PREFIGURATIVE ARCHITECTURES: THE RIGHT TO THE CITY 50 YEARS ON
ON CHILDCARE & THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF PROTEST: THE CASE STUDY OF SEEDLINGS SIONED WILLIAMS / NADIA PINTO / KHAIRUL ASYRAF / FRIXOS PETROU
INTRODUCTION For this project we are analysing Henri Lefebvre’s Right to the City piece by looking at the activity of a childcare collective called ‘Seedlings.’ We believe that the work of a childcare collective that is specifically linked to the activist scene raises many interesting debates about the right to the city and related struggles - on the one hand this links with the question of “who’s right?” (Marcuse, 2009), on the other hand questions of the role of children in urban life which relates to the work of Francesco Tonucci. It seems that Seedlings’ activity firstly enables the work of other collectives to operate in a participatory and inclusive way, but also positions children as agents of their own, rather than marginalised subjects as treated by mainstream pedagogies and education systems. Through the analysis of a small grassroots group that works in the niche of activist childcare, we aim to critically engage with these debates, draw links between various theorists and also better understand Lefebvre’s work through a case study. By conducting a thorough interview with the group and following their activities both in real life and online and by using Lefebvre’s work, but also the work of other scholars, we have analysed Seedlings’ praxis and the implications it carries for the right to the city. Through this booklet we explore these links, leading up to a proposal for the spatial expansion of Seedlings’ chilcare activities, prompted by our discussion with them and their plans for the future.
THEORETICAL CONTEXT The first theme of our booklet is that of the link between the critical pedagogies and theories that the members of Seedlings embrace and the right to the city. By acknowledging children as equal citizens, Seedlings reinstate their autonomy (Tonucci, 2005) - however children are ignored in the design of the city and they are only considered as attached to adults/parents/teachers. We have considered and discussed the connections between educational practices, pedagogy and the urban realm, focusing on Seedlings’ practice of ephemerally dispersing pedagogical spaces and connecting them to existing struggles. We have also drawn links between these practices and prefigurative politics, examining how these are in fact tests of future alternatives. The second theme relates to the question of infrastructure, and how it is important to protest. It has long been established that young men are not the only activist subjects; in this light, collectivised childcare provides a solution for parents and specifically women by firstly making their situation visible in the plane of activism and secondly by responding to their practical needs. We have considered broader precedents of how protesting pragmatically requires some form of infrastructure to be consistent and effective in order to enrich the discussion. Through these two specific lens we have analysed the connection of Seedlings to the right to the city as set out by Lefebvre. Furthermore we have proposed two design outputs, developing the one that we thought was more appropriate to Seedlings’ actions, and developing our own suggestion for an infrastructure of protesting aligned to the educational work of Seedlings.
SEED LINGS
WHO / WHAT ARE SEEDLINGS? Seedlings is a child care co-operative, set up in late 2017. It aims to: > Provide childcare services which incorporate creative, educational and inclusive play to children and young people. > Empower parents with low incomes to take part in community building and voluntary work by providing easily accessible and high quality childcare. > Provide these services at lower or no cost to groups which work to eliminate discrimination based on disability, gender identity, sexuality, race, class or membership of underrepresented cultural or religious groups. [source: self description as sent to us by the group]
SEEDLINGS HISTORY Seedlings was formed when childcare support for co-op group meetings was called for. Initially, a similar voluntary and as-needed setup covered the meetings of the co-op group Radical Routes, and this experience led to the establishment of a permanent grouping that also wanted to draw on relevant theories and to have a consistency in their work. The group of people that formed Seedlings initially all had previous contact with the member who made the call through Plan B, a queer housing co-op group that has links to Radical Routes. A belief in the importance of the child in a gathering where parents are the ones addressed triggered a group to be formed that brings the child onto a level field, experimenting with radical educational methods and also providing children with increased autonomy. There are 4 core members and another 12 peripheral members who regularly volunteer. Members agreed that a radical and critical pedagogy through Seedlings was an opportunity to prefigure their political vision through a childcare group, independent of structured education. It gives them a chance to nurture children in the idealised way which is based on educational philosophies that the members engage with both individually and collectively.
