Taking a look from outside

An excellent discussion this morning on Radio 4's 'Start the Week'.

Gillian Tett is credited with being one of the first financial journalists to spot the credit crunch coming. How did she do it? It was her experience of social anthropology - she spent a year in Tajikistan during for her PhD - that gave her the insight that there was a common delusion going on.

The Radio 4 programme is currently featured here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jwxz0

And this Guardian article also gives an insight:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/31/creditcrunch-gillian-tett-financial-times

So I find this interesting as a consumer, but even more interesting as an educator (hooray for the concept of a liberal education) and a coach of managers who have precious little time to look at things from the outside.

Walking and change

The fantastic walkit site and blog has inspired me to think again about the effect of the environment on our thinking. Walkit is essentially about urban journeys by foot. It's a great idea.

Urban earth takes a different slant of the experience of cities as a kind of art. Go straight to one of their films to get the feel: this one's set in Bristol.

I'm going to be doing some research in this area (starting - ahem - when OUP send me the books they owe me for a review I did), and I'd really like to hear from people about their experience of walking, whether in the urban or rural environment.

Here are the themes:
physical activity and effects on emotion and thinking
location/environment and effects on emotion and thinking
and if anyone can make a meaningful link to psychogeography, I'd be grateful.