The Möbius Narrative

Manuel Delgado's Urban Anthropology:From Multidimensional Space to Interdisciplinary Spatial Theory Benjamin R. Fraser (bio) "Una antropología urbana, en el sentido de lo urbano, sería, pues, una antropología de configuraciones sociales escasamente orgánicas, poco o nada solidificadas, sometidas a la oscilación constante y destinadas a desvanecerse enseguida […] una antropología de lo inestable, de lo no estructurado, no porque esté desestructurado, sino por estar estructurándose […]." —(Manuel Delgado, El animal público 12, original emphasis) "Though all the photographs of a city taken from all possible points of view indefinitely complete one another, they will never equal in value that dimensional object, the city along whose streets one walks." —(Henri Bergson, The Creative Mind 160-61) As spatial theory spreads from the social sciences into the humanities—from geography into literary circles—it becomes important to recognize spatial theory itself as an interdisciplinary area of investigation, one that shares significant methodological concerns with literary analysis and philosophical inquiry. Through the articulation of urban anthropologist Manuel Delgado's texts with key problems from the writings of Jane Jacobs, Susan Sontag, Juan Benet, Henri Bergson, and Henri Lefebvre, this essay argues that urban criticism depends on the humanities as much as the humanities need spatial theory. The result is stronger support for the Lefebvrian argument that to change the quality of urban life it is necessary to change the process through which space is perceived, conceived, and produced and, ultimately, to change the movement of thought itself. [End Page 57] Taken as a whole, Manuel Delgado's El animal público and his two conferences (edited for publication) "Memoria y lugar: El espacio público como crisis de significado" and "Tránsitos: Espacio público y masas corpóreas" are important contributions to the contemporary study of urban spaces.1 In these works, Delgado builds upon the fundamentally multidimensional view of space articulated by Henri Lefebvre (The Production of Space) while emphasizing space as a process over the reification of given spaces. Moreover, throughout Lefebvre's and Delgado's works there is a strong Bergsonian undercurrent that points to the differential unity of memory (representative of consciousness) and space (understood as matter) and consequently to the interconnection of philosophical, anthropological, and geographical concerns. This interconnection is just as crucial in approaching the complexity of 'public' and 'private' city-spaces as it is in restructuring the hard lines of disciplinary borders and in renovating the aims of traditional scholarship. Delgado's contribution to studies of space is in fact an enfolding of Lefebvre's triadic model of spatial productions and Bergson's non-dualistic spatial and temporal philosophy. This amalgam of paradigm shifts, digested as they are from the realms of geography and philosophy, suggests as much for the study of space as it does for the re-conceptualization of the very idea of 'space' itself. Incorporating the phenomenological questioning of perceiver and perceived into a superb materialist critique of capitalist spatial practices, Delgado draws together the imagined and physical aspects of our spatial production. The consequences of this type of scholarship cannot be overemphasized given the contemporary accelerated drive for capital accumulation through the production and reproduction of city-space (Harvey, Condition; Justice; Spaces). Urbanism suffers, in Delgado's (2001) words, from the need to "architecturalize everything"/ "arquitecturizarlo todo," [c]omo si la tarea en última instancia colonizadora del urbanista tuviera como su peor enemigo la tendencia que todo espacio socializado experimenta hacia la ambigüedad, hacia la indefinición, como consecuencia de la propia naturaleza indeterminada de los usos que registra. (Memoria 8) In what follows, I want to emphasize the above premise of Delgado, one that he shares with Lefebvre and Bergson, that process enfolds and includes the particular—that immaterial forces enfold and include material forces. I will first show how Delgado's urban anthropology, one that poses the question of public space as a central one, unites immaterial and material forces in a non-dualistic relation. I argue that this special theory of geographical processes is not far at all from the way innovative critics of art and literature, such as Susan Sontag and Juan Benet, have dissolved the clear distinction between...

This anthology represents the diversity, inventiveness, and intellectual energy of J. Hillis Miller, the single most significant North American literary critic of the twentieth century. First published in the 1950s, Miller has continued to make invaluable contributions to our understanding of the practice and theory of literary criticism, the ethics and responsibilities of teaching and reading, and the role of literature in the modern world. He has also led the way for successive generations of scholars and students in demonstrating the necessity of comprehending the relationship between philosophy and literature. Divided into five sections - The Ethics of Reading, Victorian Interests, Twentieth-Century Occasions, Practice and Theory, Pedagogical and Political Commitments - the Reader provides more than twenty extracts from some of Miller's most significant publications including one unpublished article. In addition, there is also a new interview with J. Hillis Miller, as well as a series of specially commissioned critical responses to Miller's work by some of the most important critics in literary and cultural studies today. A critical introduction by the editor, a comprehensive bibliography and a chronology of Miller's professional life and activities complete the book. This, the first reader of Miller's work in English, is an indispensable overview and introduction to one of the most original and challenging critical voices to have emerged since the inception of the teaching of English and American literature in universities in the English-speaking world. Features Presents a comprehensive survey of J Hillis Miller's work introducing the reader to a highly original critical voice known especially for his work on the ethics of reading, deconstruction, Victorian and Twentieth-Century literature, pedagogy and politics The readings range from the 1950s to the present day, reflecting all major aspects of cutting edge literary critici

Too little attention has been paid, by Richard Rorty and his critics alike, to the tension between his moral and political commitments. His views of knowledge and the self have led him to insightful discussions of cruelty and humiliation, and moral commitments to tolerance and empathy, yet his politics are a version of liberalism insufficient for these moral commitments. This article explores these tensions by explicating Rorty's philosophical positions and moral commitments, examining his transition to politics and his practice of criticism, and discussing the implications of their incongruity. It concludes by identifying a number of the political implications of Rorty's insights and commitments.

Systematic enumeration and identification of unique 3D spatial topologies of complex engineering systems such as automotive cooling layouts, hybrid-electric power trains, and aero-engines are essential to search their exhaustive design spaces to identify spatial topologies that can satisfy challenging system requirements. However, efficient navigation through discrete 3D spatial topology options is a very challenging problem due to its combinatorial nature and can quickly exceed human cognitive abilities at even moderate complexity levels. Here we present a new, efficient, and generic design framework that utilizes mathematical spatial graph theory to represent, enumerate, and identify distinctive 3D topological classes for an abstract engineering system, given its system architecture (SA) — its components and interconnections. Spatial graph diagrams (SGDs) are generated for a given SA from zero to a specified maximum crossing number. Corresponding Yamada polynomials for all the planar SGDs are then generated. SGDs are categorized into topological classes, each of which shares a unique Yamada polynomial. Finally, for each topological class, one 3D geometric model is generated for an SGD with the fewest interconnect crossings. Several case studies are shown to illustrate the different features of our proposed framework. Design guidelines are also provided for practicing engineers to aid the utilization of this framework for application to different types of real-world problems.

This Reflection draws from an ongoing collaboration among the three authors, investigating mutual enlistment between the United States Department of Defense and research communities devoted to the advancement of the AI project. We are interested in the intersecting concerns and resonant sensibilities that draw us together – what we argue is the necessary starting point for interdisciplinary thinking – and in the differences that are the collaboration’s generative possibilities. Among the threads that join us are intersecting pathways between academic and commercial positionings within and against the AI project. Each of us has moved between locations in industry and the university, as researchers, practitioners, and students/faculty. Drawing on these experiences, we explore the possibilities that different positionings afford and what they preclude, how we have attempted to navigate these institutions within their frames of reference, and what has drawn us into relations beyond their putative boundaries. Based on Philip Agre’s call for a “critical technical practice” as a path towards more radical shifts in knowledge practices, we consider how we might weave together our biographical trajectories, disciplinary affiliations, political commitments, subjectivities, and skills into what Andrew Barry and Georgina Born name a more “auspicious interdisciplinarity”.

Arts expansion in academia has called into question concepts, norms and regulations concerning writing and publishing. Given precedents of ‘critical practices of design’ and ‘research through practice’ grappling with such issues, I take these as ways to reconsider the academic activity of making a book (‘bookmaking’) as a critical and feminist practice of design. Through specifically feminist modes articulated by Jane Rendell – namely collectivity, interiority, alterity, materiality, and performativity – I describe two edited books, through which I am able to discuss critical dimensions and feminist positions in the detailed everyday activities of bookmaking. I argue that feminist practice questions and opposes, but it also projects, activates, and enacts alternative norms or ideals – here, alternatives to academic norms and regulations concerning edited books. Naming and elucidating detailed aspects of bookmaking activity, as mundane critical ‘practise’ continually deliberated and performed, it is nevertheless possible to draw relations to larger theoretical issues. For example, discussing across differently situated/conditioned bookmaking practices makes it possible to trace implications of bookmaking within larger political economies, socio-economic structures, theoretical and ideological commitments.