Joins Co-operative UK
Co-operatives UK Radical Routes
Activist/Alternative Scene Plan B
Feminist Scene
Facebook Call-Out
Queer Scene Initial Meeting
Seedlings Formation New Groups supported by Seedlings Eg: Partisan, Plan C, ACORN
Wider Scope
SEEDLINGS HISTORY DIAGRAM 1
Strong link with Radical Routes Childcare at events
SEEDLINGS HISTORY DIAGRAM 2
THEORY & STRUCTURE Educational philosophies such as critical pedagogies or the post-human child are included in those studied and implemented by the members. Seedlings puts a large emphasis on making the children’s wants and needs as important as those of the parents and adults. Meetings may involve the children’s input and their opinions being equally counted. The structure of the childcare events is determined by the agenda of the coop group that the care is provided for and activates are set around the idea of slow play and activates being imaginative and creative rather than focusing on incredible individual toys. The belief that children are only valued when they are considered a consumer is something Seedlings fight against and the activities chosen create a de-commodified play in a child’s sense - consumption of time and place. Moreover, Seedlings bring education, the “classroom,” into spaces of conflict and struggle. We can connect this to Tonucci’s work where he discusses the lack of children’s autonomy, connected with the degradation of public space (Tonucci, 2005 & Tonucci & Rissotto 2001). Children are excluded from the city, in spaces that only consider their very practical needs, with adults performing as teachers/supervisors/guards. We could say that traditional schools have become little more than parking lots for young people. In a similar way to Lefebvre, Tonucci (with Rissotto, 2001), discusses how the traditional city and its opportunities for play no longer exist.
“...we are based on consensus, we are making decisions based on consensus, so we need to agree. There are other types of meetings where we just meet as friends... Sometimes we also have meetings with children and parents, so all 3 categories of us coming up with ideas for future childcare...” - from interview
Strong links to Feminist/ Queer Scenes
Affinity Group Structure
12 volunteers/peripheral members 4 core members
Informal meetings in a friendly setting
Meetings Seedlings Plannings Meetings
Combats exclusion from city & marginalisation by school system
Meeting with Parents and Children Children involved in decision making Consensus Decision Making
THEORY & STRUCTURE DIAGRAM 1
Critical pedagogy Post-Human Child Theory
THEORY & STRUCTURE DIAGRAM 2
PUBLIC EVENTS The majority of events Seedlings are involved in are organised by other groups, mainly involved with environmental, housing, identity (migration/ lgbt) issues. Seedlings is allocated a room within the venue to transform into a childcare/play space. This occupation is quite straightforward: they rearrange/clear the room and use a banner to signify their presence and ‘claim’ it as their own temporary space. Then, a series of toys, books, and raw materials (clay, paints etc) are used in order to provide activities for the children on the side of the main event. The theme of the event is often incorporated into the childcare space, teaching the children about wider social issues, and attempting to dismantle the (spatial) separation between children and adults, but also between public and private life, by bringing chilcare (traditionally associated with domesticity) into the public sphere. Similarly, by bringing education into domains of conflict and struggle, it seems that the work of Seedlings is an insight into how education and childcare can play a role in (urban) struggles. This could be compared to the work of Zapatista schools in Mexico, educating young Zapatistas about their history, theory and geography, but also providing the necessary tools for the children to join the movement, even at a very young age.
“So they just reserve a room for us and we just have a room. Depending on the venue the room varies... It depends on the organisation of the event, its not so much about us. We’ve played outdoors as well...” - from the interview
Possible suggestions on use of space in scaled-up movement Banner, Toys
Childcare room within venue Invitation by Organizers
Short term Occupation
Seedlings Group Auto-economy of Infrastructure
Broadening The Right to The City
Re-decoration
Feminist Theory
Childcare Mediation
Separation of Public Private life
Political Event
Gender roles
More participation
PUBLIC EVENTS DIAGRAM 1
PUBLIC EVENTS DIAGRAM 2
PUBLIC EVENTS MAP & TIMELINE
INFRASTRUCTURE Seedlings are a self-organised auto-economy of infrastructure (Tonkiss, 2015), providing childcare services for collectives and events. This is connected to their moral and political understanding of accessibility, gender roles, parenthood and childcare. The realm of activism and grassroots politics is seen as tailored more towards specific actors (namely: able-bodied, young, cisgender, straight, white men fulfill the image of a stereotypical activist). Childcare offers an infrastructural mediation to broaden the subjects that can engage, and thus enriching the theme of the right to the city with questions regarding gender roles, stemming from Seedlings’ feminist background. Seedlings are, in a way, an auxiliary group contributing to the decommodification of services and also spaces, helping community and social centers in their own way. However, Seedlings are also a group and part of the right to the city in their own regard, as their work provides an intangible infrastructure that makes children visible in an urban setting from which they have been excluded (Tonucci, 2005). Seedlings establish pedagogical flows that traverse the city through the temporary occupation of rooms and highlight the importance of children as actors in urban society, with specific needs related to freedom, autonomy and play.
