3rd Assignment -- Contado Research

Brechin: Imperial San Francisco ---- Contado Projects

For this assignment, we are going to do some background research using the conceptual tools acquired with Brechin’s “Imperial City/Contado” formation. In Brechin’s text he describes many different places in the Bay Area, California, the Pacific, and Asia (among others) that can be considered parts of the San Francisco Imperial Contado. Examples from Brechin are: Hetch Hetchy, Richmond, Lake Tahoe, the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, Hawaii, the Philippines, etc.

For this assignment, we will each do some research on a specific place or site that could be considered part of the SF contado. So,

1) Think about some places (these could be anywhere in the world, but it might be easier to start geographically closer to San Francisco) that might have a connection to SF. Look into the history of this place to see what, if any, relationships it has had with SF. These could be economic relationships (for example, a certain area provides material or labor resources for SF), or cultural or artistic relationships. In other words, find a place or site that can be analyzed in a Brechin-like manner.

2) Build a bibliography of texts or web resources related to this site. Note: Wikipedia will be helpful for this assignment, but use it more as a jumping off point (don’t end with wikipedia).

3) Research this site and conduct an analysis of the site as part of the contado space of SF. Things to look for are: What are the flows involved within the relationship between the site and SF? If an exploitative relationship exists, are there any resistant flows or practices that emerge from the contado space—does the contado “strike back” at the City in any ways? Also (IMPORTANT), has the relationship between this site and SF changed over time?

4) Create a blog entry that discusses your contado site and supports it with links to articles, videos, and archival material. This should be about 2-3 pages – it is required that you include links to web sources and a possible bibliography. This will be part of the total length of the blog; however, the bibliography part should be more than a list of resources – it should be partially annotated: include a link or a citation with a brief explanation of why it is useful (i.e. what did you find in an article or on a certain website).

SOME IDEAS FOR RESEARCH:

-Santa Cruz/UCSC as part of SF contado
-What is the relationship between these two places? How has it changed over time?

-Big Sur

-Atomic Contado of UC Berkeley
-Brechin goes into this; it would be interesting to look closely at the scope of this contado (including raw materials, testing grounds, waste disposal, etc.).
-How has the Atomic contado resisted SF/US exploitation?

-Any cities/areas in the Bay Area of N. California
-Look into when they were founded and see if there was a connection to SF. If related to SF, why were they developed?

-Asia-Pacific
-Brechin begins this analysis. If you want to look at the Imperial SF relationship to sites in Asia or in the Pacific, this is encouraged.

-Hemisphere
-How might other places in the Western Hemisphere be placed within a SF imperial contado? Brechin discusses Mexico. Where else is the influence of SF felt?

-Monuments/Statues/Museums/etc.
-Brechin frequently conducts analyses of various monuments that represent the imperial appropriation of a site (ex: the Sunol Water Temple, the Dewey Monument, the De Young Museum).
-There are tons of monuments and “sites of historical interest” that you could use for this kind of project. Ask me for some ideas…


Requirements:

This project lends itself to our blog format. There is a wealth of information out there on the web that you could use for this project. Your blog entry should include links to the sites you use, and if you are tech savvy, you can embed things like images and maps into your blog (but, if this is too complicated, make sure you at least have links to this sites).

-Some examples of web resources to include in your blog:

-Maps (old and new)
-Images (historical photos and other images)
-Videos
-Articles (from periodicals or other websites)

Preparation for Final Project:

This assignment is a great opportunity to get some of the initial research and footwork started for a final project should you choose to do a contado-research type of final project. Also, the resources you find and post on your blog might be helpful to other students in the class. Similarly, other peoples’ discoveries might be helpful for your own research – make sure you take a look at other blogs!!

***A List of useful websites will be posted later and I will bring to section on Friday some useful examples of texts…