An Urban Ecology for the re-enchantment of cities, lives and people based on community-building, place-making and social interactions in digital Third Places. Proposing we develop a practice of #socialimprov to transform our neighbourhoods by developing cultural folksonomy based on local actions

1. An Urban Ecology of Re-Enchantment
A cultural folksonomy for Enchanted Cities

2. An Urban Ecology
Of magical re-enchantment

3. An Urban Ecology #oosEU
for placemaking & community-building

4. Building Participatory City 2.0
Folksonomy, Taxonomy & Hyperhumanism
• Started with Ambient Learning City Manchester (2011)
• (Metaphors & Cabinets of Curiosities)
• Designing Participatory Smart Cities; Carl & Fred; (Bristol 2015)
• (Social Action, Cultural Development, Property Speculation)
• Digital Third Places Erasmus+ Origin of Spaces; Manuel & Fred; (2016)
• (networked city, place-making, community governance, ecological)
• Learning City 2.0 #Timisoara2023 City of Culture Fred & Diana (2018)
• Towards a Cultural Folksonomy of Cities

5. Carnation
Revolution
“Poetry is
the
Language
of the
Revolution”
Jean van den Bosch

6. Porto was an Enchanted City in 1974
<Local, participative, barter, Folksonomy>
Open, welcoming, discursive, curious
Why have we lost that enchantment?
>Scale Representation Money Taxonomy<
In 1976 we were at our happiest…
BUT we have lost the contextual magic of place
Here are four possible solutions…

7. We live in a Quantum Universe
But in Mechanical Societies
Jean liked
my poetry;
“Words are
Buckets for
our
Emotions”
We are talking
about the
quantum
duality of
everything being
both a wave and
a particle
We confuse
the map
with the
Territory

8. We confuse fast thinking (objects)
With slow thinking (contexts)
Thinking fast;
answers at the
ready
“No change is
possible”
This is how we
survive…
Thinking slow
reflecting on
actions
“transformation
is possible”
But - this is how
we evolve…

9. Technology is “order imposed on nature”
We need to evolve away from anthropocene Technology

10. “Technology is the essence of politics”
It reframes possibilities! But are we e-enabling or transforming?

11. An Urban Ecology of Re-Enchantment
A brief history of Technology Contexts

12. P A H
Teacher
School
Teacher/
Learner
Learner
Research
Cognition Epistemic
Cognition
Meta-
Cognition
Adult
2008 Open Context Model of Learning; PAH Continuum
A Web 2.0 Model of Learning
Andragogy
Collaborate
Pedagogy
Content
Heutagogy
Create
A Craft of
Teaching

13. 2012 Ambient Learning City – beyond the classroom
An Open City of Open Scholars #Timisoara 2021

14. Social Cities of Tomorrow
Some Answers
New metaphors
New relationships
Object-centred sociality
Participative curatorial strategies
Aggregate then Curate
Post-institutional thinking
Participatory Cities
Social cities not smart cities

15. An Urban Ecology of Re-Enchantment
Tools for designing the Enchanted City

16. “from action to
process”

17. Participatory City Futures
Some ideas from Origin of Spaces (EU)
ZAWP – Bilbao
Rolling process of hyper-local partnerships, permanently debating w/the
council “from action to process”
LX Factory – Lisboa
Hyper-cool Coworking hub, designing in a social mix. “Hoxton in a factory” a
“post-welfare state” solution
ROJC – Pula
Rebuilding Civil Society (post Civil-War) through NGOs
Darwin – Bordeaux
Ecological transitions to a sustainable economy
Co-creating Coworking Spaces

18. Life can only be understood backwards
But it most be lived forwards (SK)
Future
predictions
always propose
“same as the
past only more
intense”
Future Thinking
can be helped by
using
“development
frameworks”
Here’s a couple