“...Maybe they would have to pay for baby sitting or maybe they would have to choose which parent or child-carer could participate in the event... it creates a separation between the public and the private sphere which creates many implications that are also a matter of political thought and action for us. And also separating children from adult spaces is a negative thing for us...�- from the interview
Moral Economies Community buildings provided for activist groups and others by selforganisation
Institutions
Political Economies Provision of a room in a building for Seedlings
CO OPS
Auto Economies Seedlings Right to The City
Provision of childcare Play material and activities provided by Seedlings
INFRASTRUCTURE DIAGRAM 1
Commodified infrastructure through rented buildings
INFRASTRUCTURE DIAGRAM 2
PREFIGURATION Seedlings is small collective engaging in collective action that experiments with the establishment of alternative social infrastructures. Their politics are implemented, albeit on a small scale, in the here and the now, experimenting with their vision of childcare and education - this could be a practical version of Lefebvre’s concept of experimental utopias (Lefebvre, 1996). From a theoretical starting point of a critical pedagogy, they engage with child-care and education, experimenting with their vision of what it should be, constantly learning at the same time as teaching. They involve children in decision making processes and teach them about the importance of responsibility and being autonomous both later in life and in the now. This is a prefiguration of educational practices that do not patronise or marginalise children, but consider their needs and offer them a voice. In terms of the right to the city, they are attempting a de-commodification of playful activity, but are also offering the ultimate commodity, their labour power, to activist collectives and events, as a practical expression of the dictum “from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs.”
“...it’s critical pedagogy that says that a child is a person with specific needs, that has to do with time management and play... But they arent that different from adults and they shouldnt be subordinated or treated as less important or more ignorant... If the three adults decide that its better if the children went outside and Liam, who is a 3 year old tells us that nope, I want to stay here, he will stay because its more related to what they want...”- from the interview
Political Engagement
Electoral Politics Weaker Links to Electoral Politics
Revolutionary Politics
Prefigurative Politics
Activist Scene Vision of Education realised on small scale Critical pedagogy Collective Grassroot Action
Right to The City
Seedlings Group De-commodification of childcare/play Labour power deployed as part of social antagonism, not as commodity
PREFIGURATION DIAGRAM 1
Help the activists groups & parents to make events easier to attend
PREFIGURATION DIAGRAM 2
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY PART 1 Activist groups such as Seedlings cooperative childcare were created as a ‘cry’ (Marcuse 2009, Lefebvre 1996) of the alienated and unhappy with their environment, aspiring for a better future. We have aligned Seedlings to the ‘cry’ part of ‘a cry and a demand,’ due to their work with subjects that have some financial and social capital (and as such not violently excluded from urban life) but feel alienated due to their moral and political compass. Seedlings provides childcare facilities to activist parents who want to participate in mostly co-op group activities in Manchester. The necessity of childcare arises in connection with activist groups and events, and Seedlings caters to these needs, enabling struggles for the right to the city. The Seedlings group is an innovative grassroots action that can lead to social change by investing in the collective capacity and well-being of children’s activities and by the de-commodification of play activities. There has been a tremendous push by the capitalist city to commodify pedagogy/ children’s education, alongside space and play, while simultaneously excluding children from any meaningful say in how their spaces and everyday life is organised. Seedlings is an attempt to give children back their autonomy.
Seedlings Group
Labour Power, Skills
Consumption of Place
De-commodification
Who’s right
Capitalist City Mediation of activist Praxis (Childcare) Alienated Parents
Security
Feminist issues, Gender roles, Parenthood, Childcare
Place of Consumption Anthropological Foundation
Independance
Right to The City
Work/Play Urban Society according to Lefebvre’s vision
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY DIAGRAM 1
Enriching The Right to The City
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY DIAGRAM 2
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY PART 2 Seedlings tries to dismantle the capitalist narrative of childhood by giving children a role in the decision making process. A child should be able to make their own choices, being treated as an equal to adults, as a person in itself and not a person-in-the-making, without hierarchical order. A child is an individual with specific needs that should not be treated less or more but in an equal priority. Seedlings Cooperative defends the idea of equality in genders, where both women, men and children should have equal opinions; when you give freedom of choice to people (children), they become more “productive” in a creative sense, according to their pedagogical approach. Seedlings as a case study enriches the topic of the right to the city with feminist considerations and also allows us to re-frame it according to their political experience. On the one hand we have analysed how Seedlings’ work contributes to the struggles of other collectives and individuals, but also we believe that their approach brings something unique to discussions about the right to the city. The role of the child and framing pedagogical processes according to cycles of struggle and contestation in the city is a unique approach that poses highly interesting questions about childhood, education and their relationship to urban conflict.
