Dan, this is all so apposite.
I mean the issue about `claims to represent`.
I wouldn`t criticise those seeking to reclaim, but there is an issue of
representativity going on. As a veteran of `earlier` street events
Vietnam and so on this can only ever be a rough guide, but one that`s
worth repeating!
But a wider issue is that in this sense the street is mainly a symbol.
And more interesting I think is the multiplicity of challenges to value
sets that are symbolised in the street but happen in other spaces.
Traditional street fairs originated in trade and `became` other things,
I`m not sure how much of that is/was about reclaiming anything, or
empowerment. When do `we` reclaim Do it all and the other interior
streets that would seem pretty good symbols too, and pretty bloody big
appropriation of space?
David
On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 10:31:05 GMT dan knox <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> While certainly much power is exercised in the street, what of that
> that confronts us before we even leave our homes ? We don't need to
> cross the private/public divide to come up against all sorts of
> compelling powers. From the household pecking order to the mass
> broadcast information that we are exposed to, our entire home lives
> are a rich interplay of different sources of power. Nothing gets me
> more angry than the letter from my landlady dropping through the
> letter box, the phone call enquiring after rent - she, quite
> literally, knows where I live. Who else does ? They might not know
> who I actually am, but they do know where it is that I am that (or
> "do" that).
>
> I would question which streets we want to reclaim and to what
> purpose. What are we calling "the streets" here anyway ? All seems a
> bit abstract to me - certainly the powers of "global capital" are "out
> there somewhere" but the question really ought to be where. In the
> streets ? It isn't that I don't think the streets should be
> reclaimed if we really want them but just that it seems to me that we
> ought first to attempt to reclaim our homes and our lives - and then
> let's reclaim the world ! While some of you reclaim the streets on
> the 30th I shall be reclaiming my life by sealing up my letterbox and
> cutting my phone line. They might take my space, but they'll never
> take my dignity !
>
> Graham Gardner makes some good points regarding who the reclaim the
> streets movement actually are and who they either a) represent or b)
> claim to represent. It seems to me that they represent the reclaim
> the streets movement. Let's hope they do this well. And, brothers
> and sisters, while you're at reclaiming those streets, could you get
> me one ? (I'll have one in the leafy suburbs methinks).
>
> dan
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> Dan Knox
> Research Postgraduate
> Department of Geography
> University of Durham
> South Road
> Durham
> DH1 3LE
> UK
>
> 0191 384 6213
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dgg3dlk/
>
> Tell me what you gonna do,
> When the ending of time comes near,
> Whatever you do,
> Its gotta be funky !
>
> Flava Flav, Public Enemy
----------------------
David Crouch
Anglia Polytechnic University
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