Rough Theory

Theory In The Rough

Monthly Archives: March 2006

A Breath Sufficed to Topple

2 Comments Posted by on March 31, 2006

I’m preparing a lecture for the History and Theory of Planning course on “foundational” figures in the early planning movement, and ran across this passage, which Ebenezer Howard quotes from The Times, 27 November, 1891: Change is consummated in many cases after much argument and agitation, and men do not observe that almost everything has [...]

City Planning, Critical Theory, Philosophy of History

Bedtime Rorties

Leave a Comment Posted by on March 30, 2006

I don’t normally post personal things on this blog, but I can’t resist mentioning this example of the strange effect that PhDs have on families. My two-year-old son has recently decided that children’s books are not for him – he now wants to “read” my books, and has learned to recognise common authors. So now, [...]

Family

Departing the Text

Leave a Comment Posted by on March 29, 2006

My research team presented today to the management group of the local Council whose strategic and sustainability planning staff were a major force in putting together the grant application that funds our research, wrote the actual parameters for the individual PhD projects, and continue to provide ongoing funding and practical support for our work. The [...]

Critical Theory, Drafts, Events, Philosophy of History

Speaking of Slips…

Leave a Comment Posted by on March 28, 2006

I just received a very polite email in relation to a late assignment, in which the student explained (sic): “Sorry for the delay – I had an intensive curse all day Fri and Sat which didn’t help…” I think this may be my favourite late assignment communication ever. To be honest, I’ve been in the [...]

Miscellaneous, Teaching

Did (I D)o That?

8 Comments Posted by on March 26, 2006

Scott Eric Kaufman’s Acephalous blog has been hosting an interesting discussion about intentionality and the unconscious. The immediate provocation for the thread was a particularly unfortunate slip of the tongue by talk show host David Lenihan, who, apparently inadvertantly, used a racial epithet in an on-air discussion of Condoleeza Rice. The discussion at Acephalous revolves, [...]

Conversations, Critical Theory, Philosophy of History, Psychology, Social Science

Some of Them Are Right

2 Comments Posted by on March 22, 2006

One of my friends from college spent a frustrated semester constantly arguing with a classmate. Each time my friend seemed on the cusp of argumentative success, his opponent would pull out the same relativist conversation stopper: “Well, you know, there are millions of different ways of viewing every problem”. And so would end the debate. [...]

Critical Theory, Methodology, Social Science, Teaching

Libelling Liberalism

Leave a Comment Posted by on March 19, 2006

I’ve just written “the liberalism lecture” for the History and Theory of Planning class. Since planning is not, by and large, a trade that holds exceptional attractions for those who lean libertarian, I don’t expect most students to have more than a passing familiarity with liberal political and economic thought – even though their profession [...]

Courses, Critical Theory, Philosophy of History, Political Economy, Teaching

Guerrilla Marketing

2 Comments Posted by on March 15, 2006

Books are ridiculously expensive in Australia – and academic texts, bought locally, are often three to five times more expensive than the cost of importing the same text new from the US via Amazon. So I tend to purchase “urgent” texts from overseas, and I have standing searches on Ebay Australia for authors and subjects [...]

Miscellaneous

Philosophical Rorts

4 Comments Posted by on March 10, 2006

Around bursts of technical support for students trying to familiarise themselves with the class wiki, I’ve been reading through Richard Rorty’s work. I haven’t read Rorty for some time, and have never read him systematically. I’m not in general a fan of pragmatism – something that I may have reason to post about on another [...]

Critical Theory, Philosophy of History

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