“it’s critical pedagogy that says that a child is a person with specific needs, that has to do with time management and play, the very act of playing. But they arent that different from adults and they shouldnt be subordinated or treated as less important or more ignorant”- from the interview
Hegel idea Philosophy
Spectral Analysis Theme Passivitiy
Elaboration of theoretical knowledge
Reality Integration
Practice Praxis
Participation
Self-management Division of labour concept
Infrastructure Techne
Taking care of activist’s children
Seedlings established
Logos
Poiesis
Providing activities for children
Gender Housing
Social Migration LGBTQ
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY DIAGRAM 3
Environment
Post Human Child Teaching Freedom
THE RIGHT TO THE CITY DIAGRAM 4
PROPOSITIONS Going forward, Seedlings have expressed an ideal future expansion in the form of a co-op house with a floor specifically designed for childcare. This floor would include areas like soft play and this relates back to the philosophy of the children’s experiences in education/child care and the idea of embodiment. This is an idea for expansion which is maybe realistic at the level that Seedlings currently work at. Another form of scaling up would be to increase in numbers and to have more chapters spring up in other cities. Our initial instinct was to follow Seedlings’ plan, and we developed an imagined scenario in which Seedlings takes over part of a pseudo-terrace house in Old Moat, developing it into their own housing co-op and childcare/event space. Upon further consideration we did not develop this proposal fully, as will be discussed. Perhaps more importantly, we have also developed a proposal which we find ties in much more with the actual way Seedlings operates as a group and loosely based on our discussion: a transportable pop-up room in which childcare and educational activities can take place. Its construction is very straightforward, allowing children to be involved in the assembling and dismantling of the structure, while its pieces are small enough to be transported in a van. It comes with a set of instructions in order to allow other groups to use it and push towards the setting up of more Seedlings chapters in other cities.
“...we have talked about it and we have expressed the desire for a future, actual infrastructure nursery setting for childcare. It would be a house that would be a shared house, a shared household that would have a ground floor planned for children...”- from the interview
DESIGN PRECEDENTS
DESIGN OUTPUT 1: HOUSING CO-OP For this output we considered a territorialisation of Seedlings’ activities by reconfiguring part of a terraced house in Old Moat. The space would be focused around a childcare space, allowing room for the collective’s members to live communally too. The proposal comes from our interview with the group where they expressed a wish to live communally and connect their domestic environment to a childcare space. However, we did not fully develop this proposal as we found it to somehow contrast with the actual praxis of Seedlings, that of spreading educational activities throughout the city and positioning them in regards to social struggles - something which is explored much more in our second design output.
concept collage
sectional perspective
aerial perspective
DESIGN OUTPUT 2: POP-UP CHILDCARE CENTRE For this output we followed Seedlings’ pattern of dispersing educational/ childcare activities throughout the city and positioning them in fields of conflict and struggle - we designed an easily assembled pop-up classroom/childcare centre, that would only require a van to transport and a stepladder to set up. This was influenced by an informal discussion after the interview where Seedlings mentioned having a van which they could use to transport a mobile childcare unit. The plywood elements would be relatively cheap to produce and it would be easy to replicate for other groups wishing to participate in similar activities. The boxes used to hold it become benches and tables for when it is deployed, and the components are designed to compactly stack into each other.
plan 1:50
elevation 1:50
general axonometric 1:50
exploded axonometric 1:50
exploded isometric 1:50 demonstrating possibility of substructure that could be raised on pilotis of varying height to adapt to uneven ground condition
Component 1: floor [x14]
Component 2: floor [x14]
Component 3: floor [optional]
Component 4: floor [x2]
Component 5: floor [x2]
Component 6: floor [x2]
Component 7: floor [x2]
Component 8: roof [x8]
Component 9: roof [x16]
Component 10: roof frame [x16]
Component 11: roof frame [x16]
kit-of-parts [components]: NTS
450mm
3000mm
1616mm
components fitting in boxes: NTS
boxes within small van (2m wide x5.2m long): NTS
CONSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR FUTURE SEEDLINGS Minimum number of people: 2 (1 hour assembly) Suggested number of people: 4 (1/2 hour assembly)
Step 1 [components 1, 5, 6]: assemble base
Step 2 [components 2, 3, 4, 7]: connect floor components
Step 3: connect floor to base
Step 4 [components 10, 11 ]: prepare to assemble roof frame
Step 5 [components 10, 11 ]: connect columns to floor/base
Step 6 [components 10, 11 ]: connect connector joints to columns
Step 7 [components 8, 9 ]: prepare to assemble roof (stepladder needed)
Step 8 [components 8, 9 ]: connect beams of one side to connector joints
Step 9 [components 8, 9 ]: connect the rest of the beams to connector joints
Step 10 [components 8, 9 ]: connect the beams to the columns
Step 11 [fabric components as required ]: prepare to assemble cover
Step 12 [fabric components as required ]: connect lower fabric on one side
Step 12 [fabric components as required ]: connect lower fabric on other side
Step 12 [fabric components as required ]: attach higher fabric to provide cover from rain
Assembly complete!