Los estudios generales sobre el discurso crítico latinoamericano de la segunda mitad del siglo XX colocan al uruguayo Ángel Rama en un lugar central de su construcción y organización. A pesar de los numerosos enfoques ensayados acerca de su obra, repetidas veces su figura es concebida en términos cerrados que lo afilian a la sociología de la cultura, el compromiso político o la militancia latinoamericanista. El análisis de sus primeros artículos, publicados entre 1948 y 1955 en las revistas Clinamen, Marcha, Asir y Entregas de La Licorne, demuestra cómo su praxis crítica se entrecruza inicialmente con elementos propios del campo intelectual uruguayo de mitad de siglo y de qué manera el joven Rama empieza su exploración de la literatura a partir de posiciones, teorías y metodologías muy disímiles a las observadas en sus trabajos clásicos de las décadas posteriores.

A novel spatial tessellation scheme, spatial chromatic tessellation (SCT), is proposed for representing and exploring space–entity relationship. The objective of this article is briefly introducing the basic concepts, structure, and properties of SCT. Our study mainly focuses on the arranged chromatic diagram (ACD), which is the most typical type of SCT. A few examples show that ACD can be used to analyze spatial topology, statistics, computations, database, and Voronoi diagrams. ACD also contains many implications on spatial analysis theory. With respect to each entity in a space, SCT partitions the space into a number of small unit cells and gives each cell a unique chromatic code. The spatial topological relationships among these cells are able to be represented and computed by their codes. Based on the different statistical rules on cellular codes, cells could be merged into larger clusters, such as a variety of Voronoi diagrams. Moreover, because cells are coded with the same data structure, it is easy to store and manage these codes in relational database, and then any spatial analytical operation could be realized simply by structured queries. SCT establishes a basic framework that not only provides a theoretical tool for spatial analysis and computations but also helps us to understand the space–entity relationship insightfully.

In liberal democracies such as the United States, law emerges from core ritual of the electoral-representation system, the theater of elections. From these cyclical rituals of consent, the people (re)discover political voice in embodied agents who ultimately do the work of governing. Lawmaking as craft, or increasingly as multibillion-dollar industry (CRP 201Oa, 20 1Ob), is performed by those who first pass through an arena where political commitments are mediated by space in which mass suffrage and mass consumerism dramatically converge. The experience of popular democracy for most citizens unfolds within this secular ritual that makes lawmakers. The very phantasmagoric spectacle of elections is the muse through which social relations are translated and reified into positive law. The state regulates everyday life through the discursive and material of law. But what renders law so productive in the modern states quest to control, surveil, and differentiate populations? Per Max Weber's classic formulation, the state is the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force (Weber 1947), totalizing fantasy at once impossible to realize and yet utterly essential for statecraft to imagine. But law is not simply unitary instrument to shape subjectivities, ideology, and cultural life. As Rosemary Coombe argues, law is nothing less than the authoritative means and medium of cultural politics in which the social is articulated. This social world itself must be represented, performatively expressed, and institutionally inscribed (1998, 36). Law then is also simultaneously social, cultural, and political process, and one that leaves behind genealogy of artifacts that help us to unpack the forces behind these modes of social regulation, ranging from outright coercion, to spontaneous consent, and counterhegemonic dissidence (Gewirtz 1996, 3). But if we begin our examination from within the courtroom, where law is interpreted, or even start our analysis within national political institutions, where law is drafted and executed, then our study falls prey to the tautological nature of state power: the law is the law because it is the law; it has distinct legal dialect, formal procedures, and institutional avenues. Hegemonic power is always self-referential But the legal sphere especially strives for autonomy and relies on its ability to strictly separate those actions backed by the coercive apparatus of the state from those that are not. Let literature borrow from law and life . . . but let law develop its own and structure and editing, declares Alan Dershowitz (1996, 104-5) in his polemic against the use of popular narrative as one strategy to combat systematic exclusions in the courtroom. For Dershowitz, the fantastic and the imaginary are external to law and should be permanently expunged in favor of the real, which exist as distinct category if there can be potential for justice. Richard Sherwin, too, worries about policing the borders between law and its other, popular culture. When Law Goes Pop overflows with concerns about systemic corruption, potential imbalance, and the negative effects of artificially enhanced passions, all pop-culturally driven tendencies that might potentially lead to a state of affairs ... in which tyranny rules (Sherwin 2000, 240-41). Sherwin observes that the culture industries progressively invade the courtroom, with an immeasurable capacity to shape popular legal consciousness and even judicial interpretation. One consequence, he suggests, is that justices, lawyers, and jurors alike are increasingly prone to conflate fiction with reality. Although Sherwin disavows the possibility of total separation between popular culture and law, he does believe that the sheer proliferation of visual imagery in film, television, and on the Internet may have permanently forced law to tipping point where it no longer finds legitimacy or consistency exclusively within its own domain. …

