Occupeligo

A week ago Saturday evening, when I mentioned taking my daughter to "my building," a new acquaintance asked whether I am an architect. No, just a geography professor. But architects and geographers have a lot in common, as space -- as it is used, modified, and even thought about -- is central to both disciplines. I was pleased, therefore, the very next day to hear an interesting radio piece that brings the two subjects together.

On the Studio 360 program that aired the following Sunday, architect Micheal Kimmelman describes how Private Space [has] Gone Public in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The neologism I use for the title of this post signifies the world-wide distribution of the spaces created by the movement.

The map above signifies the distribution of protests in the October 15 movement, with close to 1,000 gatherings in 82 countries. The dots are disproportionate, of course, to the physical scale of each event, but Kimmelman's analysis of the details suggest that this might be a reasonable representation of the conceptual scope of the movements. Listen to Kimmelman for an explanation of how why this might be.

The main purpose of the DC Douglas video above is to clarify the reasons for the Occupy movement. The powerful montage in the final half minute powerfully illustrate Kimmelman's description.