Note: alternative sequence would be to assemble columns & beams flat and then insert them into base.
rendered axonometric
pop-up childcare center at Piccadilly Gardens (as a protest site)
construction animation (click) / click here afterwards to proceed
Cost of temporary childcare pavilion Item
Amount
Cost each
Total cost
Base Frame C24 Sawn treated timber 75 mm x 200 mm x 4.8 m
2
£64.57
£129.14
75 mm x 200 mm x 5.4 m
2
£72.62
£145.24
75 mm x 200 mm x 6 m
2
£83.15
£166.30
16
£31.75
£508.00
48
£31.75
£1524.00
32
£21.07
£674.24
32
£21.07
£674.24
1
£40.00
£40.00
Total =
£3861.16
Base Structural hardwood plywood 2440 mm x 1220 mm x 12 mm
Flooring Structural hardwood plywood 2440 mm x 1220 mm x 12 mm
Frame and roof connections C24 Sawn treated timber 47 mm x 200 mm x 3 m
Roof and capwood C24 Sawn treated timber 47 mm x 200 mm x 3 m
Fabric allowance 5 m x 12 m
costing estimate at readily available market prices for plywood
BIBLIOGRAPHY
IMAGE CREDITS
Ford, G., & Zogran, M. (2017) 8 Ways We Can Improve the Design of Our Streets for Protest [online] Archdaily. Available at: www.archdaily.com/ author/gina-ford-and-martin-zogran (accessed 22/1/19)
pg.4 - images provided by Seedlings pg.5 - images provided by Seedlings pg.7 - photomontage created by authors pg.8 - Burman, E. (2018) Fanon, Education, Action. [book cover] Freire, P. (2006) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. [book cover] Tonucci, F. (1996) La ciudad de los Ninos. [book cover] pg.10 - photomontage created by authors pg.11 - images provided by Seedlings pg.13 - photomontage created by authors pg.14 - drawing created by authors pg.15 - Kruger, B. (2012) Untitled, (Human History). [billboard], LA pg.17 - photomontage created by authors pg.18 - images provided by Seedlings pg.20 - photomontage created by authors pg.21 - Tonucci, F. (1996) La ciudad de los Ninos. [book cover] Lefebvre, H. (1968) Le droit a la ville [book cover] pg.23 - photomontage created by authors pg.24 - same as pg.21
Gras, JA. (unknown) Santiago Cirugeda: guerrilla architect, low-cost projects [online] More than Green. Available at: www.morethangreen.es/en/ author/jose-a-gras/ (accessed 22/1/19) Leandro, M. (2016) Prefigurative Architectures: pedagogical spaces [online] Material Politics. Available at: www.materialpolitics.com (accessed 22/1/19) Lefebvre, H. (1996). Writing on Cities. Massachusetts: Blackwell Marcuse, P. (2009). From Critical Urban Theory to the Right to the City. City, vol. 13 (2-3), pp. 185-197 Tonkiss, F. (2015). Afterword: Economies of Infrastructure. City, vol. 19 (23), pp. 384-391 Tonucci, F. (2005). Citizen Child: Play as Welfare Parameter for Urban Life. Topoi, vol. 24 (2), pp. 183-195 Tonucci, F. (2005). Citizen Child: Play as Welfare Parameter for Urban Life. Topoi, vol. 24 (2), pp. 183-195 Tonucci, F., & Rissotto, A. (2001). Why do we need children’s participation? The importance of children’s participation in changing the city. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, vol. 11, pp. 407–419
all visual material from pg. 25 onwards was created by the authors
APPENDIX 1: SEEDLINGS INTERVIEW Lets start with the history, what is the history of Seedlings, how did it start and a bit about what its about? First of all we are 4, like the core group and then we are 12 more that they volunteer every now and then and lend their hand. So, its because of a call made by one of us, on facebook, they wanted to start a critical pedagogy and radical childcare group because they thought that its a good idea. We all liked the idea, we didnt know each other before that. Michael who called the meeting knew all of us, we didnt know each other. He wasnt really friends with many of us anyway, so its how we met and became friends. So your initial connection was made through one person but was it based on previous activist groups or spaces? Yes, this whole idea started because Michael was part of a queer co-op which is called Plan B. In Plan B they would have these meetings with Radical Routes which is an organisation of co-ops that meet frequently, a few times per year anyway, and they are from all over the UK. Because they would have these meetings and because many of the people who would attend these meetings would also have children, they had an assigned collective playgroup for the children for every meeting. There were some specific people running this group and they were the same. Michael had done that with the group from the co-op, they decided to do that more often outside of the Radical Routes meetings, so thats how we got together, we wanted to offer this childcare to events and spaces and collectives and co-ops that we support and like their work. What would a normal meeting look like, a planning meeting? We meet every now and then, depending on the agenda of the issues that we want to talk about. There are different types of meetings that we have, there are practical issues going on so we talk about stuff like printing or writing or organising something and coming up with ideas. If there is an issue we all need to agree on it, we are based on consensus, we are making decisions based on consensus, so we need to agree. There are other types of meetings where we just meet as friends, were also friends now, and we talk about Seedlings in a lighter sense, so we come up with ideas of new activities or new games, new actions, new collectives we want to support, new events we have heard about. We also had some more official meetings when we were becoming a co-op, because we had to write official stuff that matched the organisational paper of co-ops, its like a federation of co-ops (Co-operatives UK), that to be part of them they need to agree somehow with what you are writing. What does an actual event that Seedlings participate and take care of children look like? And what does Seedlings do for these events? So when we decide on the collective or the event we want to support, we communicate with them, express the desire to help out and to offer free childcare for the event. Most collectives give us a donation because
