Investigating the Atmosphere at the Collegium Helveticum
This is a brief virtual interview with me based on my investigation of the Atmosphere during my Senior Fellowship at the Collegium Helveticum. This is the original submission, published in a slightly shortened version in the Annual Report of the Collegium Helveticum 2024.
Why did you choose to investigate the Atmosphere of the Collegium Helveticum?
My current geographical research interest focuses on the affective and emotional meaning of places, and how people experience these places, or short: on what places do to people and what people do with places. The functionality of a place is one thing but the ‘atmosphere’ of a place is another thing. The atmosphere often makes the real difference for places to be effective. As a scientist I am very interested in academic places, and what makes them successful. The Collegium was, therefore, a great opportunity to study this academic hotspot.
Can you explain what you mean by Atmosphere?
Atmosphere is a concept coined by phenomenologists, like Hermann Schmitz and Gernot Böhme, which describes not just the individual feelings of a person at a specific place, but the full assemblage of different aspects such as individual emotions and moods, as well as aesthetic qualities of the material setting, the cultural heritage of the place and background of the people using it as well as the social interactions which take place at such a location.
Does the Atmosphere at the Collegium differ substantially from other academic places such as usual university departments?
Yes, this was a bit of a surprise to me, that most fellows stated that this is a huge difference. Again, maybe not functionally but mainly atmospherically. So an office is not just an office… The Collegium is e.g. very special because of its multidisciplinary nature, implying that most fellows are from different disciplines, and therefore are not direct disciplinary peers. Of course, at a common university Department one might be collaborating with nice disciplinary colleagues, but implicitly they are to a certain degree also competitors. At the Collegium you only deal with fellows from other disciplines, who are very respectful even though they sometimes can pose uneasy questions, because of their different perspectives. This creates a very open and relaxed atmosphere, which makes it easy to focus and be productive, while the uneasy questions also stimulate creativity and open new horizons. It provides a real free space.
Is this the same for all fellows?
No, of course not, every fellow, enters the Collegium in a specific mood, which affects how the atmosphere is experienced, and which might also vary from day to day or from the beginning of the fellowship to the end of the fellowship. I, e.g. also interviewed a fellow who broad the tense and competitive mood which she was used to from her regular department with her into the Collegium, and did not experience the Collegium as a special liberating place. Another fellow, because of the cultural traditions from her home country, found it less easy to accommodate to the atmosphere at the collegium, even though for her as well this was a horizon-widening experience. So the mood in which they experience the atmosphere is very individual and often also changes throughout their fellowship at the Collegium.
This all seems to be about social relations and less about the place itself…
The Collegium is located at an iconic place. The former Observatory at which the Collegium is at home is constitutive of the atmosphere. It is a beautiful place, but, in comparison with regular university buildings, also a bit awkward, with its many unusual multi-purpose rooms, its roof terrace and exhibition basement. But that, like the uneasy questions of the other fellows, provokes alternative ways of doing and thinking. The aesthetics relate to the original ideal of a research university (‘Bildungsideal’). The long spiral staircase climbing up to the main observatory had a strong symbolic meaning for most fellows. They associated it somehow with the ivory tower, but also with disorientation in the positive sense of the word. Also, the open and friendly office of the director of the Collegium, where many meetings among fellows took place, played a special role in setting the Collegium atmosphere. Sometimes, beyond working time, one could also hear the soft cello music resounding from that room, as part of the homely atmosphere of that place. The whole building and place is perceived as an oasis within the dense University Quarter of Zurich. The materiality and aesthetics of the place are not separable from the events and people inhabiting the building. The shared offices provoke an atmosphere of community, and as one fellow expressed it: “If one did not hear the loud laughter of one of the this-years fellows one would really miss it”. At the same time, the building allows moments of seclusion and concentration, like during a yoga session on the rooftop terrace, or in the library in the basement. The total atmosphere at the Collegium is, therefore, a real assemblage of different sub-atmospheres in different parts of the premises, which are at the same time also part of the atmosphere in the University Quarter, the city as a whole, while also representing a bit of typical ‘Swissness’.
Does this research on the atmosphere also provide hints for further improvements at the Collegium?
Because of the many different aspects which play a role in the atmosphere of the Collegium, there are no single measures of which one can easily predict the impact. The current style in which the Collegium is run, with its focus on academic freedom and respectful informality, stands out for all fellows as a very positive contribution to the good atmosphere at the Collegium. Some fellows suggested, that in the internal debates, one could link up a bit more with current topical societal situations, like the Gaza war, giving the atmosphere a stronger touch of societal relevance. Many also suggested that the events taking place at the Collegium or which are initiated by the Collegium deserved a much more prominent place in the communication strategy of the participating universities or even of the City of Zurich, as a means to highlight and carry the very special academic atmosphere of the Collegium and the related (academic) reflections to a wider audience.
Böhme, G. (1993) Atmosphere as the Fundamental Concept of a New Aesthetics. Thesis Eleven. Vol. 36. pp. 113-126. Schmitz, H. (2016) «Atmospheric Spaces». Ambiances, http://journals.openedition.org/ambiances/711
On November 5th, 2024 I had the honour to serve as reviewer and opponent of the PhD thesis at the public defence of Dirk-Jan Laan at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam on “How to get where we are. A genealogy of the road” in the field of Philosophy,
This multidisciplinary PhD Thesis is positioned at the interface between Philosophy, History, Geography and Spatial Planning and focusses on the road, as an emergent phenomenon developing into a directed and commonly shared route, material landscape, institutional arrangement and power geometry. It also combines different theoretical frameworks, while strongly emphasising a Foucauldian genealogical analysis. At the same time, it ogles with relational approaches, as well as with more philosophical conceptual (de)constructions This focus on the road as a key phenomenon instead of just focusing on the places or origin or destination fits very well to the very topical ‘Mobility Approach’ as also often applied in the field of Geography and Mobility Studies.
The PhD Defence attracted quite some attention from different media, e.g. on radio as well as in the ‘young talents’ section of the Newspaper ‘NRC-Handelsblad’. There Sjoerd de Jong described it as follows (my free translation into English):
‘Being on the road is not a necessary evil, but a way in which you learn how to discover and get to know the world’
Young learned Philosopher Dirk-Jan Laan likes to be on the road. His dissertation is therefore about ‘the road’, in a literal sense. ‘Ideally, we would teleport ourselves, then we would be rid of travelling,’ he says.
Photos by Roger Cremers
No, he doesn’t like sitting still very much. His PhD at Rotterdam’s Erasmus University has only just been completed and Dirk-Jan Laan is already hitting the road again. This time for a walking tour of several months through New Zealand. After his high school exams, he had already spent six months travelling around there. ‘I wasn’t able to finish that trip then due to injuries, but so we are going to do that now,’ He says.
Meanwhile, he has also become a tour guide and would also like to explore the world as a bartender, or cleaner. His CV underlines the itinerant nature of the young doctor (32): long treks through Wales, Iceland, and Japan. With a friend, he wrote a philosophical book about a hitchhiking trip to Hong Kong, A Philosophy for Being on the Move (2022).
Why the Wanderlust? ‘It was in there from an early age. Once, when I was six, my father said we were going to sleep under the stars, I was ready with my rolled-up sleeping bag at five in the morning.’ The effect? ‘Walking gets you into a meditative rhythm. It’s no longer about the idea of going somewhere, but about being on the road. It’s a penetrating way to experience the world.’
Now he sat still for a long time, for his PhD dissertation on ‘The Road’ – not that one of Tao, but literally, on the roads of 17th-century England, on the cusp of the industrial revolution through to modern motorways. ‘I wanted to explore where our current roads come from,’ he says. Drawing on historical case studies and philosophers such as Foucault and Deleuze, Laan examines how ‘the road’ changed its character from the eighteenth century onwards. From a ‘right’ of passage managed by a community, it increasingly became a means for elites and governments to ‘discipline’ mobility and human bodies, with rules and regulations. At the same time, increased mobility produced a great subjective sense of freedom and new possibilities. ‘Like that, I could come here quickly now to talk about my dissertation. A hundred years ago, that would have taken two days.’
More traffic on worse roads Laan chose England because social and technological developments came together nicely there: the containment of common land (and roads), the advent of railways and, in the 20th century, the construction of motorways. ‘In the 18th century, roads were already being used more and more intensively, making them worse to walk on. This led to irritation among business and political elites, because it took time, and in emerging capitalism, time was money. At that point, you can see a clash in England between that new efficiency thinking and an older, more communal and pastoral thinking about the road as a link between communities.’ From a ‘right’, the road became a ring-fenced piece of land, managed by elites and governments, with maintenance paid for by tolls.
That process of regulation had a parallel in the rapid proliferation of enclosures, the private subdivision of land hitherto worked in common. Common land gave way to private ownership and official control. ‘Many people fell out with that land division. So you got a working class without property, which was needed for the factories.’ That too led to a different handling of space and more regulation. Additional consequence: increased mobility. ‘Foucault also points that out. As a motorist, you are constricted by all kinds of regulations, figuratively and literally. But you experience it as freedom.’
Meanwhile, dealing with the modern road also grinds and creaks. Laan’s thesis ends up being an overview of the problems with contemporary mobility, traffic deaths and traffic jams problems with contemporary mobility, traffic deaths and traffic jams. On that, he lacks deeper reflection. ‘Very concrete goals are set within a certain framework. Fewer traffic jams. But you have to ask yourself whether our approach to the road as access to the world could be very different. Especially with a view to climate and sustainability.’ Laan participated in some of Extinction Rebellion’s highway blockades.
The Ministry of Transport is interested
So what does he suggest? ‘I was asked that during the PhD too. I don’t have any ready-made recipes; as a philosopher, I mainly want to question self-evidences. Open up new ways of thinking about our way of mobility and interaction with the world. We have come to see the road as a necessary evil: being on the road should be over as soon as possible. Ideally, we would like to teleport ourselves. But being on the road is also the way we discover the world. The places you visit, the space between them and the people you meet have their own value.’
Of course, he himself is curious ‘what practical impact my work can have’. The start is there: Rijkswaterstaat has already shown interest in his research. Meanwhile, Laan, who got his degree as an external PhD student, is picking up his work again as a programmer (he prefers to say, less one-dimensionally, ‘someone who programs’) at consultancy firm Quintens, which advises governments and companies on sustainability. But first the road beckons – to somewhere else. After academic work, Laan needs to get out of his ‘bubble’ again. ‘One of the theses accompanying my dissertation was that philosophers should focus more on the world and less on each other. This also applies to public philosophers, which often remains a bit of self-help philosophy anyway. It’s best to philosophise more firmly, people can handle that.’
WHO IS DIRK-JAN LAAN?
– Year of birth
1992
– Year of birth
1992
– He lives
In Deventer. ‘It hee a good train connection and we found affordable housing there. Neither my girlfriend nor I are tied to a place for work, she is American and works as a tour guide.’
– Also likes
‘Creative work, gardening, woodworking, drawing. Also on the road.’
– Craziest hiking experience
‘A railway line in Albania, which local residents also just used as a road, as used to be common elsewhere in Europe.’
On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at 16:30, I presented my Valedictory Lecture entitled:
Reflections on Academic Placemaking
In this lecture, I reflected on the way we in our Geography Group, which I had the honour to chair for the last 25 years, have been working on creating an inspiring, fruitful and critically engaged academic atmosphere in contrast to many neo-liberal and managerial tendencies from which the university suffers. I show how this academic placemaking is well rooted in the basic principles of scientific formation universities are set up for.
It meant a lot to me that so many former and current students, colleagues and dear friends attended this event and that they expressed their thanks and appreciation.
The full text of the valedictory lecture is available here. The video footage can be viewed here. In this blog entry, I limit myself to just a few visual impressions of this academic ceremony, which, finally, is also a contribution to academic placemaking:
Farewell Symposium
Prior to this lecture, the Geography Group organised a small Farewell Symposium for me on the topic I am currently researching and on issues that have always been very dear to me. I feel very honoured and grateful to the Geography Group, for this fine gesture of ‘affection’. The title of the symposium was:
It is a Matter of Affect: Social Theory and Geographical Thought
This symposium was designed to think with the affective turn in Geography critically, and it was centred around a couple of questions:
What social theories (can) deal with affect and space (even if they are not associated with the affective turn?)
Why does affect matter? In other words, what are the critical and political elements of affect?
How can we work with affect and space, in terms of teaching and research methods?
Session 1: What is Affect, what does it add to critical thinking in Geography?
Prof. Anke Strüver (University of Graz): Affective Spaces and/in Domestic Work
Dr. Wolfgang Zierhofer (former Assoc. Prof. in Geography): Geography’s ‘Dissociative Identity Disorder’
Prof. Gert-Jan Hospers (Radboud University): Being Alone Together: Third Places from an Affective Turn Perspective
Session 2: Affect, atmosphere and politics
Dr. Alana Osbourne & Dr. Harry Pettit (Radboud University): The Political Lives of Urban Affect
Dr. Bettina van Hoven (University of Groningen): Affects, Arts and Didactics
Prof. Benno Werlen (Friedrich Schiller University Jena): Geography of Action – Action as Geographical Reality
Finally, as a big surprise my daughter, Michèle Ernste (University of Basle), gave a presentation entitled: Many Things to Say, reflecting on the academic placemaking within the family and the role of affective atmospheres in her disciplinary field, Archaeology.
Placemaking is the central topic in geography and on this website. Places are often seen as rather stable locations. But many places are in reality vibrantly dynamic and constantly on the move. Places are not just made by their material characteristics but especially also by the events taking place there. Street Markets count to these kinds of events. There are much more dynamics and mobilities in evolved in these street markets than the temporality of the markets or the temporality of the involvement of street vendors suggests.
This is what Emil van Eck analysed in his PhD thesis, which he successfully defended on the 29th of February, 2024 . In face of a panel of prominent opponents consisting of Prof. Susan Watson (Open University, UK), Dr. Fenne Pinkster (University of Amsterdam, NL), Prof. Stijn Oosterlynck (University of Antwerp, B), Prof. Joseph Pierce, (University of Aberdeen, Scottland), Prof. Arnoud Lagendijk (Radboud University, NL), and Prof. Ellen van Bueren (Technical University Delft, NL) and Prof. Tim Cresswell (University of Edinburgh, Scottland), the latter two as members of the special assessment committee judging the distinction, he did a more than outstanding job, which was honoured with the distinction Cum Laude. This made the full supervising (Prof. Huib Ernste, Dr Rianne van Melik, Dr Joris Schapendonk) team very proud, although it was Emil who did it… It was certainly also a product of a stimulating and inspiring academic setting in which Emil could thrive and to which he also contributed.
The title of his PhD thesis is
Public Space in Endless Motion. The politics of markets in the Netherlands.
If you click on the title image, you can download the full thesis. Outdoor markets represent important public spaces of trade, consumption and social connections. Studies within urban geography and sociology have typically examined the social interactions between market visitors to argue about the role of public space in fostering tolerance and civic engagement. Almost all these studies focus on how such social dynamics develop within markets. This reading is the bread and butter of the politics of public space everywhere, but it also a restrictive interpretation of politics. This dissertation approaches public space politics as the broader power relations between people and institutions that involve negotiations over the terms that govern the use of and access to public space. By documenting the lives of market traders who work on two different markets in the Netherlands, this research sheds a light on the relatively hidden discursive channels, global-to-local policy circuits and mobility practices that are entangled in the politics of markets. The research findings challenge the inclusive characteristics of markets by revealing how racialised policies, multinational legislation and unequal gender relations impede access to markets for certain traders. The dissertation concludes that we need to look beyond the boundaries of public spaces to fully understand issues of inclusion, access and equality.
The integration of refugees in host countries is not easy. There are many institutional hurdles to be overcome. There are many reasons to try to change these institutional hurdles and to create more humane policies to integrate refugees. This is of all ages and all places. Another strategy is to empower the refugees to deal with these hurdles, and to deal with all the effects these procedures have on the mental health of the refugees. One well-documented effective way to empowerment is a positive psychological attitude. However, this is a typical Western concept and one can question if this is also applicable to people from other cultural realms. Building on these ideas José Muller developed a unique new culturally sensitive intervention called MOSAIC for specifically Syrian refugees in the Netherlands, and evaluated its effects in a large field experiment allowing the refugees to develop such a positive psychological attitude. This project was a truly multidisciplinary project in which psychiatrists intensely cooperated with geographers as well as with those responsible for municipal refugee policies. This was in many respects, e.g. institutionally, culturally, and linguistically a real challenge, which José horicly mastered. She was supervised by Prof. Huib Ernste, Prof. Mario Braakman as well as Dr. Pascal Beckers
On Monday, February 26, 2024, José Muller successfully defended her PhD thesis with the title:
Unlocking the Potential of Refugees: An intervention to foster the mental health, economic participation and social networks of Syrian refugees in the Netherlands
If you click on the title image, you can download the full thesis.
The back cover text summarises the results: The number of people worldwide who were forced to flee their homes is unprecedently high. The European Union, including the Netherlands, is an important destination for refugees. The need to facilitate the newcomers in building up their new lives in receiving societies is therefore high.
Within these receiving societies, the labour market outcomes of refugees generally lag behind those of other migrant groups and autochthones. Research shows that mental health is an important predictor in explaining this gap. Refugees frequently experience mental health problems, which hinder their chances of having paid employment. However, in the integration trajectories offered by Dutch municipalities, there is little attention to the mental health of refugees.
To fill this gap, a new intervention “Mosaic” was developed and implemented in six municipalities in the Netherlands. The intervention was developed in close collaboration with the target group -Syrian refugees- and relevant regional stakeholders. The intervention is based on positive psychology, making it the first positive psychology intervention for refugees. The aim of the intervention is to help Syrian refugees building up their new lives in the Netherlands and to help them improve their mental health, economic participation and social networks. During the implementation of the intervention, data was collected to evaluate the effect of the intervention.
This book describes the development of the intervention and the results of the effectiveness research. This book adds to the literature on positive psychology, (the development of) culturally sensitive mental health care and refugee integration. It is therefore useful for scholars, practitioners and policymakers working on these topics.
On November 6, 2023, Mohamed Munas, working at the CEPA The Centre for Poverty Analysis, a Sri Lankan think-tank promoting a better understanding of poverty-related development issues, successfully defended his PhD thesis on “Reconnections”: Complexities of diaspora engagement in post-war Sri Lanka. If you click on the cover of his thesis you can download the full text.
During the civil war in Sri Lanka, many people left the country but supported and kept in close contact with their former communities, which sometimes represented a certain side of the conflict. After peace returned to the country, these relationships changed. Sometimes redirecting the support to other or less distinct communities and sometimes also reproducing breaks and divisions, both in the diaspora- as well as in the ‘home’ communities. This sparked the main research question of this PhD thesis: How does collective diasporic transnationalism influence the sustainability and stability of the recovery process in post-war Sri Lanka?
This research views diasporic transnational practices as a large social phenomenon and situates them in a broader practice theory framework, especially within the Schatzkian concept of site ontology, to understand the multi-sited transnational diaspora activity and the social connections between different sites of performance. This research contributes to both policy and academic discourses on spatial and temporal elements of diaspora engagement in post-war societies. The affection and belongingness that diasporas possess with communities in places of origin led to complex forms of interactions at multiple sites and also questioned and developed further the concept of diasporic communities. The research finds that transnational diaspora engagement practices are bundled with wider social, and contextual dynamics at play linked to multiple sites evaluated. They therefore contribute to multi-sited and transnational processes of ‘placemaking’.
Mohamed Munas was challenged by the opponents during the defence, but very sovereignly responded to, and in some cases also thoroughly deconstructed the questions posed. A great defence and a well-deserved degree.
Below, you get an impression of the typical PhD Defence procedures at Radboud University.
Alma Mater is the Latin term for one’s former school or institution of formation, the ‘mother who nourished us intellectually’. In my case, I did not follow any of the schools or universities I visited from beginning to end. So what is my Alma Mater? I started my academic schooling at the University of Groningen, to which I still feel very attached. But my academic career really started at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technolgy in Zurich (‘Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich’ (ETHZ)’), where I did my PhD, and worked for almost 17 years as what we now would call an ‘assistant professor’ and ‘associate professor’, until I was appointed as full professor at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in 1998. It is at the ETH where my real intellectual interests and inspiration were ignited. So I guess, that justifies, that I call it my Alma Mater.
The ETH is an exceptionally high-esteemed research university, with a strong intellectual heritage, exemplified by e.g. 21 Nobel Prize laureates until 2019. It is about as large as the Radboud University in Nijmegen in student numbers, but has a budget of almost 2 billion Euros every year (Radboud has a budget of a bit less than 700 million Euros). This provides a lot of space for free curiosity-driven scientific explorations and debate. I still very well remember the extended lunches with PhD candidates and colleagues, where we spontaneously discussed whatever was topical at that time, and where we jointly ‘solved’ many world problems 🙂 The perfect breeding ground for my burgeoning intellectual interests.
It is a bit of a coincidence, that I will be able to end my academic career (I will get the status of emeritus, next summer, 2024), with a research stay from March 2024 onward, at my former Alma Mater in Zurich. During this research stay, I will serve as a senior fellow at the Collegium Helveticum at the ETH in Zurich. Although this is just a coincidence, it gives the feeling that this rounds the circle.
The Collegium Helveticum is an Institute for Advanced Study. It is jointly supported and operated by the ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and the Zurich University of the Arts. It is dedicated to transdisciplinary research and acts as a joint think tank or a forum for dialogue between academics, the aim of which was to promote mutual understanding between the natural sciences and technology on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. Currently, the fellowship programme of the Collegium Helveticum focuses on «Epistemologies of Aesthetic Practices», along with some individual inter- and transdisciplinary projects on selected topics. My current research on ‘the affective or aesthetic aspects of urban places’ fits nicely into this programme. But is certainly is also a challenge and joy to explain one’s neo-phenomenological approach to colleagues from disciplines like particle physics or medical sciences, etc. …
The Collegium Helveticum is housed in the former observatory designed by the famous architect and ETH professor for architecture, Gottfried Semper (1803–1879), and was extensively restored in 1997. It is an iconic building, at the centre of the ETH and University campus, with seminar and exhibition rooms, located close to the largest scientific libraries of Switzerland.
At the occasion of the welcome of our new Rector Magnificus, Prof. José Sanders, I present this short reflection on a vision for the future of Dutch Universities in general and of the Radboud University in particular. Tuesday, October 17, 2023 our University also celebrates its 100th anniversary, which is an extra reason to think about where we stand as university today. This reflection looks at the future of our university but is based on my own 25 years of experience as a professor and chair of the human geography group at our university and on the way I have tried to contribute to making this future of our university.
I will try to develop this reflection in several steps.
What Universities are for….
In which I will reflect on the main conception of what a university is supposed to be.
What Universities have become…
This will be the shortest part since I want to avoid lamenting about the current universities, which I believe is not very constructive.
What Universities can become…
Here I hope to develop some ideas of what university, in my personal view could become, and provide some examples of how one could modestly contribute to this future in the framework of our geographic discipline towards a more transformative university. But first, let us look at the conception of the university…
What Universities are for…
Universities are very peculiar organisations within our society. They have a long history which, according to Harold Perkin (2007, p. 159) reaches back to ‘Confucian schools for the Mandarin bureaucracy of imperial China, the Hindu gurukulas and Buddhist vihares for the priests and monks of medieval India, the madrasas for the mullahs and Quranic judges of Islam (see e.g. my entry on the University of Samarkand), the Aztec and Inca temple schools for priestly astronomers of pre-Columbian America, the Tokugawa han schools for Japanese samurai’ and the athenaeums and lyceums of ancient Greece monastic schools of early medieval Europe. In these early forms they served to provide higher education to train the ruling, priestly, military, and other service elites, and as Perkin (2007, p. 159) confirms, ‘taught the high culture, received doctrine, literary and/or mathematical skills of their political or religious masters, with little room for questioning or analyses’. Also in Europe and in the Netherlands the first Universities served these purposes (Ernste, 2007), but only in Europe did the University as a school of higher learning combining teaching and scholarship in several disciplines, represented in faculties, and with a certain degree of corporate autonomy and academic freedom emerge. The reason for this was not so much due to a hegemonic deliberate strategy which was forcefully implemented, but much more the accidental result of the chaotic and heavily contested circumstances which characterised Europe in the late Middle Ages. At those times civilisation was highly fragmented, divided and decentralised. Under these circumstances, it was difficult to identify one authority, doctrine or canon. It was rather a multi-layered and distributed patchwork of different forces and competing authorities. In these ‘interstices of power, the university could find a modestly secure niche, and play off one authority against another’ almost unintendedly, evolving into the liberal cosmopolitan university of today (Perkin, 2007, p. 160).
Without intending to violate the comparison with these days, one might think of current societal tendencies, such as populism, the waning trust in governmental authorities and in democratic institutions, the disrupting problems of climate change, geopolitics, identity politics or even culture wars, globalisation etc. as similar kind of circumstances, which might demand the creativity and leading role of today’s universities more than ever.
But before we expand our reflections to the future role of the university, let us first trace back the conception of today’s research university. The idea of the current research universities was not born in one day but emerged out of a multitude of tendencies, developments and occasions amounting at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century into the conception of the cosmopolitan liberal research university which finally really took off at the beginning of the 20th century*. In the late Middle Ages, the university emerged as an increasingly independent and autonomous intellectual force in society, in between church and state, built on the ruins of the medieval world order and its religious struggles. Universities at those times were not neutral but were entangled with and instrumentalised by different fractions, dividing them between reformers and conservatives, realists and nominalists, and between Aristolean and humanist schools of thinking. They were also somehow muddling through and navigating the persisting pluralist European landscape with its many rival dynastic states and other forces. In some places claiming freedom of thought was a way forward given the increasingly frustrating controversies. This freedom of thought was the basis for the new sceptical outlook associated with ‘Enlightenment’; ‘a critical, rationalistic view of the world that eschewed the emotional fanatism […] of the old doctrinal wars’ (Perkin. 2007, p. 173). Apart from these few enlightened exceptions in Scotland, the Netherlands and Germany most universities, however, were to a large degree still very much rooted in teaching some version of a rather traditional medieval curriculum, representing the ancient régime, without much relevance to modern life. In England, studying at university was thus increasingly seen as useless for practical life in modern times. In Germany, it was discussed whether universities did more harm than good and should be abolished. In France, in the course of the French Revolution, this was not just discussed but also done. Together with the awakening industrialisation, this set the scene for a total makeover of the university and the invention of the modern research university.
This invention of the modern research university can be traced back to two simultaneous parallel and independent developments in Scotland as well as in Germany. Instead of universities organised around regent masters who taught the whole traditional knowledge canon, the specialised single-subject professor was introduced, who was given the task of an active innovator of their specialised field, serving the needs of the industrialising society with its deepening division of labour and becoming leading in scientific and technological development as well as in the political-economic and social-scientific reflection on society. These professors did not just teach what they always taught, but needed to devote themselves to research delving into the yet unknown new knowledge as well. In addition, as some historians argue (Josephson, 2014; Wellmon, 2015), the emerging book market and changes in the public sphere contributed to the general literacy of the people and exposed professors to competition as authorities of knowledge, positioning them in a permanent exchange of ideas in academic writings and debate. This new conception of the university and the new role of professors also opened new and alternative sources of income and support for the university, highly welcomed because of the rather needing economic situation in Scotland and Germany at that time. These new universities were not the places where the happy few were privately taught (and privately paid for their education) anymore, but increasingly became institutions providing education and research as a public service to society and to the economy as a whole, to an increasing degree paid out of public funds. Education and research as public goods paid out of public funds.
When in Germany (Prussia) the more enlightened university of Halle was suppressed by the French after Napoleon’s victory at Jena and Auerstedt in 1806, and almost half of the Prussian kingdom fell to Napoleon, leaving Prussia suffering from heavy occupation costs and war reparations, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia tried to compensate for the material loss by boosting Prussia’s intellectual power. He appointed Wilhelm von Humboldt, the brother of the famous geographer Alexander von Humboldt (see also the legacy of Alexander von Humboldt at the Geography Department of the Radboud University), to initiate the reform of the Prussian educational system and the foundation of what is now the von Humboldt University of Berlin, according to these new enlightened ideas. The success of this reform attracted many new students from all over Europe and beyond. But probably even more important was the growing industrial, economic and political power and military strength of the German empire, fostered by the new educational system and the new orientation in university research. This gave this educational model almost paradigmatic status and carried it all over the world partly also in the vein of the global colonial expansion.
Wilhelm von Humboldt did not invent the new educational system and the modern research university from scratch but built his ideas on the shoulders of a number of other giants such as Herder, Fichte, Steffens, Goethe, Schiller, Pestalozzi, Kant and Schleiermacher. He elegantly synthesised their ideas and institutionalised and implemented them in the new educational system, even though his role was only acknowledged to an almost mythological level much later.
Humboldt’s model for education has become known as the German Education Ideal or what would probably be a better translation: ‘Formation Ideal’ (‘Bildungsideal’), combining the Humanism, Enlightenment and Idealism of his times. It was inspired by the Greek paideia as an early example of the comprehensive development of human spiritual, aesthetic and physical abilities with the aim of moulding a complete and harmonious citizen (Östling, 2018, p. 37). It also followed Johan Gottfried von Herder’s ideas of a dynamic open curriculum for the purpose of realising general human values. The basic principles of Humboldt’s educational model can be summarised as follows (Hastedt, 2012, p. 9-15):
The unrestricted subjective acquisition of knowledge in dialectical relation between the self and the surrounding culture and world will (trans)form each person’s personality in a holistic way and will transform the intellectual abilities towards general human values and to what is assumed to be a ‘better’ world. The subjective acquisition of knowledge refers to self-education or own free insights instead of just complying with imposed knowledge. The holistic aspect of personality implies that it is not about one-sided skills or bare specialised knowledge, irrespective of how important that might be as a prerequisite for education, but more generally about insights in a broader multi-perspectival context.
The mobilisation of creativity produces new original insights through curiosity-driven research of the hitherto unknown and through active dialogue among both students and teachers. The need to continuously seek new insights is partly based on Herder’s ideas that culture and knowledge need to be developed further to compensate for the deficiencies of the non-determined human being in the lack of a defined ecological niche (anthropological indigence). Without education, the human being is constantly endangered. This also implies that there is no final and general pattern or structural knowledge framework in which each person should assimilate, but rather that each person follows her own individual pathway of development feeding and critically developing individuality, while at the same time reflexively positioning the individual in the broader pluralistic context.
The following audio podcast (27 min. in German) provides a portrait of Wilhelm von Humboldt and his Educational Ideal. Click here to download the English translation as pdf.
Humboldt’s model is more than just a pedagogical ideal. His main achievement was the elaboration of a concrete plan for its operationalisation and institutionalisation and that he convinced the Prussian King to implement it. It is difficult to pinpoint in more detail the exact design principles he used because his plans in writing remained unfinished, but I will give it a try:
Research orientation: Curricula are not supposed to be restricted to ready available applied knowledge but geared towards finding general truths, including factual, moral and aesthetic ‘truth’ or maybe better: towards some degree of ‘intersubjective consensus’ on those issues. This implies that the university curriculum is a vehicle in the individual and collective search or research process; in the development of the individual towards personality, able to contribute to society in general and to help solve specific future problems in particular. Each academic programme, therefore has the objective to deliver a full-fledged researcher, able to discover new knowledge and develop new creative insights themselves. In contrast to schools, which provide fixed and final knowledge, scientific knowledge should be seen as inherently unfinished and always calling for further research, as ‘something not yet achieved and as something that cannot ever be completely achieved’. University curricula therefore provide basic knowledge as conceptual tools for further thinking and methodological skills for the critical assessment and judgement of new and old insights. Scientific knowledge is an open-ended phenomenon, also implying that all types of one-sidedness must be opposed in favour of a truly holistic truth or general knowledge. One can imagine how this principle unleashed and facilitated the immense scientific progress we have experienced since modernity.
Multi-perspectivity: This holistic perspective also implies another structural aspect of the new research university, namely that within the university, ideally all disciplines and all collections of knowledge in the form of libraries and data archives should be united in one place or otherwise be made mutually accessible and should enable the interaction on a level playing field for the sake of the joint cause. So the traditional medieval faculty of Arts (or philosophy) sometimes also designated as Studium Generale, as a prerequisite for entering one of the higher faculties of Theology, Law, or Medicine, was now seen as equivalent and at the same level as the other faculties. Later on, in the course of further specialisation and deepening division of labour, more disciplines and faculties were added. Even though we nowadays, sometimes seem to forget, it meant that these disciplines and faculties would be in constant dialogue with each other. The modern research universities, as Humboldt envisioned them, according to the educational ideal, are supposed to be places where one is stimulated to look beyond one’s plate. One should not just look beyond one’s faculty or discipline, but also beyond one’s school of thought. On all levels, universities should be the hub of the ceaselessly self-questioning sciences and of the gathering of creative scepticism. The university is thus the institution that gives shape to the notion of the unity of reason. This is not unity in the sense of an unchanging and undifferentiated truth, but rather the unification of all kinds of knowledge under the authority of reason (Loose, 2016, p. 19). Even though the paths to real, freely gained and true knowledge are manifold, they are all oriented towards a totality that unites them all in the same perspective of searching for truth(s). While the word ‘university’ in the past mainly referred to the universal community or guild of teachers and students, from now on it takes up the meaning of the universality of knowledge.
Academic freedom: The principles above also imply that universities and knowledge production should not be led by anything else than reason, not by politics, ideologies, economic interests or bureaucratic directions. The university should be autonomous. She should set her own rules and regulations and procedures on the basis of reason. Wilhelm von Humboldt was seeking to set up universities with their own estates as a source of income, enhanced by government funding, guaranteeing them economic independence. Even though he could not fully realise this in the case of the University in Berlin, this principle of economic autonomy was nevertheless embraced as an essential element of academic freedom. Another aspect is that researchers and lecturers should have the freedom to focus on whatever topic they believe to be relevant to the development of new scientific insights. The same freedom of choice should be allowed to students. They should be able to choose by whom they want to be taught and what topics they expect to be taught about. So also in this respect, the freedom of the mind in following their curiosity and their own line of thought in seeking new insights was held in high regard. For students this implies freedom of choice of educational programme, and within that programme freedom of choice of course of specialisation and of elective courses, within and beyond their own discipline. For professors and lecturers this implies that their own research specialisation should be allowed a place in the curriculum or that they should be entitled to ‘lecture on the topic of their choice’ (sometimes also designated as venia legendi). The issue of academic freedom is sometimes coined as THE general principle, under which all other aspects of the educational ideal can be subsumed, which also makes this principle as the most claimed and contested element of the educational ideal (see for the Netherlands e.g. also Verburgt & Duyvendak, 2023).
Societal responsibility: This academic freedom does not stand alone but is directly related to a strong responsibility to apply the newly gained knowledge and skills for the better of society and as a moral duty for the sake of humanity in general. Therefore the unfolding of the individual human values, abilities, talents and creativity as a main objective of the educational ideal is closely entangled with the idea of the unfolding of the same potentials for all, for society as a whole, and for the world in general. This principle goes back to the Greek ideal of paideia, the development of moral virtues and logical and rhetorical skills which were thought essential for becoming a good human being and democratic citizen and contributing actively and positively to society (Bohlin, 2008, p. 1). The educational ideal sees also the content and direction of moral responsibilities as a component and result of the process of scientific enlightenment and reasoning and not as a pre-given or fashionable set of moral opinions. Next to fundamental questions about what values form the basis of our general moral judgments and responsibility, more contingent and uncertain normative-ethical considerations of individual situations are part of the education of societal responsibility. Essential is that in this process the most indisputable and self-evident moral principles can be scrutinised, to ensure that they are based on reasonable insights and not on the imposition of norms (Hegselmann, 1990). So while university teachers can claim special authority in their various fields of expertise, they can hardly do the same with respect to moral values and virtues. the emphasis here is – as Bohlin (2008) asserts – on freedom as a condition of self-cultivation, even though this freedom is in most cases within certain limits, and is supposed to be directed towards the forming of certain values such as the inviolability of human life, individual freedom and integrity, the equal value of all people irrespective of race, gender or other traits, solidarity with the weak and vulnerable, justice, tolerance and responsibility. This principle, therefore, intends to raise the critical engagement with improving the world and to educate for the sake of contributing to the solution of topical societal problems. This is also the essence of any critical approach within science. Knowledge is therefore also never neutral. In an open democratic society the university is thus also the intellectual conscience of society, or as Jean-Pierre Wils (2012, p. 55), of the Radboud University says: ‘In a functioning democracy, society has a right to independent institutions of reflexivity guaranteed by the public hand, as universities should be. Universities are nests of resistance to the populist simplification of social debate and guardians of the public culture, of civil society. […] When they lose that function, they are no longer universities’.
Science or academia are therefore also seen as the fourth, or if we include media, the fifth basic institution and power in society next to the trias politica, protecting society against a lack of knowledge and short-sightedness, employing well-refected and evidence-based knowledge and a long-term vision (Brandt, 2011, p. 198). This comes pretty close to the main aim of The Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), but it is tellingly seldomly found as the main aim of current research universities.
Progressive increase in freedom and responsibility: As mentioned above an academic attitude, or readiness for academic education is not something we are born with or which falls from heaven. To become an articulate, self-conscious learner, one first needs to be equipped with the necessary tools and basic knowledge. One might also circumscribe these as propedeutic knowledge and skills. This also defines the didactical difference between the way this propedeutic knowledge and skills are taught and the more academic knowledge and skills are taught. The latter is less a form of teaching, but much more a form of coaching and Socratic learning. Humboldt e.g. states that the university teacher therefore is no longer a teacher and the student is no longer someone merely engaged in the learning process but a person who undertakes his research, while the professor directs his research and supports him in it (Humboldt, 1920, p. 261). Roughly one could say that in elementary school, students were to learn basic skills, like listening, discussing, reading, writing, arithematics, etc. and very basic general knowledge. In high school, the curriculum would aim to teach students how to learn or internalise more specific content, while also showing them how to learn and how to become intellectually independent. At university, they would be free members of a community devoted to curiosity-driven learning (Sorkin, 1983, p. 63). Self-evidently, if we apply this general principle to any new field of knowledge with which students are confronted, the same stages in learning and teaching repeat also within academia.
Dialectics of formation: Although not a principle in itself, it is noteworthy here that all the above principles are based on dialectical processes between freedom/restrictions, individualism/universalism, distance/engagement, plurality/unity, known/(still)unknown, disciplinarity/multidisciplinarity, theory/practice, elitism/inclusiveness, ivory tour/outreach to the general population, dedicated propadeutic knowledge/knowledge out of curiosity, historical heritage/future orientation, etc. etc. Even though these different dialectics cannot be mistaken for a pre-given linear overall development, it does show the mechanism of continuous change and back-and-forth dynamics in the world of academic knowledge.
These principles can still be found in the statutes of most universities and in many state laws on higher education, but often in different degrees of detail and with varying operational implications. Over the years they also have been changed and updated under the influence of other rationales and changing situations. Irrespective of these developments, the humanistic university ideal is alive and kicking, and as topical as ever, as former minister of education of Bavaria and philosopher, Nida-Rümelin (2010; 2013) convincingly shows. But even when the ideal is still upheld, this does not mean that realities cannot substantially deviate from this ideal. This ideal is thus constantly under threat and it calls for continuous critical reflection to ensure that our educational model is still future-proof.
* For a more detailed history of these early days see Koch (2008), de Ridder-Symoens (1992; 1996), Rüegg (2004; 2011), and for a brief overview Perkins (2007).
What Universities have become…
Even if there is a certain consensus of the general educational ideal and we formulate it in the university statutes this ideal is therewith not a reality yet. Universities have operationalised this general model of the ideal research university in different ways under different circumstances and have attempted to find workable compromises on each of these principles. Stefan Collini (2012) gives an overview of the kinds of dilemmas and compromises we can observe in these respects. But I will write about this more extensively soon.
References
Bohlin, H. (2008) Bildung and Moral Self-Cultivation in Higher Education: What does it mean and how can it be achieved? Forum on Public Policy. pp. 1-10. Retrieved from https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-10050.
Brandt, R. (2011) Wozu noch Universitäten? Ein Essay [For what purpose still universities? An essay]. Felix Meiner, Hamburg.
Collini, S. (2012) What are Universities for? Penguin Books, London.
Ernste, H. (2007) The international network University of the future and their local and regional impacts. In: Scott, A. and Harding, A., Laske, S., Burtscher, C. (eds.) Bright Satanic Mills: Universities, regional development and the knowledge economy. Ashgate, Aldershot (pp. 69-92).
Hastedt, H. (ed.) (2012) Was ist Bildung? Eine Textanthologie [What is Education? A text anthology]. Reclam, Stuttgart.
Hegselmann, R. (1990) Schwierigkeiten der moralischen Aufklärung [The difficulties of moral enlightenment]. Analyse & Kritik. Vol. 12, pp. 162-173.
Humboldt, W. von (2010 [Original: 1809-1810]) Über die Innere und Äussere Organisation der Höheren Wissenschaftlichen Anstalten in Berlin [On the internal and external organisation of the higher scientific institutions in Berlin]. In: Humboldt, W. von Collected Works in five volumes. Vol. IV. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt.
Humboldt, W. von. (1920) Über die mit dem Königsbergischen Schulwesen vorzunehmenden Reformen (Konzept von 1809) [On the reforms to be undertaken with the Königsberg school system (draft from 1809)]. Collected Writings: Prussian Academy of Sciences Edition, Berlin.
Wilhelm von Humboldt: Über die mit dem Königsbergischen Schulwesen vorzunehmenden Reformen [Konzept von 1809]; in: Wilhelm von Humboldts Gesammelte Schriften Band XIII, Berlin 1920, S. 259-276
Josephson, P. (2014) The publication mill: The beginnings of publication history as an academic merit in German universities, 1750-1810. In: Josephson, P., Karlsohn, Th. & Östling, J. (eds.) The Humboldtian Tradition. Origins and legacies. Brill, Leiden (pp. 23-43).
Koch, H-A. (2008) Die Universität. Geschichte einer Europäischen Institution [The University. History of a European institution]. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt.
Loose, D. (2016) De universiteit. Een leerschool in de humanisering [The university. A school of learning in humanisation]. Valkhof pers, Nijmegen.
Nida-Rümelin, J. (2013) Philosophie einer humanen Bildung [Philosophy of a human education]. Edition Körber-Stiftung, Hamburg.
Nida-Rümelin, J. (2010) Zur aktualität der humanistischen universitätsidee [On the actuality of the humanistic idea of university]. In: Unbedingte Universitäten (eds.) Was passiert? Stellungnahmen zur Lage der Universität [What is happening? Statements on the state of the university]. Diaphanes, Zürich (pp. 121-139).
Östling, J. (2018) Humboldt and the modern German University. An intellectual history. Lund University Press, Lund.
Perkin, H. (2007) History of Universities. In: Forest, J.J.F. & Altbach, Ph.G. (eds.) International Handbook of Higher Education. Springer, Dordrecht (pp. 159-205).
Ridder-Symoens, H. de (eds.) (1992) A history of the University in Europe. Vol. 1 Universities in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Ridder-Symoens, H. de (eds.) (1996) A history of the University in Europe. Vol. 2 Universities in early modern Europe (1500-1800). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rüegg, W. (eds.) (2004) A history of the University in Europe. Vol. 3 Universities in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries (1800-1945). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rüegg, W. (eds.) (2011) A history of the University in Europe. Vol. 4 Universities since 1945. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Sorkin, D. (1983) Wilhelm von Humboldt: The theory and practice of self-formation (Bildung), 1791-1801. Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 55-73.
Vega, J. (2020) Academische vrijheid? Positieve en negatieve vrijheid, en de fuik van het neoliberale werken [Academic freedom? Positive and negative freedom, and the trap of neoliberalism]. In: Berkel, K. van & Bruggen, C. van (eds.) Academische Vrijheid. Geschiedenis en actualiteit [Academic Freedom. History and topicality]. Boom, Amsterdam.
Verbrugge, A. & Baardewijk, J. van (eds.) (2014) Waartoe is de Universiteit op aarde? [To what purpose is the University on earth?]. Boom, Amsterdam.
Verburgt, L.M. & Duyvendak, J.-W. (2023) Academische vrijheden in Nederland. Wat staat er op het spel? [Academic freedoms in the Netherlands. What is at stake?]. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.
Wellmon, C. (2015) Organizing Enlightenment: Information overload and the invention of the modern research university. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
Wills, J.-P. (2012) De toekomst van de Radboud Universiteit [The future of the Radboud University]. In: Sanderse, W. & Zweerde, E. van der (eds.) Denkruimte. Reflecties op universitaire idealen en praktijken [Thinking space. Reflections on university ideals and practices]. Valkhof Pers, Nijmegen (pp. 36-56).
Zwaan, B. van der (2017) Haalt de Universiteit 2040? Een Europees perspectief op wereldwijde kansen en bedreigingen [Will the University make it to 2040? A European perspective on global opportunities and threats]. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.
When one tries to be a critical scientist, one is always somehow opposing the mainstream and tries to think differently and question whether the mainstream ideas are justified and valid. Being critical is important to be able to contribute to a better world and a different future. But it can also put one in a rather solitary position and can make one lonesome. This is also the case with the position I regularly represent on this blog site and which, at least within human geography is not ‘mainstream’ but in my view highly relevant and stimulating innovative thinking. This is the position inspired by the philosophical anthropology of Helmuth Plessner. I must admit, that this week, when I heard about the final high school examination programme for philosophy for the next few years, I somehow felt some satisfaction, and less ‘alone’… The central topic for philosophy at high school in the Netherlands for the next few years will be the question ‘What makes us human?’
Traditionally, philosophers answer this question by pointing to our ability to think, but this answer is problematic. If computer engineers were able to mimic our ability to think in machines, then we would have to consider robots to be human too. Moreover, research on animal and plant cognition shows that our ability to think is not as unique as we thought. Any boundary we draw between humans and non-humans thus seems to be fuzzy.
Kisten Poortier of the University of Groningen, Prof. Erik Myin of the University of Antwerp and my colleague from the University of Amsterdam, Prof. Peter-Paul Verbeek, explore, in their newly made textbook for high school students (in Dutch), how we can answer the question of what makes us human if we start not with thinking, but with the body. But even that does not yield a single definition. After all, we can change our bodies with technical interventions, and our experiences are constantly influenced by theories and metaphors. Especially in these times when our existence has such an impact on the world, and the relationship between human beings and the environment – the core issue of human geography – it becomes clear that the question of the human being, next to the question of what space or ‘environment’ entails, deserves our full attention. See the table of contents below.
Hopefully, this promises a number of philosophically topically well-informed generations of students, who also might discover that human geography is the field in which they can apply their ideas also practically…
Until a new generation of critical students will emerge, who again want to think the future differently…
In our research field, quantitative (statistical) and qualitative research methods are used. For high-standard research, a continuous critical reflection on the methods we use is essential, and we need to engage in developing these methods further. Since Paul Feyerabend’s seminal book ‘Against Method’ (1975), we know that there is no holy grail for using methods to get insights into the phenomena we are interested in. This does not imply that ‘anything goes’. Because there are no general preset standards, the critical reflection on the methods we use is all the more crucial. We can ‘make and break’ the results of our analysis with our methods. Without methods we are blind. If we use methods in a rather unreflected and non-rigorous way, we are visually impaired. And when we critically reflect on the methods we use, we also notice that all our methods also have blind spots. The methods are part of the story we must tell about the world we are investigating and trying to understand. They substantially help us to be convincing and trustworthy. Both, theoretical as well as methodological reflection, make our research scientifically sound.
When studying Placemaking often qualitative methods are used in our analysis. These kinds of methods are often associated with ‘talking to people’ about how they experience places and ‘observing people’ in how they act in specific places or situations. It is a common misunderstanding, that this is like what we do in our daily life, and therefore this cannot be that difficult, and the outcomes should be easy to understand. Applying qualitative methods rigorously and systematically, so that they can reveal what we would NOT be able to see in daily life, is a skill and art and demands special methods. The words ‘rigorously’ and ‘systematically’ should not be misinterpreted as again referring to universal standard for doing research. Each research situation is different and each research question demands other methods for finding the answers to these questions. Methods always need to be adapted to the specific situation, and the specific research question. We therefore always need to be creative in setting up our research and in defining our specific research strategy. This also drives the dynamics in developing qualitative methods further. New ways of doing research emerge all the time. It is therefore very timely and fashionable in social scientific research to speak of Creative Methods.
The term ‘creative methods’, however, can be interpreted in three ways. The first and most common meaning of the adjective ‘creative’ is rather banal. It is only an addition with the purpose to suggest that the method is new, different and fashionable, even though, if one looks more precisely, they often are not. Book publishers are very keen on these kinds of positively connotated titles because they sell better and some researchers also use these adjectives to show off and distinguish themselves from others. It is easy to find many books on methods, with ‘creative’ in the title. Only in a few cases, this adjective can be taken seriously. We also observe that the methods they are talking about already have a longer tradition, and are thus not that new or different. But o.k. let us be generous and let them enjoy these fancy adjectives, as long as we are critical enough to look through them, to what is key when we speak about creative methods.
The second more serious meaning of ‘creative methods’ refers to creativity in developing new methods or new ways of combining or adapting and applying existing methods for new research situations. This is what I was talking about above concerning placemaking. Some of the methods discussed in the recent books listed here can indeed be very inspiring in this respect, others seem to be more business as usual.
The third interpretation is about methods which foster the use of creativity. The latter meaning of the word ‘creative methods’ addresses an often neglected element of Placemaking in our geographical research. Creativity in this latter sense means that we come up with new and innovative forms to express ourselves and our knowledge to create better places, situations or events. While in our discipline we regularly teach research methods, these kinds of creative methods are rarely taught. But how do we teach these creative skills, and what methods foster this kind of creativity? Phil Dobson, a psychologist, in the video below, briefly presents some of these methodological steps which foster creativity and innovativeness (click on the image to start the video):
This method for creativity is rather different from applying creative research methods, when we study places. As Human Geographers, we traditionally have a rather analytical perspective on places and the spatiality of human actions. This analytic perspective at best allows us to describe, understand, and possibly predict. The factual and cognitive knowledge we produce in this way may then serve policymakers in defining their measures of intervention in specific places.
But especially when we focus on how people experience places and their doings, we also notice that there is another dimension to places and to placemaking that is not so easily caught with these analytical methods, namely, the affective, and aesthetic aspects of places and placemaking. The language of the ‘forms’ of places. So places which analytically and functionally seem equal may from this other perspective look, feel, smell, sound, etc. totally differently and therefore also have very distinct effects. There is an embodied sensuality to places, which we usually do not sufficiently grasp with our hitherto analytic methods, So, the form of these places and the way these places (and situations) are designed make a big difference. We can, of course, analytically describe and study the sensual forms of a place with the help of more phenomenologically oriented qualitative research methods. But what consequences do these insights have? If we want to use this knowledge to create better places, we are talking about (re-)designing places. That demands not just analytical research skills, but also creative design skills, and methods which foster our creativity.
We should not just learn how to analyse places but also how to make and design places. The language of spatial forms is traditionally the field of architects who make material spaces, urban designers who create urban spaces, and landscape architects who create landscapes. But also all kinds of artistic expressions and activities may be essential elements of designing places and are part of the vocabulary of spatial forms. For geographers, there is still much to be learned from them concerning methods of creative design. In the same way, there is much to be learned for designers from the more analytically inclined geographers and their research methods. To be successful placemakers we need to be multidisciplinary. For geographers, it would, therefore, be important to include methods for creative design in the geography curriculum. Bringing these different approaches together would also allow us to experiment with research through design.
Here it is important to also make a disclaimer: Trying to canonise design skills within the typical design disciplines, or trying to systematically teach these design skills, is on the one hand useful because it makes us (systematically) aware of the important experiential design dimensions, but on the other hand, it also restricts our creativity and our skills for out-of-the-box thinking and doing. If one is interested in how the dialectics between being a productive designer and being creative, it is worthwhile to have a look at one of the many videos of Prof. Jordan Peterson on Youtube (they are by the way also very entertaining), e.g. watch the conversation between Marc Mayer, Director and CEO of the National Gallery of Canada, and Dr. Jordan Peterson, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, which took place March 9, 2017 at the National Gallery of Canada (click on the image to start the video).
He states, that to be creative, on the one hand, we need to get rid of all existing structures. But on the other hand, we need structural procedures to be effective with our creativity. Being a good place designer therefore also requires the development of a canon of creative skills which allow us to make the best of our creative ideas and designs of future places. How can we create a curriculum and how can we set up our teaching in creative methods in such a way that both aspects come into their own.
Asking students in an assignment for our methodology courses to use creative methods or original forms of presentation results can be very rewarding and inspiring as students indeed can come up with very original solutions. This, however, can not be mistaken for ‘developing creative design skills’ or for thorough ‘research through design’. Sometimes they are at best superficially embellished assignments. As such, they probably are fun to do, and that is a value in itself since studying should be a pleasure if it wants to take hold, but here, in addition, I would like to plea for a more thorough and deeper revision of our teaching of research methods and to include also methods for developing creative design skills and research through design.
In the following short video (in Dutch) it is shown, how e.g. in a city like Leiden the design and aesthetic form of places can determine the quality of a place. It does not always has to to be a spectacular design in a large metropolis but can also be about the beauty of a small town (click on the image to start the video).
And here is another one discussing a few of the basic principles of urban design for building the ‘perfect City’ (click on the image to start the video).
It would be great if our geography students also gain the skills for designing better places.
Beghetto, R.A., Kaufman, J.C. & Baer, J. (2015) Teaching for Creativity in the Common Core Classroom. Teachers College Press, New York.
Benzon, N. von, Holton, M., Wilkinson, C. & Wilkinson, S. (2022) Creative Methods for Human Geographers. Sage, London.
Elliott, d. & Culhane, D. (2017) A Different Kind of Ethnography. Imaginative Practices and Creative Methodologies. University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
Feyerabend, P. (1975) Against Method. Verso, London.
Kara, H. (2015) Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences. A practical guide. Policy Press, Bristol.
Mannay, D. (2016) Visual, Narrative and Creative Research Methods. Application, reflection and ethics. Routledge, Milton Park.
Why did you choose to investigate the Atmosphere of the Collegium Helveticum?
Does the Atmosphere at the Collegium differ substantially from other academic places such as usual university departments?
The Collegium is located at an iconic place. The former Observatory at which the Collegium is at home is constitutive of the atmosphere. It is a beautiful place, but, in comparison with regular university buildings, also a bit awkward, with its many unusual multi-purpose rooms, its roof terrace and exhibition basement. But that, like the uneasy questions of the other fellows, provokes alternative ways of doing and thinking. The aesthetics relate to the original ideal of a research university (‘Bildungsideal’). The long spiral staircase climbing up to the main observatory had a strong symbolic meaning for most fellows. They associated it somehow with the ivory tower, but also with disorientation in the positive sense of the word. Also, the open and friendly office of the director of the Collegium, where many meetings among fellows took place, played a special role in setting the Collegium atmosphere. Sometimes, beyond working time, one could also hear the soft cello music resounding from that room, as part of the homely atmosphere of that place. The whole building and place is perceived as an oasis within the dense University Quarter of Zurich. The materiality and aesthetics of the place are not separable from the events and people inhabiting the building. The shared offices provoke an atmosphere of community, and as one fellow expressed it: “If one did not hear the loud laughter of one of the this-years fellows one would really miss it”. At the same time, the building allows moments of seclusion and concentration, like during a yoga session on the rooftop terrace, or in the library in the basement. The total atmosphere at the Collegium is, therefore, a real assemblage of different sub-atmospheres in different parts of the premises, which are at the same time also part of the atmosphere in the University Quarter, the city as a whole, while also representing a bit of typical ‘Swissness’.
Does this research on the atmosphere also provide hints for further improvements at the Collegium?
