Comments on: Report: Suddenly.org brings Thomas Sieverts to Burien

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:34:05 +0000

The organization S.H.A.R.E. has been a self-managed, decentralized group of homeless individuals operating in Seattle for almost two decades through spaces that already exist, such as churches.

By: MattBriggs

MattBriggs — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:12:07 +0000

Charles Mudede clarifies his POV here: “My Point”
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/07/09/my-point

Thanks, Charles.

By: MattBriggs

MattBriggs — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:01:06 +0000

Thanks for your reply. I do think they are instrumental and cannot help but be tied to rules, laws, and codes based on older forms. Furthermore as a community at the edge of Seattle, I can understand (I feel daily living in the South) there need to do something, anything, that might provide a sense of being noticed by Seattle. However this is the same dynamic in Seattle, where neighborhoods in Seattle feel ignored by Seattle. I don’t think there is actually a control center to Seattle.

In any case, I’ll look at the Sassen’s book. Thanks again.

By: Matthew Stadler

Matthew Stadler — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:37:58 +0000

Thank you for this post. I strongly recommend the work of Saskia Sassen, especially TERRITORY AUTHORITY RIGHTS (which I excerpt in the reader, WHERE WE LIVE NOW) and a collection called DECIPHERING THE GLOBAL. The great challenge is that old forms, like city government, are still instrumental, so we must speak to cities and with cities, even if we hope to speak of something else.

Sassen is a sociologist interested in “multi-scalar assemblages” — intimate (often family or friend-based) networks that form across global and local geographies and operate sometimes as informal networks, sometimes as institutions, sometimes on a par with nations, sometimes on a par with global corporations.

Her examples include political groups such as the volunteers who make up Doctors Without Borders and cross-border water rights groups in the Third World. But the same assemblages happen ar every scale around music, culture, and politics. Think of the All-Ages Network helping to build and connect all-ages music spaces in many places; or La Luz del Mundo providing social support and resources to their brethren anywhere; or SOS artists with cohorts in Seattle, or Beaverton or Surrey, BC. New assemblages are happening at every scale, and the borders they cross or blur are multiple — regional, local, city/suburb, as often as national. Read Sassen.