they want to support our co-op as well, but its usually a designated area that we have a specific decoration its not really a decoration, but a banner that we have made that says Seedlings and we bring toys and books and raw materials like clay or paints or plants and seeds. Because were called Seedlings we had this idea of planting seeds and giving them to the children that come to the event and that will grow until the next time we will see them, so that would create a kind of thread both of the political action but also the community that we build. It also depends on the event. There were some activities that we organised that were more relevant to the nature of the event that we were participating at the moment. So for example in a housing co-op event we would play more with bricks or with a material that the kids would be able to build or understand the process of building or the process of housing or something like that. But it really depends on the event. We have participated in different sorts of events spanning different sorts of activisms and we believe that it has value anyway, in any event, because it frees up parents that want to participate in the events and political acts. So what would these people do if Seedlings didnt exist? They would die (laughs). But no, I think it would be more difficult to participate. Maybe they would have to pay for baby sitting or maybe they would have to choose which parent or child-carer could participate in the event. Its not a good option because it creates a separation between the public and the private sphere which creates many implications that are also a matter of political thought and action for us. And also separating children from adult spaces is a negative thing for us, we would like to merge these worlds because we believe that both learn from each other so its really important to have them mixed. What about the child-care spaces, what are they like? Are they indoor or outdoor? How does the financial part work as well? Do you rent spaces? So the people who organise every event, have thought about the space that they would use for their event. So they just reserve a room for us and we just have a room. Depending on the venue the room varies, so we have had a massive room with a lot of things going on, the kids could run around and play, and weve had venues that the room was tiny, just for 5 kids or less and it was pretty packed. It depends on the organisation of the event, its not so much about us. Weve played outdoors as well, but it has mostly been indoors. Its also a matter of the weather. Apart from the events we participate in, there are also some events that we organise, which are fewer. So from what I understand you dont have to worry about the infrastructure, the space, its more up to the groups that invite you, they have to provide a space. We have some guidelines, if its too small we cant really work, theres already 4 of us and depending on the event there could be from 1 kid to 20. Oh also! Sometimes we also have meetings with children and parents, so all 3 categories of us coming up with ideas for future childcare.
Depending on the event, are there guidelines for the activities with the children, do they set an agenda for you? Not explicitly, but because theyve been in the position of hosting childcare spaces before they found out about us, they already had activities for children for conferences or workshops or all these events, so we do end up playing with toys or painting or coloring stuff that we do with the collective that invited us. I want to go a little bit back, could you tell us a bit more about separating private and public life and also children from adult spaces? And how Seedlings mediate this? So thats one of the most important we started Seedlings, because we all come from a feminist background, we have met in feminist or queer collectives, actually Michael has met us there (laughs). We share this fundamental feminist idea that the private should not be different from the public, that both women and men should be able to participate in both and that maternity or paternity is not a matter of gender so all genders should be able to participate in all events. And children and adults, thats actually a further step, its critical pedagogy that says that a child is a person with specific needs, that has to do with time management and play, the very act of playing. But they arent that different from adults and they shouldnt be subordinated or treated as less important or more ignorant. They should be treated as equals, not prioritised, theyre not above us either, not more important than us. Because that also gives you the feeling of continuation, that you were born, you werent useless until you became someone. Thats also a capitalist narrative because it has to do a lot with consumption and how you begin having value in a society because you consume. And also specifically activities like play and toys, a kid should be able to have the first word about it. They should be able to choose what they want to play with, what they want to eat, how they want to spend their evening. Its not a hierarchical thing, us deciding all the activities and so on, but us trying to set up the situation, the procedure for this to come up on its own. Staying on this point, especially on consumption, could you scale it up and maybe tell us something about the role of the child in the city which is organised around the flow of money? An easy question! (laughs) As I said before the child for us has specific needs related to time, space and playing, these are the 3 most important things that they learn by playing, it gives them an understanding of reality, how things work. Its kind of the same role as the adult otherwise? Except the child isnt a consumer in the same way. It is a consumer of setting, like playgrounds, kids spaces. Its not exactly consumption, its more connected to play which doesnt necessarily have the element of consumption. Is play commodified?
