We Cannot Plan From Our Desks
I joined a chorus of voices sharing the impact of the late urban historian Mike Davis. I mean every word ❤ I’m an LA urban planner because of Mike. Embedded Planning praxis exists because of his teachings.
Read our tributes in this latest piece from his mentee, Mike The PoeT.
When I abruptly quit architecture school in 1998 and was depressed and lost but found my way to critical planning practice, the book that got me there was City of Quartz.
Thank you and rest easy, Mike Davis.
We will keep up the fight.
The latest instance of our Embedded Planning movement coming up favorably in a job interview.
We are everywhere.
We cannot plan from our desks.
Background image: The book I recommend to every critical planner and embedded planner — especially the Fortress LA chapter — is City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, by Mike Davis.
Recorded January 18, 2019 at American Planning Association HQ amidst our work on the national Social Equity Task Force. Since then, #EmbeddedPlanning has exploded onto the scene. And as my mentees will attest, I continue to big up Mike Davis’s City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (1990). Start with the Fortress LA chapter. It’s a groundbreaking critique of #HostileArchitecture ⚔️
Mike Davis has been commenting extensively about the current global Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic. I’m sharing his analysis on my social media spaces, as I often do with City of Quartz for urban planning students. For better or worse, Davis avoids social media and has no personal website with links to his work. Fortunately for readers, several outlets are making available without a paywall his works on COVID-19. It just takes some searching.
As I usually do with Davis, I found myself scouring Twitter and Google to find these commentaries. I know others are doing the same. We need his analysis to show us a pathway forward — and we need to get it beyond his faithful readers. So, to help boost readership, I’m aggregating links in this post to Mike Davis’s COVID-19 writings, comments, podcast interviews, etcetera.
There will be cross-posted duplicates from the various publications involved. I’m okay with doubling up. This increases reader access and helps overcome potential link rot. Also there will shorter and longer versions of his articles depending on the publication’s version. All is worth reading.
I’ll update this blog post as often as possible. Readers can recommend relevant works at this Contact page. Thank you. ~JPB
Update: New citations will end on May 31, 2020. This post will stay up as a resource on Mike Davis and COVID-19.
Mike Davis on COVID-19: The Monster Is at the Door
Date: March 12, 2020. Source: Haymarket Books
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/110-mike-davis-on-covid-19-the-monster-is-at-the-door
Mike Davis on COVID-19: The Monster Is at the Door
Date: March 12, 2020. Source: International Journal of Socialist Renewal
http://links.org.au/mike-davis-covid-19-monster-finally-at-the-door
Mike Davis sobre COVID-19: El Monstruo Finalmente Está en la Puerta
Date: March 12, 2020. Source: Izquierda Diario
http://www.izquierdadiario.es/Mike-Davis-sobre-COVID-19-el-monstruo-finalmente-esta-en-la-puerta
Who Gets Forgotten in a Pandemic
Date: March 13, 2020. Source: The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/mike-davis-covid-19-essay/
Mike Davis on Coronavirus: “In a Plague Year”
Date: March 14, 2020. Source: Jacobin Magazine
Socialism as Counter-Pandemic — Mike Davis
Date: March 14, 2020. Source: Legal Form: A Forum for Marxist Analysis of Law
https://legalform.blog/2020/03/14/socialism-as-counter-pandemic-mike-davis/
Mike Davis: Social Distancing, Not Home Arrest
Date: March 16, 2020. Source: Haymarket Books
https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/113-mike-davis-social-distancing-not-home-arrest
Mike Davis on COVID-19: The Monster Is at the Door
Date: March 19, 2020. Source: Monthly Review Online
https://mronline.org/2020/03/19/mike-davis-on-covid-19-the-monster-is-finally-at-the-door/
Mike Davis: The Coronavirus Crisis Is a Monster Fueled by Capitalism
Date: March 20, 2020. Source: In These Times
http://inthesetimes.com/article/22394/coronavirus-crisis-capitalism-covid-19-monster-mike-davis
Solidarity Is an Essential Vaccine
Date: March 20, 2020. Source: The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/outdoor-coronavirus-exercise-california/
Mike Davis on Coronavirus Politics (podcast interview)
Date: March 20, 2020. Source: The Dig Podcast
https://www.thedigradio.com/podcast/mike-davis-on-coronavirus-politics/
Mike Davis on Coronavirus Plague (podcast interview)
Date: March 22, 2020. Source: Beneath the Surface with Suzi Weissman
https://archive.kpfk.org/index_one.php?shokey=bts_friday
Lessons From Wuhan
Date: March 25, 2020. Source: The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/lessons-wuhan-coronavirus-recovery/
Mike Davis: Why Global Capitalism Is so Impotent in the Face of Coronavirus (video interview)
Date: March 26, 2020. Source: Jacobin Magazine
Mike Davis on Pandemics, Super-capitalism and the Struggles of Tomorrow
Date: March 30, 2020. Source: Mada Masr
Capitalism Is the Disease: Mike Davis on the Coronavirus Crisis (online teach-in FREE)
Date: March 31, 2020. Source: Haymarket Books and Verso Books
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOp9G5hoQnM
Mike Davis: The Coronavirus — Politics vs. Science; plus Rebecca Solnit on Becoming a Feminist (podcast interview)
Date: April 1, 2020. Source: Start Making Sense
In Memoriam: Michael Sorkin, 1948–2020
Date: April 2, 2020. Source: The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/michael-sorkin-obit/
How to Save the Postal Service
Date: April 6, 2020. Source: The Nation
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/usps-profiteering-nationalize-amazon/
COVID-19: A Man-Made Crisis — A conversation with Mike Davis, Marianela D’Aprile and Nafis Hasan
Date: April 7, 2020. Source: Democratic Socialists of America
https://www.dsausa.org/calendar/covid-19-a-man-made-crisis/
Mike Davis: Is Coronavirus Ushering in a New World Order? plus Barbara Ehrenreich on low-wage work (podcast interview)
Date: April 15, 2020. Source: Start Making Sense
The Geopolitics of COVID-19: Mike Davis in Conversation with Joshua Clover
Date: April 16, 2020. Time: 5:30pm to 7:00pm. Source: UC Davis Humanities Institute
https://dhi.ucdavis.edu/events/geopolitics-covid-19-mike-davis-interviewed-joshua-clover
The Monster Enters
Date: March/April 2020, No. 122. Source: New Left Review
https://newleftreview.org/issues/II122/articles/mike-davis-in-a-plague-year
Mike Davis in the Age of Catastrophe
Date: April 24, 2020. Source: The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/california-chronicles/mike-davis-in-the-age-of-catastrophe
Mike Davis: Back to Work in the Covid-19 Economy? Plus John Powers on Virus Time TV (podcast interview)
Date: April 29, 2020. Source: Start Making Sense
Mike Davis: C’est La Lutte Finale
Date: April 30, 2020. Source: Progressive International
https://progressive.international/blueprint/34da398a-af05-43bb-9778-c27023932630-la-lutte-finale/en
Mike Davis on the Coronavirus (podcast interview)
Date: May 1, 2020. Source: Coronavirus in California
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mike-davis-on-the-coronavirus/id1506426526?i=1000473233887
(Last Updated: May 27, 2020)
@c1typlann3r.blog 
You must be logged in to post a comment.