And now, to follow up my earlier teaser: I’m excited to announce that my colleague Eric Gordon and I will be teaching a new, experimental class at Emerson College on exploring, imagining, and building civic places in real and virtual spaces. The class was born of an idea hatched by the City of Boston to develop vibrant, virtual civic spaces. And what better way to foster civic life than to invite members of the community to build it for themselves?
We have several goals in offering this class:
- Examine the intersection among group identity, creation of meaning-space, and civic engagement
- Test Second Life as a tool to stretch participants’ imagination about spaces and groups
- Establish the foundation for an ongoing program working with different civic groups across Boston, including youth
Much like CyberOne, there will be a “traditional” class, taught by Eric, and an “open” class, taught by myself. The two classes will run in tandem, with the two groups collaborating on a continuous basis. Here is the description of my class. The flyer explains what the class is about; here is what it is not:
- It is not a class about technology and Second Life, although participants will learn how to use Second Life and other tools.
- It is not a theoretical class about urban design or political sociology, although sound theory underlies much of the work of the class; participants are expected to engage actively with residents of Boston neighborhoods.
- It is not a “check-in/check-out’ class; we want participants to stretch themselves intellectually and socially, and we expect them to make practical use of what they learn in the class with their own constituents.
To make the class accessible to as many Boston organizations and individuals as possible, Emerson has cut the tuition of my class to only $431 for the 12-week course, which includes access to Emerson’s computer labs. It is my hope that we will be able to engage many of the communities and neighborhoods in Boston who are wrestling with issues about civic engagement and public space. Update: This class is now FREE thanks to the financial support of the Boston Redevelopment Authority. Hooray!
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