- Nov 2015
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newclasses.nyu.edu newclasses.nyu.edu
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Equity-oriented scale-making projects involve interrupting the flows of people,technologies, and practices that comprise entrenched systems. These interruptionsmatter for what becomes consequential learning for individuals and communitiesand for the development of social and cultural practices. The staff at FreshRootsare challenging how the scale—the social, temporal, and spatial reach—of thelocal food economy has negatively affected and further marginalized the residentsof North Place
I wonder if this could be the difference that Jasmine was hinting at. Vossoughi and Gutierrez argue that multi-sited observations are an analytical tool to help the researcher understand the context of any type learning. Here, Jurrow and Shea are specifically interested in educational interventions that work to create a more just society. Scale making is about understanding how marginalized populations learn within and overcome entrenched injustices.
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Our use of the termscalerefers to the system oftemporal, social, and spatial relations in which that thing exists and has meaning.We use scale making as an analytic lens to studyhowpeople are thinking across
I think the key here is across - which is how it relates to the Vossoughi and Gutierrez. To really understand the full system of a subject's temporal, social, and spatial relations, you need to observe across multiple sites.
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Therefore, in our analyses of these projects we approached themnot as the outcome of some ideal plan but as embedded in historic practices thatgenerate possibilities for transformation.
I think this kind of speaks to the multi-sited idea of horizontal forms of learning. It's not that you move from A to B and then you're done, it's not so "planned." You may move from A to G to B back to A and then to J and on and on.
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Coordinating between shifting sociospatial and temporal dimensions of prac-tices and people’s participation in these practices is fundamental to organizingconsequential learning and is an important dimension of equity-oriented scale-making efforts
This idea is very similar to the multi-sited piece. It is important to be aware of all these possible shifts (which are the same in both pieces-time, space, place) and how participants' individual histories can affect these shifts. I think both pieces argue that we have something to learn from these histories that then suggest learning is a cultural process of accumulating varying histories. This section links up really well with the multi-sited perspective that "Interpretive research, therefore, involves working to understand participants’ meaning perspectives on their own terms, rather than imposing external or normative categories" (619). I guess put really, really simply: what can we learn from others? How can we improve based on what we learn? And of course, that marginalized participant's perspectives are worth looking at.
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Thescale-making project has also created new forms of expertise in the neighbor-hood exemplified in the practices of thepromotoras,who have developed a newlyvalued skill set, including how to design and grow gardens, communicate with amultilingual group of residents with a range of experiences with gardening, listenand respond to resident concerns, and organize for collective action
It happened! Multisited ethnography providing evidence for multisited learning! Good for the promotoras, adding on top of the aforementioned grant!
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This expansion, fueled by the cofoundersof the nonprofit’s desire to improve food access for a broader population in theneighborhood, has been met with some frustration on the part of thepromotoras,who value the focus on the Mexican community
This was the opportunity for a real multi-sited learning as the different practices accros cultures are to be shared, but then the researchers leave the place. Missed opportunity, sure.
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Power is deeplyimplicated in both of these tensions, and because power is not fixed but embodiedin social practices, it is to these practices that we must attend
I'm happy the authors explicitly discuss the dynamics of power and tensions in practices, especially in regards to my earlier comment. Because of my position toward equity and social justice, I think it's incredibly important to consider power, centrality, and marginalization when looking at multi-sited work and practices across space, cultural, and historical circumstances.
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A scale perspective on these changes draws attentionto the ways in which practices not only are social and historical but also have spa-tial dimensionality, which affects how practices are made to become consequentialover time and across contexts.
This scale perspective focuses on the spatial dimensions of practices in addition to the social and historical aspects, this definitely relates to multi-sited work. I also think there is a dynamic of power/privilege and centrality/marginalization happening here. Which is also discussed in the multi-sited article, specifically as movement mediated by power dynamics.
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there is a transformation in the scale relations defining com-munity. Caring and responsive relationships between residents working with thenonprofit and community members have developed over multiple years in andacross the privacy of people’s homes and gardens.
This example of scale making illuminates the work that the people are doing to across idea flows, practices, and space for equity. At this point, I'm understanding multi-sited work in relation to this article to almost be like intersectionality or the multiplicity of identities. Scale is a system of different relations (temporal, social, spatial...) that seem to intersect or exist simultaneously. Or maybe not?
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