The Face of Things

May 23, 2013

yonderlustin asked: "meaningful change requires meaningful and sustained action..."--nice. I am a student at Rhodes and came across your page as I was researching the Luce Scholarship. I had spent some time in Jordan and had the urge to dive back into the beyond. Just wanted to let you know I appreciate your writings and found myself inspired to a keener and more comprehensive sense of focus

Thank you very much for the comment! My blogging has been scattered as of late, in part due to finals and graduation. I hope to continue posting in the near future. I have been to the Middle East myself a few times and studied Arabic in college - it is a fascinating region. Hope to talk with you again soon!

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April 20, 2013

"The problem we’re trying to solve is people are disengaging more and more with formal politics. We want to allow people in the city to co-produce an agenda item for formal council meetings, replacing the idea of people as consumers of decision making to an active part of the decision making process."

— Emma Daniel on her idea for transforming citizen participation with local government. (via thisbigcity)

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(Notes: 39)

April 19, 2013

thisbigcity:

Recent cutbacks on the spending of government officials in China have pushed indulgence out into the suburbs, rather than cutting it altogether. An interesting development - more here.

Fascinating expose on government “indulgence” and urbanization.

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(Notes: 110)

Filed under: China urbanization government indulgence corruption suburbs urban

April 18, 2013

Hey all! Sorry for the delay in posting. My absence was in part due to the work I have been doing on my thesis, which at least was on demography. :) More on that later.

As a way to ring in a new series of posts and what is shaping up to be a beautiful spring, here is a cute video of an independent little girl who already has some doubts about marriage. I have written previous posts on how marriage norms are changing across the world, but never described it as cutely as this girl does (0:21).

I hope to write future posts on marriage, specifically focusing on its evolution versus the rise of cohabitation, same-sex marriage, and out-of-wedlock fertility. Please comment below to share your thoughts!

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(Notes: 1)

Filed under: marriage independent girl youtube independent woman woman female funny

February 21, 2013

jemoraz:

London in Motion

A Day in The Life of 3 Million London Commuters, in 1 Minute

(via humanscalecities)

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(Notes: 67)

February 21, 2013

"Historically, urban morphology patterns are linked to streetcar or cable car lines. With stops at short intervals, the streetcar created walkable, continuous corridors. Early residential and commercial establishments were within a 5 – 10 minute walk from a stop. Urban designers today hope that the revival of the streetcar will spur similar development patterns."

— Amanda Bosse on the hopes for Seattle’s new streetcar route. (via thisbigcity)

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(Notes: 44)

February 21, 2013