The handbook says that the first tutorial will look at what constitutes ‘suburbia’ and whether it is ‘dream or nightmare’.

I imagine the first part of that question might be a bit easier to come to grips with than the second. I haven’t done any serious reading on this but my understanding of suburbia would be that (geographically) it is the region between the outer limits of the city eg West Perth/Subiaco and the beginnings of rural areas eg Bickley.

I say ‘geographically’ because I’m not sure if that is the only way to frame an understanding of suburban life. I have a sense that suburbia might be equally described by the values and patterns of life that give form to it. Things like stability, security, conformity and consumerism are some of the more common aspects. Its not to say these aren’t present elsewhere but suburbs do seem to foster some common values.

The lecturer today seemed to use the terms urban and sub-urban interchangeably which I found a bit odd. I understand that typically we speak of urban and rural areas, but that ‘sub’ urban would be an area either distinct to or a subset of the urban.

I hope to use this unit to do some reflection especially on my own suburban experience because there is no question that Brighton is almost a caricature of ‘the suburb’.

If you go to the Satterley Estates home page you can view the TV ads for our estate and it will speak volumes to you about the kind of community the developer is trying to sell to you. (If you look real close you will see us in the first 2 or 3 seconds of the ad – walking beside the lake)

I’d be interested to hear what you see as you look at them and what impressions you get of our community.

To check out our local area more specifically you can go here

As you may have gathered from my earlier post I am a bit bummed that it just isn’t feasible for me to attend the classes for the course on the history and culture of suburbia. Since living here in Brighton and becoming much more aware of the rhythms and patterns of suburban life I have become quite intrigued by the phenomena that is suburbia and thought it would be really helpful to do some more intensive study in the area.

But it doesn’t look like its going to happen… well not in that format.

Here’s what I am thinking though. I am hoping to do the various set readings and write some reflections on the questions set for each of the tutorials which I will post on here. It’d be great to have some others with a passion for this topic to thrash things around with me in the comments section.

I don’t know if I will be disciplined enough to do this, but in the absence of attending the class lectures for this could be my way of expanding my learning. So if you’re interested then I’d love to have your company as I share my thoughts and hopefully provoke some interesting discussion.

I’ll try to write at least one post a week under the category of suburban reflections. If you’re interested to see where I am headed with my thoughts then you can check out a copy of the course handbook here. There are tutorial outlines as well as recommended readings.

Hope to see you in the comments!

As I began the class on suburbia today the quote sitting on the front page of the unit reader was this one:

“One of the best instincts in us is that which induces us to have one little piece of earth with a house and garden which is ours, to which we can withdraw, in which we can be amongst our friends, into which no stranger can come against our will”

Sir Robert Menzies, ‘Forgotten People’ speech, May 1942

In this speech during WW II Menzies was speaking about the ‘forgotten people’ who he considered to be the middle class or the ‘backbone of the country’.

He went on to define & describe the middle class as he saw them:

“First, it has a “stake in the country”. It has responsibility for homes – homes material, homes human, and homes spiritual.

Second, the middle class, more than any other, provides the intelligent ambition which is the motive power of human progress.

Third, the middle class provides more than any other other the intellectual life which marks us off from the beast; the life which finds room for literature, for the arts, for science, for medicine and the law.

Fourth, this middle class maintains and fills the higher schools and universities, and so feeds the lamp of learning.”

If you want to chew thru what he meant by those statements (and you would need to before you critiqued them) then you can read the entire speech here.

Well worth the read.free transmorphers

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