Systematic enumeration and identification of unique 3D spatial topologies (STs) of complex engineering systems (such as automotive cooling systems, electric power trains, satellites, and aero-engines) are essential to navigation of these expansive design spaces with the goal of identifying new spatial configurations that can satisfy challenging system requirements. However, efficient navigation through discrete 3D ST options is a very challenging problem due to its combinatorial nature and can quickly exceed human cognitive abilities at even moderate complexity levels. This article presents a new, efficient, and scalable design framework that leverages mathematical spatial graph theory to represent, enumerate, and identify distinctive 3D topological classes for a generic 3D engineering system, given its system architecture (SA)—its components and their interconnections. First, spatial graph diagrams (SGDs) are generated for a given SA from zero to a specified maximum number of interconnect crossings. Then, corresponding Yamada polynomials for all the planar SGDs are generated. SGDs are categorized into topological classes, each of which shares a unique Yamada polynomial. Finally, within each topological class, 3D geometric models are generated using the SGDs having different numbers of interconnect crossings. Selected case studies are presented to illustrate the different features of our proposed framework, including an industrial engineering design application: ST enumeration of a 3D automotive fuel cell cooling system (AFCS). Design guidelines are also provided for practicing engineers to aid the application of this framework to different types of real-world problems such as configuration design and spatial packaging optimization.

The state of the notion critical in theory and research is open to a yawning discussion.The political challenges that critical scholars have taken up are usually accompanied bymethodological frameworks that have been appropriated to fit the nature of their criticalenterprise. The “critical” of the 1980s, 1990s or 2000s, particularly in educational research andtheory has allowed distinct heavens for educational scholars in line with their different sociopoliticalpositionalities, usually in tangent with social theory and epistemology. This dissertationproject problematizes contemporary portrayals of the “critical” in regards to the question ofreferentiality and bordering and the associations between critique and critical, while examiningconstructions of the critical in the field of educational research through working its variousaspects such as mechanisms and functions of critical, alignments of critical, epistemic vs.empirical criticals, and homologic productions of difference within the critical scholarship. Thishas been done through analysis of research data conducted through systematic content analysisof education and educational research journals, as well as data from interviews with “critical”scholars at various US universities.Content analysis and interview data indicate that the problematic of defining the “critical”contemporarily have to do with the same feature that set the critical initiative into motion at thehands of the Frankfurt School members in the first place. That the members of Frankfurt Schoolenvisioned a rupture with the past (the Enlightenment) as well as with the future (the finality ofthe liberal bourgeois order) suggests a domain that thought itself as oppositional, hence political,to the existing order and its relations of power. Therefore, the critical as one of the buildingblocks of critical research theory and practice is employed for specific tasks relativelyindependent from each other, suggesting that attachments/attributions to the notion of criticalsuch as normative claims, political commitments, and value orientations carried the discussionover the realm of the identity problematic within the academy. Drawing on Bourdieu’s fieldtheory, as well as on patterns abstracted from content analysis throughout this dissertation, I alsoargued that the critical enterprise is not a static theoretical construct that is applicable acrossdifferent research studies. Nor is it limited to the realm of the theoretical; for its usage inempirical studies and the contextual and conceptual variations that its instances, from Germanidealism to French structuralism, etc., underline the need to adopt both theoretical and empiricaltools in order to explore the current manifestations of the critical enterprise. Moreover, thepolitical dimension of research construction and practice is inherent to the various aspects of thesocial, academic, and personal and is re-enforced through power relations within the field.

This essay, a speculative work, suggests that educational encounters of critical theory and pedagogy are today too often hampered by an emerging form of schooled reproduction in which university learners perform critical stances in order to garner recognition rather than for reasons of intellectual or political commitment. It suggests that the performance of these stances contributes to discursive conformity and threatens the vitality of the critical university classroom. It then pursues a strand of argument that considers two emerging, interrelated paradoxes of critical classroom practice, each indicative of how scripted critical stances can function as impediments to resonant educational encounters. The first, referred to as the ‘cultural capital paradox’, suggests that where expressions of critical theory and pedagogy are prized, a danger lurks that students may perform criticality simply to garner approval. The second, referred to as the ‘linguistic formalism paradox’, takes up the politics of language usage and positions some of its current contestations as impediments to the sustenance and success of the critical dialogical sphere.

