Thursday, December 30, 2004

wlp on housing

I was talking to Makrand the other day, and Sonal today and of course I ended up with more question than answers and I thought I’de put out my questions.

The first thing I wasn’t sure of was the idea of efficiency. I have always imagined efficiency as a requirement, but I have noticed that sometimes efficiency can become the ideology. When efficiency is the ideology used to design and plan space, then data becomes the language. Two things. The first: Data should be a tool, not an ideology. Secondly: I am not fluent in the language of data, how then do I speak, and how would one create, read and use data?

The efficiency model has time and again been broken because efficiency itself is an extremely gendered/ biased/ directional planning method.

What models of efficiency are we meant to consider when thinking about housing? How is the idea of efficiency countered by image/aspiration/power when cities are formed. How has the model of planned efficiency been resisted through the means of citizens groups, housing societies, politicians and the media and consequent aspirations?

But my most important question: How do we as researchers counter data? I drown when people throw data at me.


posted by ateya @ 12:15 pm