All is ready for our upcoming meeting in Almada, on 21 and 22 November, and with the following program:
Agenda for Almada, Writing Urban Places WG3 and WG4 meeting: Methods for case studies
November 21, 2019 – Casa da Cerca, Almada
9.30-10.00: Participants reception, signing attendance list.
10.00-10.30: Welcome by Prof. Carlos Dias Coelho, President of Faculty of Architecture – Lisbon University. Klaske Havik and Susana Oliveira: main topics and state of affairs.
10.30-11.30: Presentation of the ongoing work of WG2 to WG3 and WG4, by Klaske Havik.
Theoretical framework: definitions and concepts
Which definition of theory behind our theoretical framework?
How to deal with the plurality of fields of knowledge involved in Writing Urban Places?
What is a mid-size city?
What is to be expected theoretically from the case-study cities?
How do we respond to the ideas of meaningfulness, appropriation, and Integration?
11.30-12.00: Coffee-break
12.00-13.00: Relay of the ongoing work of WG3 to WG4
Methodological framework: methods and strategies
Which definition of methodology behind our methodological framework?
What is the scope of methodologies in this action?
How to consider the differences between analytical and projective methods?
How will these relate to specific contexts and involve local institutions and stakeholders?
13.00-14.00: Lunch, Casa da Cerca
14.00-15.30: Presentation and discussion of pool of projects by WG4 members with WG3
Short presentations and collective discussion (up to 10 min. per case study with comments) by WG4 participants of case-studies projects to approach the scope of fieldwork possibilities.
15.30-16.00: Coffee-break
16.00-18.00: Shared discussion and conclusions.
Tentative first answers to the fieldwork of Writing Urban Places: definitions of mid-size city,
proposed analytical and projective methods, and involvement of local contexts.
Discussion of how to manage the research of case-study cities (not funded by COST) with the existing partner academic institutions, stakeholders and ongoing research projects.
Draft of criteria for the case-study cities to include in Writing Urban Places and how to instruct the applications.
Discussion about the date, place and general topic for the next meeting.
November 22, 2019 – Casa da Cerca, Almada
9.30-10.00: Participants reception, signing attendance list.
10:00-10:45: Presentation of exhibition project Almada, a territory in 6 ecologies by Luis Santiago Baptista (WG4).
10.45-11.15: Presentation of the Atlas of Literary Landscapes project by Natália Constâncio (WG3).
11.15-11.45: Coffee-break
11:45-12:30: Crossing close and distant reading: the Atlas project methodology, by Daniel Alves (WG3).
12:30-14:00: Lunch, Casa da Cerca
14:00-16:00: Writing and reading places: a literary trail through Cais do Ginjal, from Casa da Cerca to Cacilhas with Ana Isabel Queiroz (WG3)
Literature, memory and territory: an Atlas of Literary Landscapes of mainland Portugal
workshop description:
The Atlas of Literary Landscapes is a collaborative project, the work of nearly 50 readers / researchers; interdisciplinary, crossing knowledge of the Humanities, the Environmental Sciences and the Computer
Sciences; digital, using tools and methodologies from the digital humanities for data collection, analysis and dissemination. It is based at NOVA-FCSH, having been created and coordinated by Ana Isabel Queiroz until 2018 and from that date by Natália Constâncio (IELT) and Daniel Alves (IHC).
Its objectives are to link literature to the territory, valuing the literary works and the landscapes represented in them; contribute to the knowledge of the natural and cultural heritage; study the ecological and historical patterns and processes associated with current landscapes; and contribute for environmental literacy and tourism.
The workshop aims to present the project and its results, demonstrating the application of its methodology. In order to build its corpus, the research begins by analyzing literary works from the 19th century to the present day, searching their descriptions of landscapes of mainland Portugal, referring them to a territorial unit or a place and classifying the descriptions according to a matrix of categories and themes of interpretation on relief, land use, natural heritage, cultural heritage and human activities. All information is compiled in a shared database that serves as the basis for mapping by literary works, writers, themes and geographical areas.
The workshop also leads those attending the meeting to explore how the Portuguese novelist Romeu Correia (1917-1996) depicted the area near Casa da Cerca, going back to its industrial past in the 20th century. The ruins of that time are still visible in the area. As the place has been part of a rehabilitating project that will take place in the next few years, the participants of the literary trail will be invited to think on its memory and identity, as part of an economic, social and environmental vision for reinventing Tagus’ Southbank.
