Critical Phenomenology and Process Geography as Praxis: Tracing the Morphogenetic Constellations and Possible Worlds of our Social Formations

Keywords: Critical phenomenology, morphogenetic urban theory, process geography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 70

Abstract

Social theory and method, with its extended critical turn, has been confronting structure, culture and agency in new ways that can recognize difference and the possibilities of unified wholes. From my work in cultural and urban theory, I present a post-post-structural method - a putative “process geography” - that can unite the inter-relational socio-spatial dialectics of critical geography with the lived and expressed forms and moments of critical phenomenology. Through methods attuned to space, topos, phenomenology, and cultural production, I introduce a new way of applying complexity theory relevant to the scale of human social formation and the flux of human events. In doing so, I suggest how we may formally trace the constellations of cultural infrastructure - the patterns and centers of actual occurrences in their spatial and temporal extensions ranging from kinetic junctures of psycho-physical and social impact to the cumulative connected combination of inter-relations. This type of process method connects a “horizontal” axis assessing the morphological structures of social space with a “vertical” axis centering an assessment of the temporal experience of the lived space. Through my research from Central City Los Angeles and on-going work in Oakland, I highlight how we can begin deploying such process geography method as part of a critical morphogenetic theory to orient us within the otherwise terra incognita of relativism and provide a ground of possible futures empowered by the creative spark of differences emerging in our praxis towards social change.