Interpretation and Social Criticism, by Michael Walzer ; viii and 96 pp. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987, $12.50. The Company of Critics: Social Criticism and Political Commitment in the Twentieth Century, by Michael Walzer; xii and 260 pp. New York: Basic Books, 1988, $19.95. Discussed by Philippe Desan Although these two books do not specifically address the issue of literary criticism, they nonetheless raise important questions about the practice of interpretation in general, particularly about the place ofthe critic in the social structure and the system ofinterpretation. Criticism, whatever its bearing (literature or revolution), is inevitably bound to its social and political context. From Socrates to Breytenbach, the critic has never been able to escape the implications of his or her own intellectual activity. These are, of course, extreme cases; in the world of literary criticism, such critical consequences are obviously less serious, but they are nevertheless important. Literary criticism is not a harmless occupation: it can shape, redefine, or perpetuate ideology, and usually does so unconsciously. In the late 1920s Julien Benda addressed the problem of what he called the treason of the intellectuals. At that time the question was to determine to what extent (if at all) intellectuals should become involved in or even reflect upon contemporary political events. Although it was certainly not a new issue, such questions continued to produce a large 142 Philippe Desan143 literature through the mid-1970s. The Algerian war and then the Vietnam quagmire gave new vigor to the partisans of both sides, and the involvement of intellectuals has remained until recendy a controversial and much-debated topic. However, perhaps because the 1980s were a time of relative social stability both in Europe and in the United States few intellectuals ask themselves the same question today. But the ideological position of the critic within society continues to be more problematic than ever. Walzer's books take a new look at understanding the relation between the critic and society. Walzer's basic postulate, that all critical activity is always undertaken within the ideological framework of a moral philosophy, is still frequendy ignored by contemporary literary critics. Whatever the place occupied by the critic on the social and political scene, he or she will always speak from a place of value. This place of value can be carefully chosen or totally arbitrary, but it is always loaded with political values. It is also important to add that all thought L· ideological thought. Critical objectivity is a myth and interpretation either produces new moralvalues or reinforces old ones, all values themselves being the result of political choice (not choosing is also a choice, the same way as not voting is voting for the majority). Moral values, however, or even the consciousness of their existence, are rarely taken into consideration by those doing literary criticism. Too often critics tend to hide behind the aesthetic aura of the object they have in front of them. Poetics seem to have replaced politics, and critics withdraw into their own jargon. Form has replaced content: the way we say things counts more than what we have to say. Consequently, today there is an urgent necessity to place the critical act within a sociology of knowledge that will enable us to bring to the surface the ideological connections among the practitioner (the critic), his historically determined activity (criticism), and the object to be interpreted (society or the text). It goes without saying that such a dialectic reasserts the importance of the context of interpretation. What do we mean when we assert that all critical practice presupposes a sociology of knowledge? First, we assume that the critic has a certain level of political awareness, that he knows from where and to whom he speaks. There exists a determinate relationship between knowledge (including interpretation) and the social structure in which knowledge is sought, construed, and diffused. A displacement from the text (society ) to the critic is essential when one considers the critical moment. Attributing too much importance to the text and forgetting this critical 144Philosophy and Literature moment are clear symptoms of the false consciousness that has crept relendessly into what has slowly become the "institution of modern criticism." Walzer is right...

The digital divide not only marks the complexity of the literary medium’s transition to the digital world but also involves wider structural issues, from critical, social, economic, and cultural practices aspects in the society. This study presents a bigger picture through a critical analysis of the space representation of Kampoeng Cyber Jogja (KCJ). The study uses the qualitative method with Henri Levebfre’s Spatial Triad theory. To find and define the relation of space with practice and society’s post-modern culture, the authors use Bourdieu and Baudrillard’s concepts on practice, distinction, and consumerism. KCJ is a complex space as well as a representation of society’s culture which must turn into a multidimensional direction. KCJ has become a production, negotiation, and resistance space. In economic practice, KCJ is a production space, uniting several aspects from the cultural products (i.e., batik), cyberspace technology usage, as well as market reading. On the other hand, it shows the space paradoxicality, capitalization, and industrial logic used by KCJ. In social practice, KCJ marks the resistance toward poverty and inequality discourse brought up by the digital divide. Culturally speaking, KCJ has become the representation and negotiation space between two cultures, traditional and modern, in resolving the digital divide which has thrived in the multidimensional society.
 Keywords: representation of space, spatial politic, resistance, digital divide, Kampoeng Cyber Jogja 1.

This paper presents a creative research project that combines architecture and film to promote inclusive and collaborative design environments in architectural pedagogy. The technique, called character-led design, explores the complex relationships among people, culture, identity, and architecture through the lens of filmic narratives. By emphasizing the lived experiences of characters in the design process, the research aims to create socially responsible and culturally sensitive designs. The paper discusses the pedagogic process, student projects, and feedback, highlighting the potential of character-led design to influence the architectural profession and contribute to decolonial education. The technique aligns with critical spatial practice theory and offers an inclusive and collaborative methodology for architectural design.