Overview:
Urban Paradoxes employs the wandersmänner, or dérive, concept of neighborhood assessment. The dérive is a spontaneous neighborhood wandering that "capture's" the mystique, or allure, of the neighborhood through the eyes of the "wander's" experience.
The dérive is not a highly directed or choreographed tour, but an unfolding of the ever-intertwining poetic strands of a neighborhood. The process does not promote a hard and fast definition of neighborhood, but rather a framework that allows the participant to playfully explore and refine his or her own sense of neighborhood, be it their own neighborhood or another.
Specifically, the process examines the illusive character of our space that we call "neighborhood" through a series of interactive psychogeographical explorations.
A dérive does not take place in a vacuum; serious guided discussion and assessment takes place following every dérive. Further, Urban Paradoxes guides the discussion through the utilization of proven assessment tools.
Psychogeography:
The word "psychogeography" implies the coming together of psychology and geography in the study, and assessment, of neighborhood behaviors. Some, but not all, of the areas such a study addresses are::
The dérive, and its accompanying assessments, explores the neighborhood in order to interpret what is seen in a way that brings about détournment, or a "turning around", i.e., to bring about a healthy neighborhood.
Summary:
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