19. Context Engineering the Participatory City
Designing the
social smart city
Municipality Smart City Participatory City
2.0
City City Hall Real-time City
Hall
Distributed City
Hall Manuel
Institution Bricks & Mortar Clicks & Mortar Enchanted
Environment Fred
Street Tarmac Wifi/Digital Context
Engineering Carl
Strategy Urban Plan Urban Vision Collaborative
Vision

20. Designing the Enchanted Environment
Level Responsibility Aim
Strategic Planning Senior Managers Technical
Infrastructure
ENABLING
Platform
Learning
Management
Course Team Learning Resources EVALUATING
Learning Ecology
Learner Behaviours Students Union New Technologies EXPLORING
Resource Discovery
Enabling>> Exploring>> Evaluating
(Before and After Institutions)

21. An Urban Ecology of Re-Enchantment
Fast Enlightenment or Slow Transformation

22. How we might think
Alchemical magic; Natural Philosophy
& the Republic of Letters 1435-1650
King
Charles II
Approved
“Great
Man”
thinking of
Science &
the Royal
Society
1650-2021

23. Education is bullying and grooming
Silicon Valley big tech is bullying and grooming
Education
Is monetised
accreditation
“there is no
alternative”
Fast thinking
Big Tech
is monetised
advertising
“without advertising
we only buy what
we need”
Fast buying

24. History is full of temporarily useful eccentricities
Universities,
cities, the
nation-state,
taxonomies,
stories we tell
once solved a
problem and
timely met a
urgent need
Lets create
our own
Republic of
Learning
where we
decide how
we learn and
what we have
learnt

25. No one will
pay you to
think for
yourself;
“Invent your
own
projects”
#Socialimpro
v
We need to dance to the music
of transformation
Feyerabend – Against Method

27. An Urban Ecology of Re-Enchantment
Slow solutions need #Socialimprov

28. WikiQuals “Yes You Can!”
Learning not Education
Liminal not Institutionalised
Bio-diversity not Monoculture
Learner-centric not Student-centred
Learner-generated not Course-defined
Community as Curriculum not Syllabus defined
Community of Sqolars not Community of Practice
Personal Learning Networks not Content-delivery
Quality Assured not Quality Controlled
Affinity not Supervision
Emergent not Linear
Trust the learner to find their own Identity
http://www.slideshare.net/fredgarnett/social-media-learning-models-cros-wikiquals
2011 The
University
Project –
WikiQuals

29. SocialImprov “Yes You Can!”
Re-enchantment not Disenchanted
Slow not Fast
Ecology not Urban
Walking not Driving
Folksonomy not Taxonomy
Learning not Education
Dialogical not Dialectical
Context not Brand
Pastelaria not Starbucks
Third Place not Workplace
Serendipity not Rule-based
Participation not Representation
Trust the citizen to create their own Context
2021 The New
Axial Age

30. All You Need is Social Improv (w/others)
FSL not ESL
A brief history of #socialimprov
Created a soccer league, soccer
club, run all day, draw a map of
the world, playwright,
drummer, band, editor (paper,
journals) occupier, film festival,
benefit concerts, student union
study group, new subjects,
learning platform, urban
ecology, community centre (2),
public technology group, open
research group, WikiQuals

31. We know the
world is
false, not
what is true
So trust your own
felt experiences

32. Taxonomy or Folksonomy

33. She's lost in conversation
with the birds of the air
She's trading information in
a world without fear
She's fixing up a potion
made of laughter and love
And I will follow the
enchanter on the road to
the sun
Hear the live version

34. A cultural folksonomy for Enchanted Cities
Some Resources&Links
Unsmart Cities blog
Ambient Learning City
Social Cities of Tomorrow
Participatory City
Third Places and City 2.0
Learning City 2.0
Citizen-Generated Contexts
Deptford Creekside Centre
What is Web 2.0?
Open Context Model of Learning
World Heutagogy Day (Heutagogy resources)
Against the Smart City

35. An Urban Ecology of Re-Enchantment
ULAB-ISEG 28/4/21 @fredgarnett