Assignment 1: Reading and Synthesizing Core Terminology (2018)
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Time frame
- March 19 – June 20, 2018
Rationale
This assignment consists of a sequence of individual and group activities aimed at mapping, exploring and deepening your knowledge of critical concepts and theories associated with landscape democracy and the agency of planners and designers in promoting democratic landscape change/preservation decision-making. This will become the core knowledge that you will take away from this seminar and apply in your future as a professional and individual. Elements of this assignment
- You will begin this assignment by drafting a landscape democracy visual manifesto representing your personal understanding of the relationship of landscape and democracy before the seminar start;
- Integral part of this assignment consists of familiarizing yourself with a selection of seminar readings from which you will be asked to identify core concepts and definitions of those concepts which will be shared with the rest of the class on the wiki.
- By the end of the course, you will be ask to revise your landscape democracy visual manifesto integrating new concepts and experiences gained by yourself during the seminar.
Your ‘Landscape Democracy’ visual manifesto
- Start: March 21, 2018
- Due: March 27, 2018
MANIFESTO [man-uh-fes-toh], noun, plural manifestoes. A public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.
In your manifesto, you will express your very personal and individual beliefs and understanding of landscape democracy before the seminar start. Your collage should include the following elements:
- Visual evidence (photography etc) of landscape democracy challenges in your context and/or home country. You are invited to refer to your everyday environment.
- Your personal understanding of the relation of landscape and democracy. This could take the form of a concept map with linking words or any other diagrammatic representation.
- You can combine both elements to one collage, or divide it into 2-3 units.
Submission:
- Upload your collages to the wiki until March 27, 2018
- login to the wiki and use the upload area for adding your material.
Readings, concepts and definitions
- Start: March 28, 2018
- Due: June 20, 2018
Each seminar phase is supported by a selection of readings linking the lectures and activities to relevant theories and methodologies. In addition to reading the core articles assigned for each of the seminar phases, every group will select at least one article per participant to further explore with the goal to define a core set of concepts. For each group, the selected articles will cover the entire theory base of the course, i.e. landscape concepts, legal frameworks and policy documents for public participation in the landscape context, participation and community planning theory. Depending on the number of participants each group will process 3-5 readings. Of course, students will be able to suggest additional readings throughout the course of the seminar.
Sequence of Activities
- Group members select their readings by April 18, 2018
- Each group member selects three relevant concepts derived from his/her readings and synthesize them/publish them on the wiki by May 9, 2018
- Group members reflect within their groups and define their chosen concepts into a shared definition to be posted on the wiki by June 6, 2018.
- Other group members will be able to comment on the definitions
- Each group will also report on their process to come to a set of shared definitions of key landscape democracy concepts on the wiki documentation until June 20, 2018
Evaluation criteria
- Timely completion of activities
- conceptual depth and logical argumentation of concept definitions
- Adequate level of abstraction
Revision of your ‘Landscape Democracy’ visual manifesto
Start: June 20, 2018 Due: June 22, 2018
In this assignment you will revisit the collage you have produced at the beginning of the seminar.
- Which concepts and concept relationships would you add to it now?
- Have you discovered any new landscape democracy challenges in your personal environment?
Update your work according to new and improved knowledge and understanding after the seminar.
Submission: Upload your revised collages to the wiki until June 22, 2018