Yes, we try to come up with activities like slow play, maybe this is our concept. Weve read about slow education which is how to teach someone depending on their skills and activities and things that they want to learn so its very personalised, based on the kids desires. One of the concepts weve come across is that the city is the place of consumption but also the consumption of place Yeah, thats why community centers and parks are places that we prefer. Weve also had parties in houses, but that was different, in the domestic setting. Like a childrens party for one of the children of a Seedlings member. One of the things that was really interested, especially in regards to our reading is the fact that Seedlings considers kids as people, you also mentioned about how society defines, how capitalist society defines childrens value, that increases when they start consuming. Its somehow like youre dismantling this, to see children as equal, how do you approach this? Well first of all we have assemblies with adults and children at the same time, so we have a circle and everyones opinion is equally counted. If the three adults decide that its better if the children went outside and Liam, who is a 3 year old tells us that nope, I want to stay here, he will stay because its more related to what they want. We encourage imaginative play and creative play, making something from scratch, something that requires an effort. Also some of us theorise this equality between adults and children, there is the theory about the post-human child that does that, I dont know if its related to your research, its not something we practice at Seedlings but its something some of us are interested. Ah, also, because you asked me before how the public and the private sphere is connected, when kids learn to play and tidy up after themselves, they learn this responsibility that comes with that, there is not someone else doing the cleaning or tidying up, I think its very connected with the social work roles of women and men, how the private and public spheres are separated. We also encourage children to be able to do everything they want by themselves. Make the decision, play and tidy up after themselves, and at the same time be in the same process as other adults because that gives them the feeling of equal participation. I was gonna ask about the activist groups that you support, and what kind of stance they have, what they believe in and what they fight against? Do you have choice and input in what you teach the children? They vary, really. Theyre quite a few, from the top of my head I can think of ACORN, the LGBT Foundation and the LGBT Center, Partisan, Radical Routes, other grassroots collectives. They do housing activism, immigration issues and against deportations, queer stuff, anything that has to do with participating in co-ops, so Radical Routes and other coop meetings, environmental issues, gardens and allotments. Because all of us are queer and we set up this co-op because it would help us also to be more included somewhere and working with children, queers and children usually dont go together, its a bit of a taboo. Its mostly queer and feminist things. Anything that has to do with community, we are open to
any invitation, we are just more connected with queer communities.
if you are working class you never have time to worry about all this kind of stuff. Not never, but not a lot, or not very naturally.
How do you ensure the safety of the children? > 5 minute discussion on the nature and definition of class ensues We all have DBS checks and we also are registered with the council, so were all legally able to provide child care. There is a british obsession with child protection, maybe thats something you should research about the right to the city and children, because its so difficult to bring the child in the city in so many spaces, either because of explicit or implicit reasons. Explicit ones are that there arent many child inclusive spaces apart from places to consume, like cafes. There arent any community spaces that encourage children and adults being at the same place or spending time together. How would you imagine Seedlings being scaled up? An ideal scenario, if instead of 4 people you were 40 or 400? Well ideally, in a very abstract way, we have talked about it and we have expressed the desire for a future, actual infrastructure nursery setting for childcare. It would be a house that would be a shared house, a shared household that would have a ground floor planned for children, so with different areas, maybe a soft room or a soft area, which is the soft play area Whats that? Its literally a room with pillows and soft stuff, children learn how to get in touch with tangible toys, not toys really, theyre playing with their bodies, its about embodiment a bit. I can also send you some theoretical stuff about that. How do you adapt to the space that is given to you? How do you adapt it to make it comfortable for children? We move furniture away, we clear the space. We have this banner that indicates that we are Seedlings, somehow we find that very valuable, in the places that we didnt have the banner it felt so weird, like we were just guests, but when we have the banner it feels like our space, as if we had the space. The last question I have is basically we kind of picked up that Seedlings doesnt have events all the time which seems like it could be related to the fact that it kind of connects to a more intellectual alienation rather than material exclusion, what implications does this have? An easy question again (laughs). Well all of us are working class but with middle class background, so to have this knowledge of education and theory and critical pedagogies, you need a middle class background I think. The parents who come to us are not necessarily more educated in an institutional way but they are more aware of certain theories and self-education processes. Its the constant question about education, to change something socially, you need to incorporate it into the education system, but to do that you need to come from the middle class because
One last thing, so actually part of this is to do a critique of the group, I dont know if theres any criticisms that exist within the group, something you are discussing that you could share with us. Like what? For example, one thing could be that Seedlings is trying to do something that actually should be taken care of by an institutional body. Yes, ideally it should be provided by an institutional body, but yeah, thats not going to happen because institutional politics also lack the agency to implement any such thing. Were not happy that we have to pay DBS checks every year, they are expensive, but it would be illegal if we didnt, we dont have much choice. The whole thing of not touching any child, that any kind of physical contact could mean abuse, these child protection laws are really really bad for the developmental psychology of the child. We do, but really were not supposed to. Its this idea that the adults are superior and the children are by default in need of protection because they are inferior socially, because they cant do anything on their own. It does have elements of truth, Im not saying that you should leave a 1 year old on its own, but it shouldnt be so obsessive because then it contributes to the building of a guilt-led psychology, like dont do that, dont do the other, as if everything is so precious and so important, which they are, but you see what I mean.
