Discourse, framing and narrative: three ways of doing critical, interpretive policy analysis

Three decades after the argumentative turn in policy analysis and planning, interpretive approaches have become part of mainstream policy analysis. Increasingly, researchers work within these traditions. Researchers new to these approaches might struggle to make conceptual and methodological choices. We therefore compare three prominent...

Special Issue Writing Urban Places: New Narratives of the European City

The special issue Writing Urban Places: New Narratives on the European City, marks the culmination of an international research network that delved into the intricate interplay between communities, urban spaces and narratives. At its core, this endeavour introduced an inventive approach aimed at deepening our comprehension of urban communities,...

Liminal design: A conceptual framework and three-step approach for developing technology that delivers transcendence and deeper experiences

As ubiquitous technology is increasingly mediating our relationships with the world and others, we argue that the sublime is struggling to find room in product design primarily aimed at commercial and transactional goals such as speed and efficiency. We suggest a new category of products to promote deeper and more meaningful experiences,...

Repository: 49 Methods and Assignments for Writing Urban Places

‘Repository. 49 Methods and Assignments for Writing Urban Places’ offers a set of methods and assignments intended to stimulate new approaches in architecture, urban studies, and other fields of spatial development and to invite creative, often embodied, and sometimes playful engagements with the material and immaterial dimensions of urban...

Exploring the descriptions of World Heritage properties through the perspective of water using a narrative approach

A comprehensive understanding of water systems across space and time is key, both for sustainable urban development and heritage preservation. However, so far, a clear methodology that links the exploration of the past and the protection of heritage properties to the design of the future is still missing. We argue that an exploration of heritage...

Narratives #1: Eastern Mediterranean and Atlantic European Cities

We have selected seven contributions for this issue of Spool, four from the Eastern Mediterranean basin (Istanbul, Beirut, Acre and Jaffa) and three from Atlantic Europe (Bodø, Matosinhos and Gafanha da Nazaré).<br/><br/>Roula El Khoury and Paola Ardizzola address the post-civil war reconstruction of Beirut in Lebanon and reveal how neoliberal...

Narratives of Eastern Mediterranean and Atlantic European cities

TerriStories. Literary Tools for Capturing Atmosphere in Architectural Pedagogy

By recognizing the potential of literary language in the description of architectural atmospheres, this contribution aims to confront the shortcomings of conventional pedagogical approaches in architecture that often fail to provide an in-depth understanding of the experiential aspects of place. To contribute to the development of appropriate...

A Story of Three: A Narrative Approach to Reading Atmosphere and Making Place

This article explores a site-specific, narrative approach to placemaking in order to reveal ways of reading and reacting to spatial atmospheres. The contribution presents an MSc Architecture project that results in the design of three particular places on the fringes of the Dutch urban landscape by means of utilizing a<br/>narrative approach to...

Multifaceted Approaches to Music Information Retrieval

Music is a multifaceted phenomenon: beyond addressing our auditory channel, the consumption of music triggers further senses. Also in creating and communicating music, multiple modalities are at play. Next to this, it allows for various ways of interpretation: the same musical piece can be performed in different valid ways, and audiences can in...

Urban Literacy: A Scriptive Approach to the Experience, Use and Imagination of Place

This dissertation discusses how literature offers valuable ways to become aware of how people experience, use, and imagine places. It argues that Lefebvre’s concept of "lived space", experienced and lived through by characters, evoking memories and imaginations, is the space that we encounter in the evocative descriptions of places and spaces by...

Taming Technology: The narrative anchor reconciling time, territory and technology in geoinformation infrastructures

It is often assumed that innovative technology is an essential resource for the establishment of an information infrastructure. This study on geoinformation infrastructures convincingly demonstrates that technology is an important and far more complex factor than much geoinformation practitioners want us to believe. Three Dutch cases were...