Situationist Pedagogy and Curriculum Studies

• In Event: 58.083 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 58.083-11 - Innovative Pedagogical Approaches for the 21st Century

Abstract

This proposal is about the critical spatial critiques, theories, and practices of the Situationist International, a European avant-garde group that existed from 1957 to 1972. The proposal discusses psychogeography (the study of how geographical environments affect one’s emotions and behaviors; the dérive (transgressive “drifting” through cityscapes in search of pleasurable psychogeographical environments); constructing situations (the creation of momentary ambiences of life and their transformation into a superior passional quality); and unitary urbanism (critique of functionalist architecture and rationalized urban planning, intertwined with a theory of creating “unitary” urban environments and architecture based on desires and pleasures). The proposal articulates these theories and practices with Curriculum Studies.

Author

• James Trier, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill