Skill City. Reflactive craftmanship as eco-social design    

(Lecture  Premsela  Stichting,  Me  Craft/You  Industry,  Zuiderzeemuseum  2011)  

Handwerk:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TwIUgd7eb0&feature=player_embedded  

Economical  perspective  After  this  film  no  one  doubts  the  importance  of  craftwork  or  Handwerk  as  it  is  called  in  Germany.    The  contributions  of  craftsmen  and  women  to  the  Dutch  economy  is  also  considerable:  according  to  Trades  Council  for  the  Crafts  (HBA),  some  900,000  jobs  are  involved.  Within  this  broad  economic  perspective  craftsmanship  no  longer  concerns  the  picturesque  traditional  profession  of  the  wicker  workers  livening  up  town  fairs.  We  are  talking  about  highly  sophisticated  trades  characterized  by  qualitative  competition,  productive  network  cooperation,  and  professional  ambition.  But  the  filmmaker  has  probably  applied  too  broad  a  definition  of  craftsmanship.  Once  we  refocus  on  ‘skilled  manual  labour’  we  are  less  sure  of  his  argument.  Even  worse,  we  will  counter  a  major  problem.  In  information  society  manual  labour  has  gained  a  bad  reputation.  In  the  last  decade  of  the  20th  century,  the  decade  of  quick  and  easy  money,  for  young  urban  professionals  the  image  of  the  craftsman  came  down  to  greasy  hands,  hard  work,  lack  of  status,  low  wages,  and  therefore,  ultimately,  work  for  losers.  Even  among  artists,  in  the  last  decade  of  the  20th  century  craftsmanship  was  still  associated  with  docile  and  dull  repetition  of  technical  skills  that  denied  them  their  most  precious  quality:  artistic  creativity.      But  the  times,  they  are  a’changing.  Over  the  last  three  years  the  Trades  Council  for  the  Crafts  (HBA)  is  promoting  craftsmanship  in  nationwide  campaigns,  using  celebrities,  i.e.  well  known  artists,  entrepreneurs,  athletes  and  popstars,  as  rolemodeling  ambassadors.  In  Dutch  vocational  education  (MBO)  directory  boards  are  considering  to  reinstall  the  title  of  master  craftsman  in  educational  programmes.    And  now,  of  all  people,  even  artists  have  rediscovered  the  value  of  the  crafts,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  avant-­‐garde  art  owes  its  very  existence  to  the  split  –  at  the  end  of  the  17th  century  –  between  the  artisan  and  the  artist.  The  individual  artist  steps  out  of  the  shadows  of  his  powerful  and  fortunate  patrons,  taking  the  floor  in  painterly  self-­‐reflection,  as  in  an  exemplary  way  is  executed  in  Velasquez  painting  Las  Meninas.  Velasquez’  autonomous  gesture  is  the  upbeat  to  the  modern  imperative  of  individual  autonomy  as  ‘being  your  own  lawgiver’.    Artistic  implications  Have  we  surpassed  this  modernist  opposition?  How  to  explain  design  and  fashion’s  promotion  of  the  crafts?  Fashion  speaks  for  itself:  from  haute  couture  to  fancy  handicraft,  skilled  needlework  has  always  been  basic.  But  why  design  and  crafts,  especially  in  the  age  of  digitalisation?  What  does  handicraft    mean  in  digital  times?    

Unfold  L’artisan  electronique    Industrial  design  is  part  of  the  explanation.  But  on  a  deeper  level  it  is  probably  the  ambiguous  autonomy  status  that  designers  had  in  the  past  century:  they  were  not  really  free  but  bound  by  commissions  for  specific  business  goals,  being  dependent  upon  and  instrumental  to  their  paying  client’s  unskilled  taste.  Since  the  90ies  however,  designers  have  become  crucial  players  in  economy,  visual  culture  and  communication.  Thanks  to  digitalisation,  the  network  structure  of  society  has  made  even  artists  aware  of  them  becoming  nodes  in  layers  of  networks.  Every  one  has  become  an  in  between,  at  best:  a  medium  being  a  message  in  itself.  Even  the  Dutch  Christian-­‐Democratic  party  aims  at  the  radical  middle.  They  do  not  yet  realize  that  a  technological  radical  mediocrity  is  our  human  condition.      Indeed,  media  have  become  our  roots  –  radix  –  to  the  world.  Media  rule  our  lives:  medio-­‐crity.  As  such  our  human  condition  is  radically  mediocre.  We  are  no  longer  able  to  deal  with  the  world.  We  are  stuck  in  between  without  admitting  it.    My  talk  is  about  the  relation  between  craftsmanship  and  this  radical  mediocrity.  There  is  a  techno-­‐political  need  to  break  the  spell  of  our  mediatized  hyper  individualism  and  to  restore  –  as  a  recent  debate  formulates  it  –  the  common,  leaving  behind  indifference.  We  have  to  take  serious  the  idea  that  our  Dasein  is  design  and  start  designing  the  inbetween.    That  is  our  real  inter-­‐est,  as  I  claimed  in  my  Premsela  annual  lecture  of  2008:  Dasein  as  design.    Craftsmanship  is  related  to  this  quest.  This  was  acknowledged  by  Richard  Sennett  who  delivered  last  years  Premsela  annual  lecture,  under  the  title  Out  of  touch.  Though  Sennett  mainly  talked  about  cello  playing,  the  literal  manipulation  of  strings,  his  focus  was  the  relation  between  the  aesthetic  and  the  political.  He  connects  lack  of  artistic  craftsmanship  –  not  being  in  touch  with  the  cello  –  to  socio-­‐politically  not  being  involved,  engaged,  connected,  related,  linked  or  logged  in.  In  2008,  four  years  after  the  start  of  my  Skillcity  

Foto’s: Erik en Petra Hesmerg

Handy crafts or mani-pulation in digital times?

program  in  Rotterdam  –  I’ll  END  MY  TALK  WITH  A  DESCRIPTION  -­‐  Sennett  published  The  Craftsman.  Being  a  student  of  Hannah  Arendt  he  redefines  our  present  human  condition,  amending  Arendt’s  1958  published  book  The  Human  Condition,  translated  in  Dutch  as  Vita  Activa.    Arendt  propagates  a  repoliticization  of  public  space.  She  made  a  distinction  between  labour  (homo  laborans),  work  (homo  faber)  and  action,  accentuating  the  reflective  quality  of  the  latter:  action  in  combination  with  speech  triggers  the  public  debate.  In  her  analysis  the  homo  faber,  i.e.  tool  using  man,  this  craftsman  is  devoid  of  creativity.  Craftsmanship  is  an  economic  or  at  best  a  cultural,  but  never  a  political  asset.  Sennett  however,  fully  in  tune  with  his  previous  publications  on  the  demise  of  the  public  sphere,  the  corrosion  of  character,  and  respect,  Sennett  recalibrates  the  importance  of  craftsmanship  in  the  21st  century.    To  Sennett  the  values  that  underlie  craftsmanship  transcend  economic  value.  His  cello  example  states  that  it  also  has  an  aesthetic  value,  and  next  to  that  an  ethical  and  a  political  value.  Sennett’s  focus  of  craftsmanship  is  selfless  dedication  to  quality.  Note  the  selfless.  I  want  to  step  further  and  claim  that  craftsmanship  embodies  a  wide  range  of  mental  and  social  competences  that  are  realised  as  skills:  from  soft  skills  as  attention,  ability  to  concentrate,  power  of  discernment,  perseverance  via  generic  competences  to  specific  job  related  skills.  I  also  agree  with  Sennett’s  suggestion,  criticizing  Arendt,  that  craftsmen  actually  do  operate  reflectively  and  as  such  act.  But  to  understand  this  we  have  to  rethink  the  outcome  of  reflectivity:  not  as  concepts  or  words,  but  as  skills.  Crafts(wo)men  get  to  grips  with,  and  a  good  grasp  of,  their  subject  matter  by  means  of  their  hands,  eyes,  ears,  noses,  and  mouths,  i.e.  by  their  mediated  senses  .  They  reflect  by  means  of  their  senses  in  their  respective  media  as  artists  have  always  done.  In  being  in  touch,  i.e.  being  interested,  their  skills  become  expressions  of  media  consciousness,  transforming  our  human  condition  as  radical  mediocrity.  Their  attention  to  materials,  their  proficiency,  and  their  expertise  are  testimony  to  precisely  that  reflective  interest  which  most  postmodern  individuals  lack  in  their  dealings  with  media,  in  using  their  means  of  transportation  and  communication.  The  realisation  that  we,  in  our  frictionless  world,  have  outsourced  reflectivity  to  our  media  -­‐  ranging  from  pacemakers,  hearing  aids,  and  contact  lenses  to  TVs,  computers,  mobile  phones,  cars,  and  Sat  Nav  -­‐  never  really  hits  us  until  the  moment  when  they  stop  working.  Resistance  is  a  problem  to  us.  How  to  cope  with  resistance?  As  long  as  the  medium  –  from  mobile  phone  to  automobiles,  from  Ipad  to  Tomtom  –  media  thinks  for  us,  this  medium  –  say:  an  escalator  –  is  the  ultimate  foundation  of  the  world.  We  experience  the  world  when  it  breaks  down.  But  what  will  happen  when  the  repairman  also  functions  within  the  same  human  condition?    FILMPJE:  escalator  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47rQkTPWW2I&feature=endscreen&NR=1  

Politico-­‐philosophical  presuppositions:  from  autonomy  to  autarky  Sennett’s  redefinition  of  the  human  condition  triggers  fundamental  politico-­‐philosophical  questions,  questions  that  he  does  not  address.  His  ‘string  management’  is  still  perceived  in  perspective  with  Velasquez’  autonomous  gesture.  Look  at  the  subtitle  of  The  Craftsman:  Man  as  his  own  maker.  It  is  clear  that  Sennett  favours  individual  autonomy  gaining  its  

freedom  in  independent  expression.  But  in  digital  times  this  autonomy  has  lost  its  substantial  foundation.  Within  network  society  being  independent  is  no  longer  an  issue.  Moreover,  private  life  is  fully  public,  due  to  our  media.  Every  one  is  embedded,  mediatized.  Radically.  The  urgent  question  is  rather:  dependent  upon  what  en  how?  Freedom’s  issue  now  is:  on  what  scale  can  I  be  responsible  for  what  I  do?  Not  accountable,  responsible.    Our  present  political  core  business  is  no  longer  enhancing  hyper  individualistic  pseudo-­‐autonomy.  In  hyper  consumer  capitalism  we  are  solely  controlling  its  disastrous  effects.  The  real  issues  nowadays  are  peak  oil  versus  renewable  resources.  Our  human  condition  has  to  deal  with  self-­‐sufficiency  of  people  and  planet  within  a  cyclical  perspective  of  shared  profit.  21st  century  man’s  issue  is  no  longer  ego,  but  energy,  not  cogito  but  community,  not  individualism  but  being  interested,  not  interiority  but  in  betweenness,  not  selfishness  but  sustainability.  Individual  self-­‐determination  (autonomy)  is  now  embedded  in  collective  self-­‐sufficiency,  in  autarky.    

   (AUTARKY:  studio  formafantasma)  Autarky  is  ecological  in  that  it  strives  to  be  self-­‐sufficient.  It  thinks  in  cyclical  footprints  and  redefines  food  in  terms  of  footprints:  foodprint.  Our  economic  system  can  no  longer  externalize  its  self-­‐undermining  effects  –  waste,  pollution,  lack  of  resources,  traffic  jams,  climate  change,  senseless  violence.  These  must  be  fed  back  into  the  system,  internalized.  We  might  call  it  sustainism,  but  let’s  get  rid  of  the  –isms.    These  are  our  problems  and  we  are  part  of  the  solution.  An  autarkic  system  does  not  import  energy  and  does  not  externalize  its  waste.  It  has  an  absolute  claim:  there  is  no  outside.  We  are  all  there  is.  This  can  become  fascistic,  but  in  an  open  source  scenario  this  political  perversion  can  be  avoided.  Autarky  relies  on  the  integrity  of  its  networks:  investing  in  the  in  between  is  its  main  interest.  Policy  makers  call  this  Social  Return  on  Investment.  The  backbone  of  this  ecological  autarky  is  an  eco-­‐relational  philosophy  with  three  dimensions:  physical,  social  and  mental.  Body,  bonds  and  brains.  It  is  a  threefold  ecology.  ECO3.  I  will  come  back  to  this  later.    

AUTARKY Footprint as foodprint

 The  recent  revaluation  of  craftsmanship  within  arts  and  design  bares  witness  to  this  autarkic  awareness,  because  artists  are  already  self  supporting  systems  in  themselves.  This  implementation  in  art  is  very  important:  creativity  is  always  optimistic  and  affirmative.  Walking  around  this  exposition  makes  me  more  than  happy.  But  aesthetics  alone  does  not  suffice.  This  awareness  has  yet  to  be  transposed  to  ethics  and  politics.  Since  the  aesthetic  dimension  is  the  topic  of  the  day,  I  will  restrict  myself  to  the  two  other  dimensions:  craftsmanship  in  ethics  and  politics.        Ethics  Ethics  is  about  how  we  normatively  relate  to  the  world  and  to  each  other.    What  do  we  value?    In  my  2008  Premsela  lecture,  I  proposed  the  basic  idea  of  an  ethics  based  on  craftsmanship:  we  all  are  designers  in  information  society.  In  finding  the  scale  where  designers  can  again  be  responsible  for  informing  the  public  and  forming  the  product,  eco-­‐relational  design  is  more  than  an  option,  because  eco-­‐relational  design  uses  craftsmanship  to  fuse  ethics  and  aesthetics,  much  like  Michel  Foucault  suggested  in  his  last  books  and  lectures.  Foucault  labels  this  lifestyle  an  aesthetic  of  existence.  However,  this  redefinition  of  our  present  human  condition  (Dasein)  also  demands  a  redefinition  of  reflection  beyond  the  mind-­‐body,  subject-­‐object  opposition.  Here  do  crafts  and  skills  enter  the  stage.  These  are  the  link  pin.  In  crafts  it  is  no  longer  the  mind  that  reflects,  but  the  body  in  matter.  Matter  minds.  But  how  does  the  body  with  its  senses  become  reflective?  In  skills.    In  skills,  the  interiority  of  the  maker  –  his  intentions  and  expectations  –  reflects  in  a  medium  that  acts  upon  matter.        This  sounds  odd,  but  let  me  rephrase  this  in  cybernetic  terms,  as  once  Gregory  Bateson  did  in  his  book  Steps  to  an  ecology  of  Mind.  Feedback  is  the  crudest  form  of  reflection:  something  bents  (flexion)  back  (re)  upon  itself.  Matter  folds  back  (plier,  ply)  upon  itself,  creating  an  in  between  layer  by  multiplying,  by  implicating  and  explicating.  Feedback  creates  space  to  think  and  act.  That  is  why  Bateson  sees  nature  as  mind,  though  in  a  different  way  than  the  Godfather  of  deep  ecology  Arne  Naess  who  was  more  inspired  by  Spinoza  and  eastern  philosophies.  What  is  reflection  in  media  society?  Our  uncritical  way  of  dealing  with  media  –  the  escalator  effect  –  is  the  result  of  virtualisation.  Our  use  of  computer  technology  has  involuntarily  and  inconspicuously  rendered  reflectivity  immaterial.  We  lost  every  resistance  in  an  information  society  that  wants  to  be  frictionless.  A  world  that  does  not  matter  does  not  appreciate  resistance.  Till  the  system  is  down.  We  no  longer  know  how  the  machine  works,  we  don’t  realize  where  the  food  comes  from,  and  so  on.  Nevertheless,  due  to  the  ever-­‐increasing  intensity  of  our  dealings  with  screen  displays  and  gadgets,  the  reflective  capability  of  the  average  image  consumer  and  screenager  has  exponentially  grown.  But  as  a  result  of  this  increased  immaterial  reflectivity,  postmodern  individuals  have  become  less  sensible  to  matter.  That  is  where  craftsmanship  steps  in.    

-­‐  material  reflectivity:  cont®act    What  kind  of  reflectivity  does  craftsmanship  add  to  this  feedback  and  virtuality?  It  takes  reflection  back  to  the  body  and  introduces  resistance  as  a  productive  force.  As  such  it  counterweights  immaterial,  medial  reflection.  Skill  in  this  craft  perspective  is  the  in  between  of  mind  and  matter.  Skills  connects  and  binds  in  transferring  its  techniques.  Material  training  provides  material  reflectivity.  It  brings  people  in  touch  with  matter  and  media.  Skills  materialize  reflectivity.  It  creates  a  body  of  knowledge  that  is  passed  on  to  next  generations  in  a  master-­‐bachelor  apprenticeship.    But  is  this  material  reflectivity  rational?  First  we  have  to  realize  that  rationality  in  working  circumstances  is  more  than  using  statistic  models  to  predict  what  will  happen.  We  also  talk  about  rationalized  production,  referring  to  Fordism  and  Taylorism,  the  rationalized  production  line  in  the  workspace.  In  this  sense  skill  is  through  and  through  rational:  it  consists  of  repetitive  patterns.  But  on  the  scale  of  the  craftsman  this  materialized  rationality  becomes  reflective,  because  it  is  in  touch,  Sennett  would  say,  with  the  senses,  with  the  body.  Craftsmanship  engenders  reflectivity  on  a  scale  where  body  and  senses  are  still  capable  of  overseeing  the  activities  being  carried  out.  Limits  are  still  imposed  by  physical  effort  of  the  craftsman,  not  by  external  authority.  In  the  good  old  Marxist  terminology:  There  is  no  alienating  division  of  work.    Let  me  illustrate  the  core  business  of  material  reflectivity  from  a  sports  perspective.  Take  the  example  of  soccer  ball  jugglers.  Rather  than  using  their  head  to  'think'  about  the  ball,  skilled  soccer  ball  jugglers  use  it  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  ball.  Literally,  their  head  is  the  material  embodiment  of  their  reflectivity.  In  similar  fashion,  the  arm  of  the  javelin  thrower  ‘thinks’  when  she  hurls  it,  correcting  the  throw,  till  the  very  last  moment,  whereas  the  judoka  uses  his  hips  to  assess  the  momentum  to  step  in  to  unbalance  and  throw  his  opponent.  Calculation  is  no  longer  explicit.  After  years  of  training  the  body  attached  to  the  medium  thinks  for  itself.  Action  and  reflection  coincide:  material  reflection  as  reflaction.  Connected  to  their  'medium'  and  tools,  athletes  are  reflactive  in  becoming  one  with  their  medium.  The  medium  is  the  message,  indeed,  in  full  bodily  awareness.  This  'immediacy'  eventually  appears  as  a  simple  act  or  gesture,  but  it  is  the  mark  of  perfection.  What  remains  hidden,  however,  are  the  uncountable  hours  of  practice  required  to  make  it  all  seem  so  easy.    Material  reflectivity  is  the  result  of  concentration,  perseverance,  and  self-­‐disciplined  repetition.  As  such  embodied  knowledge  and  material  reflectivity  has  an  existential  and    micropolitical  meaning  in  information  society.  It  is  a  tactile  world  that  favours  contact  over  contracts,  interactions  over  transactions.    Mentality:  dealing  with  resistance  The  existential  aspect  within  this  ethics,  the  core  of  an  aesthetic  of  existence  is  resistance  and  ambiguity.  These  are  decisive  aspects  of  craftsmanship,  counterweights  to  our  frictionless  consumption  of  information.  Skills  offer  social  and  cultural  ways  of  coping  with  resistance:  in  craftsmanship,  one  runs  into  physical  resistance,  inherent  to  material,  and  mental  resistance,  resulting  from  lack  of  being  in  touch;  in  sports,  the  obstinacy  of  one's  

body  or  medium.  In  music,  tensions  in  the  throat  or  in  the  hand.  Craftsmen  learn  in  a  practical  ways  to  deal  with  dilemmas.  They  discover  what  the  limits  are  and  develop  a  sense  of  proportionality.  A  craftsman  thinks,  while  using  his  hands  and  eyes,  as  a  painter  thinks  with  his  brush  and  paint,  a  dancer  reflects  bending  his  body,  and  a  chef  analyses  a  piece  of  meat  cutting  it.  One  uncontrolled  movement  ruins  everything.  Craftsmen  grasp  the  world  by  tactful  manipulation.  In  minding  their  matter,  they  establish  contact  tactfully.  Years  of  practice  have  enabled  them  to  sense  exactly  what  a  given  situation  asks  for,  and  what  it  demands  and  forbids.  Football  players  are  just  as  flawless  in  this  respect  as  are  Japanese  swordsmen,  dancers,  carpenters,  designers,  sculptors  and  goldsmiths.  Physically,  the  point  is  to  wield  instruments  and  weapons  with  such  precision  that  hardly  any  application  of  force  is  required.  It  is  all  about  finding  the  proper  balance  between  applying  and  releasing  force;  or  in  other  words,  a  subtle  handling  of  resistance,  allowing  ambiguities.  Craftsmanship  sharpens  the  sense  of  uniqueness,  and  appreciates  the  productive  force  of  differences  and  resistance.  At  that  point,  skill  becomes  will.      Eventually  will  (interiority)  is  articulated  in  our  skill  (inbetween).  This  statement  ‘skill  is  will’  goes  both  ways.  Some  will  argument  that  the  craftsman  imposes  his  will  onto  matter  (the  Frankensteinian  option),  others  emphasize  the  role  of  resisting  matter  that  demand  the  craftsman  to  adapt  (the  Da  Vinci  option).  The  medium  as  an  end  can  never  justify  the  means.  When  the  medium  becomes  the  message,  when  the  end  overrules  the  means,  in  other  words:  when  an  end  justifies  itself  beyond  the  application  of  the  means,  in  spite  of  all  disastrous  consequences,  ambiguity  and  resistance  are  annihilated.  It  starts  feeding  upon  itself  and  discourse  becomes  circular:  why  growth?  For  growth's  sake!  Why  progress?  For  progress'  sake!  The  check  on  this  blindness  is  in  the  social  and  political  embedding  of  craftsmanship.  That  brings  us  to  the  second  part,  that  I  will  present  less  strict  and  more  painterly.    Politics:  Skillcity  ECO3  This  enables  me  a  shift  to  politics.  Craftsmanship  is  a  metier,  an  ethics  and  a  lifestyle.  But  is  it,  as  Studio  Makkink  &  Bey  ask  us,  a  landscape,  a  work  landscape?  I  don’t  know  yet.  We’ll  talk  about  that  today  extensively.  For  me,  as  an  urban  landscape  it  is  a  real  option:  Skillcity,  the  project  I  have  been  working  on  the  past  5  years  in  Rotterdam  South.  Let  me  give  you  an  impression  of  what  we  have  been  doing.    www.vakmanstad.nl    Skillcity   is  an   integral  program  implemented   in  socio-­‐economically  sensitive  neighborhoods  of   Rotterdam   South,   aiming   to   introduce   a   up   to   date   craftsmanship   in   between   the   old  labourer  city  that  Rotterdam  once  was  and  the  new  cultural  city  with  its  festivals  and  logos  into  which  Rotterdam  was  transformed  during  the  80ies  of  the  past  century.  I  introduced  the  concept  and  analysis  in  2004  and  it  was  adopted  as  one  of  the  blueprints  –  i.e.  open  source  

social  designs  -­‐  of  the  10  years  socio-­‐economic  and  literal  physical  renovation  –  building  high  qualitaty   housing   -­‐   of   Rotterdam   South   in   2006   by   the   Pact   op   Zuid,   now   reshaped   as  Kwaliteitsprong  Zuid.  Within   the  context  of  Pact  op  Zuid  Skillcity  got   the   funding   for   three  years  to  operationalize  its  strategy.    Strategically  Skillcity  is  a  open  source  social  design  that  redefines  society  as  a  layered  and  scaled  texture  of  networks  in  which  individuals  are  nodes.  Empowering  people  means  knitting  networks  around  them  that  function  both  as  a  safety  net  and  a  trampoline.  The  conceptual  backbone  is  a  relational  philosophy.      

Schooling   is   crucial   in   this   concept,   as   is   creating   opportunities   to   enter   the  markets  with  adequate  expertise.  The  interventions  are  focused  on  four  ‘fields  of  interaction’:    schools  in  neighbourhoods,   the  neighbourhood,   the  market  and   local  politics   and  policies.   To  gove  a  simple  example:  1)  physical   integrity:  primary  school  kids  are  stimulated  to  participate   in  a  broad   variety   of   activities,   learning   soft   skills   focused   on   eco-­‐social   education,   assisted   by  their  parents   in  the  school,  2)  active  citizenship:  all  stakeholders   in  the  neighbourhood  are  empowered  to  participate   in  activities  centred  on  the  socalled   ‘craftshouse’  a  new  form  of  community  house  where  kids  between  10-­‐14  years  can   train   their  generic  competences   in  technics,  health  care,   ICT  and  cooking,  3)  sustainable  craftsmanship:  cooperating  with  local  enterprises  and  vocational  educational  institutes  (ROC)  14-­‐18  years  are  enabled  to  improve  their  specific  craft  skills  in  a  craftswharf  as  a  production  unit,  manufacturing  products,  and  4)  ECO3:   Urban   infrastructure:   Rotterdam   Skillcity   researches,   formulates   and   develops   its  overall   strategy   with   its   scientific   bureau   that   designs   integral   and   sustainable   area  development   analysis   and   reports   for   the   local   authorities   and   building   corporations   that  include   the   elements   of   1,   2   and   3   in   order   to   enhance   and   implement   this   eco-­‐social  discourse   through   a   number   of   publications.  Under   this   heading,   Skillcity   has   designed   an  integral  and  sustainable  area  development  plan   for   the  neighbourhood  Feijenoord  and   for  the   Inner-­‐city   Harbour   Area   (Stadshavens),  while   being   involved   as   advisor   in  many   other  development  projects.  

The  past  3  years  the  first  field  of  interaction  has  been  realized  at  primary  school  Bloemhof  in  the   neighbourhood  Bloemhof,   scientifically  monitored   by   Erasmus  University   and  Verwey-­‐Jonker   Institute.   Physical   Integrity   consists   of   four   ‘vectors   of   learning’,   or   ‘trajectories’.  Interweaving  these  trajectories  builds  networks  that  guarantee  the  well-­‐being  of  the  pupils  and  their  parents  who  assist  in  this  project.  The  trajectories  consist  of:  judo,  cooking/eating,  gardening/eco  lessons  and  philosophy.  The  crucial  focus  is  eco-­‐social  education  and  cyclical  awareness.   Judo   enhances   material   consciousness   of   one’s   physical   limits,   regulates  aggression   and   counters   the   negative  weight   problems   of   obese   children.  Working   in   the  four   city-­‐gardens   around   the   school,   realized   in   cooperating   with   the   municipality,   local  council   (deelgemeente)   and   the   housing   corporation   Vestia,   kids   understand   how   healthy  food  is  cultivated  and,  on  a  larger  scale,  provides  insight  in  the  ecological   interdependence  of  all  life  forms.  Cooking  with  and  eating  products  from  the  gardens  –  300  kids  4  days  a  week  -­‐  helps  to  develop  a  taste  for  healthy  food,  an  attitude  of  care  and  a  balanced  diet.  About  25  mothers   assist   in   the   kitchen   and   the   restaurant.   Philosophy   fosters   interest,   enhances  

mental   focus,   develops   soft   skills   like   listening,   formulating   and   arguing   and   enables   the  children  to  reflect  on  their  eco-­‐social  embedding.  In  combination  with  the  other  trajectories  philosophy   is   transformed   into   ecosophy,   enhancing   ecoliteracy   on   three   levels:   physical,  social  and  mental.  The  program  has  been  inspired  by  Félix  Guattari’s  threefold  ecology.  

All  these  activities  are  embedded  in  networks  of  traineeships  with  pupils  and  students  from  different   types   of   schools:   VMBO,   MBO,   HBO,   university.   After   three   years   of   Physical  Integrity  at  the  primary  school  Bloemhof,   the  monitoring  results  has  given  us  very  positive  results   to   work   with,   most   notably   where   the   social   development   of   the   children   is  concerned.   Compared   to   similar   schools   without   a   like   program,   the   children   at   the  Bloemhof  school  are  developing  higher  social  skills,  and  appeared  to  be  more  balanced  in  a  social-­‐emotional  way.  Simultaneously,  their  social  handicaps  are  decreasing.  Compared  to  a  Montessori  school  with  a  primarily  middle-­‐class  population  from  Dutch  descent,  the  scores  of   the  children  at   the  Bloemhof  school  are  slowly  creeping  up   to   those  of   the  socially  and  economically   more   advantaged   school.   Now   that   a   beginning   is   made   increasing   the  children’s   eco-­‐social   awareness   during   the   first   three   years   of   Physical   Integrity,   since  November   2011  we  have   started   after   school   homework   classes   in   collaboration  with   the  Rotterdam   Academy   for   Higher   Vocational   Education.   Also,   as   of   January   2012   we   have  planned  to  cooperated  with  the  Amsterdam  based  IMC  Weekendschool  and  are  working  on  the  vacation  school  in  the  neighbourhood.    

During  2011  the   implementation  of  Physical   Integrity  at  three  other  primary  schools   in  the  South  of  Rotterdam  has  started.  Beginning  of  2012  we  have  started  with  the  implementation  of  the  craftshouse  and  craftswharf,  having  had  a  financial  guarantee  for  the  next  3  to  5  years  from  a  private  fund.  This  enables  us  to  create  a  number  of  scenarios  that  will  allow  for  easier  implementation   of   the   program   in   different   situations   and   work   on   the   development   of  methods  via   scientific  monitoring.  Coming  April  we  will  publish   two  books  –  after   the   first  Woorden   als   daden   (2009)   -­‐   that   provide   a   first   draft   of   such   scenarios,   as   well   as  commentaries   from   several   notable   Dutch   pedagogues,   philosophers,   sociologists   and  healthcare  specialists.  All  this  to  create  a  eco-­‐social  discourse  that  enable  policymakers  and  professionals  to  redirect  their  strategies  in  order  to  transform  on  a  practical  and  theoretical  level,   i.e.   discursively   their   ideas   on   integral   area   development   and   sustainable  craftsmanship.