lines, though there are indications of change that warrant further investigation. The expense of food and beverage, concern about childrens behavior, and the explicit nature of some art all impact on accessibility, particularly for those with less cultural capital.

When disaster strikes: Under-insurance in Australian households

In undertaking what we believe is the first national-scale study of its kind, we provide methodologically transparent, statistically robust insights into associations and potential unfolding effects of house and contents under-insurance. We identify new dimensions in the complex relationship between householders and insurance, including the salience of interpersonal – and likely institutional – trust. Under-insurance is (re)produced along socio-economic and geographical lines, with those of lower socio-economic status or living in cities more likely to be under-insured. Should a disaster strike, such communities are likely to suffer further disadvantage, especially if governments continue to shift the responsibility for risk onto households. Our findings support the observation that insurance can contribute to increasing socio-economic urban polarisation in light of natural disasters. We conclude by considering how under-insurance may contribute to growing urban social stratification, as well as how it may produce situated ethical and political responses that exceed neoliberal aspirations.

The places within

There was a place in my life where I had the time and space to reflect more deeply on the intricacies of home. Here my sense of where I was shifted and stirred, along with my relationship with some of the ‘things’ that made up my home. The washing machine that seemingly existed as a complete, discrete ‘thing’ prior to arriving in my home transgressed into my washing machine. It became, as I describe below, co-produced within my home life – a co-production constituted through a myriad of near and far relationalities. This ‘thing’ lost its place as a machine conveniently located within the kitchen and became places.

Thinking through Lines: Locating perception and experience in place

How one conceptualizes place in research matters. I offer a ‘line analysis’ informed by Ingold’s idea that places are ‘tissues of lines’ and argue that this enables reflexivity with regards to what counts as ‘place’, adds legitimacy to the claim that places really do matter in research, and assists in representing places as a socio-natural phenomenon that cannot be compartmentalized or reduced to a humanist understanding of the social. I trial this analysis by drawing upon interviews and focus groups with people living in the vicinity of the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona). I use references made about lines of various kinds to create a narrative that locates Mona within the everyday lives of local residents. I conclude that this museum’s impact of is more mundane than the social transformation envisaged in the Bilbao Effect as this ‘effect’ relies upon a problematic and unexamined conceptualisation of place.