A genealogy of cool
A friend from college was here yesterday for another friend’s party. He studies linguistics at the University of Illinois and we had a good conversation on his Ph.D. dissertation, a study of Parisian residents’ perceptions of other Parisian residents’ ways of speaking. I eventually steered things towards one of my side-interests: what it has meant to be cool, historically, and the origins of what is cool in contemporary America. I think a good idea for a book—an academic text with an eye towards popular readership—would be a genealogy of cool, spatially, racially, linguistically, and socioeconomically.
I’ve always wanted to know a) what the concept of cool was (if any) in the 16th century Polish hinterland (for instance) and b) who influenced what was cool there. I’m pretty sure no concept of cool can exist without massive amounts of leisure time and some sort of print media, so it must be relatively new (note that I’m not referring to what is known as “popularity”).
I’d like to find evidence of when occurred the shift during which people in the United States and Europe stopped obsessed over the things their economic-elite were buying and doing and saying and began to care more about what their immigrants and impoverished were buying and doing and saying. Were the former Irish and German residents of our inner-cities as “cool” as the current residents of our urban cores? Was it like that in 16th Century Poland?
Creative Commons Licensed photo credit: Pesterussa
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Oamaru or Santiago?
In a Marginal Revolution post considering some different ways of getting at one question—why are some countries free while others are not?—Tyler Cowen wonders why buildings in the historical district of Oamaru, New Zealand [map, websites one & two] remind him of Chilean urban architecture, leading him to question “what that means for the current Latin economic pecking order.”
Top photo of Oamaru, New Zealand, taken by: GothPhil
Bottom photo of Santiago, Chile, taken by: monadc
May sees unexpected retail sales growth in London
For the month of May, retail sales growth in London (+3.5%) far exceeded expectations (-0.1%). Everybody’s congratulating the weather.
“I’m staggered,” said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec. “The figures are just on a completely different plane compared to market expectations. They contradict other anecdotal evidence suggesting retail sales activity is softening. There are bound to be questions about whether they reflect a true picture of activity and they will raise speculation of rate hikes.”
Brian Hilliard at Société Générale said: “It is amazing. I cannot believe this is a reflection of the underlying trend. A stunning number. We suspect weather as the explanation.”
The Boston Globe covers urban gardening
Another article on urban gardening, this time in The Boston Globe.
Higher food prices mean more community gardens.
Higher food prices mean more community gardens.
Under a common type of community garden model, users pay an annual fee for the privilege of growing plants on a plot of land within a larger garden. In Portland, Ore., the fee for a 400-square-foot plot of land is $50. But the value of food grown on that land, according to Leslie Pohl-Kosbau, the director of the Portland Parks and Recreation community gardens program, can be many times greater.
“A person, if they’re a really good gardener, can raise $500 to $1,000 worth of food on a 20-by-20-foot plot, depending on their skills and by the way they garden.”