APPENDIX 2: READING GROUP DIAGRAMS PART 1: INFRASTRUCTURE the right to the city distributional inequalities contested ground connective / collective potential right to the city
neoliberal politics
distribution of infrastructural nodes
moral economies of infrastructure
electoral politics derived from social movements
embodied infrastructural labour
BMR
infrastructure auto-economies of infrastructure
political economies of infrastructure privatization
infrastructure formality
informality
understanding of the urban
mediation of recurrent binaries
wider economic and political trends make things relatable
epistemology of the urban theoretical framework
infrastructure is both things & relationships between them
infrastructural solutions to accumulation crises
uneven geographies of provision & consumption informal, embodied infrastructural labour
link with political economies via ‘patching’ the holes in exclusionary or unreliable provision systems
link to political economies of infrastructure e.g. protests over privatisation of water
should not be romanticised despite self-organised nature - simply ‘incomplete’ for subjects
link to moral economies of infrastructure e.g. protests over privatisation of water
privatisation of Big Infra in informal way through variety of actors and complex forms of investment, ownership, regulation & control
moral economies of infrastructure
auto-economies of infrastructure
does not necessarily match with actual distribution of infrastructural goods
political economies of infrastructure
infrastructure as tool of understanding broader political/economic trends
APPENDIX 2: READING GROUP DIAGRAMS PART 2: RIGHT TO THE CITY
PREFIGURATION PREFIGURATIONISISSOMETHING SOMETHING PEOPLE PEOPLEDO DO
# CULTURAL TERMS- THE RIGHT TO THE CITY GOES TO ??
# MATERIAL INTEREST- THE RIGHT TO THE CITY GOES TO ??
PREFIGURATIVE POLITICS
- UNDERPAID - MARGINILIZED -INSECURES
CHANGES
“ no longer a central institution of authority”
“ inherently and always problematic”
THE EXCLUDED
DIRECTLY OPPRESSED
THE CAPITALIST
- SCHOLARS-
STATE
CAPITALIST LIBERAL STATE
INSECURE
WHO ? T? RIGH THE GENTRY INSECURE
OUT “ abstract principle of power and authority”
WORKING CLASS
- Social welfare - Steward resources - Protect population against - violence and discrimination:
OBSOLETE
ALIENATED
SMALL BUSINESS
POLITICAL POWER
IN INTELLIGENTSIA
CAPITALIST RIGHT TO THE CITY
DEMAND
ASPIRATION ESCAPE FROM CAPITALIST AND MOVE TO COMMUNISM. REJECTION OF THE CAPITAL SYSTEM.
COLLECTIVE
INDIVIDUALISTIC
# FROM CRICITAL URBAN THEORY TO THE RIGHT TO THE CITY
HISTORY CRISES
The 1968 Crise produced the demand for The Right to The City
1929
1917
WHO ? T? RIGH
1990
1968
RIGHT TO THE CITY
WH FO AT R?
??
RE WHE
2008
... and the crisis we confront today
LEFEBVRE
NOW “ CRY AND DEMAND”
EXPOSING PROPOSING POLITICIZING
MARCUSE
APPENDIX 2: READING GROUP DIAGRAMS PART 3: PREFIGURATION
prefigurating
Left
Democratic, Labour left politics
State Unjust practices
Low-conflict solutions
Strong
Neo-liberal, nation state Advance change
Socially just future
Experience better practices
Weak
Everyday Activist Stewardly
Top down ruling Capitalist Elite agendas
Capitalist Neoliberal
Ince 2012
Plural state, left, progressive Different courses of authority fit to forma ingle coherent whole authority
Socially just future
State
British muicipal radicalism
Authority claimed rather than given
State A state that is withering away
Colonial Workers states
Central institution of authority claiming a monopoly of violence
Inherently and always problematic
Liberal capitalist state featuring contradicitons inconsistencies, plurality in state systems, logics accross rationalities
APPENDIX 2: READING GROUP DIAGRAMS PART 4: PLANETARY URBANISATION
Expression of Urban Landscape
Geographies of uneven development
Intertwined with Regulations
Megacities/ metropolitan
Land-use system
Economic growth prioritize
Neoliberalised consolidation
Agro-business network
Hinterland repositioning
Deregulation
Place-marketing diffusion
Wilderness
Networks
Political struggle explosion
Disseminate ‘best practice’
Consolidating Macro-Trends
TOWARDS A NEW EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE URBAN
National– developmentalist model crisis
Epistemology: Theory of Knowledge
Introduction
State socialism collapse
Global economic integration
Technoscientific Urbanism
Urban Ideologies, Old & New
Debates on Megacities Debates on Urban Sustainability
Epistemology of urbanism: universal, total, natural outlook; mobilized Reflexive Epistemological Opening
Right to The City
THESIS 1: Theoretical vs Empirical
Urban Trimphalism
THESIS 2: Process vs Settlement
THESIS 3: Constitutive Moments
THESIS 4: Multidimensional
THESIS 5: Planetary Industrial/Metropolitan (1830s) Territorial Formation (1970s) Planetary Formation (1980s)
THESIS 6: Variegated Patterns & Pathways
THESIS 7: Collective Projects