lecture 4 Flashcards
what are the ten points to charactarize a city?
- Population density
- Includes citizens that are not peasants/farmers
- Concentration of agricultural surplus
- Public buildings
- Ruling class But, also contested
- Skills: writing, use of wheel and plow too much focus on material
- Other forms of science (astronomy, maths, etc.) too little on social relations
- Artistic expression
- Long distance trade
- Sense of community: identity, language, shared facilities
what two historical phases are the result from the end of ideologies?
- Public buildings to serve power
- Public buildings to serve the power and the community
what institutions do villages have?
communal institutions
what institutions do cities have?
-Administrative and political institutions
- A power that is not communal
- Power of the leader and community of citizens
what are two forms of public buildings?
Seats of power and the seats of communal life
Public buildings for the basic functions of a
government:
- Run by the governmental power
- Not or hardly accessible to common people
Public buildings to serve the community:
- Organized by community members
- Widely accessible
Merchants became central to urban
communities:
- Organization of merchant guilds: regulation and
protection trade - Prominent members of the urban elite
- Member of the urban governance
Political autonomy:
city council that governs
Legal autonomy:
laws and courts to protect citizens and regulate
Fiscal autonomy:
urban budget, urban taxes
what is wafq?
A Islamic religious or charitable foundation created by an
endowed trust fund.
* Donation of a building or land for religious or charitable purposes
* No aimed at profit, but at donations for public facilities.
* Examples: orphanage, bathhouse, hospital, school or mosque.
what civic buildings are there in europe?
Town halls and squares: representation of selfgovernment
and urban power
what civic buildings are there in the Islamic world?
Mosques: representation of Ottoman power and
Islam
what civic buildings are there in Asia?
Temples: representation of the emperor and
power of central government
what civic buildings are there in Latin America?
Square: symbol of Spanish rule
What does the ideal city represent?
- Writings that imagine the city as ideal:
powerful, wealthy, big, clean, beautiful - Guidebooks with maps
- Townscape
- Woodcuts of city streets
- Essays, journals, poems, songs,
performances every day city life
what is the impact of modern state formation in Europe?
- From urban citizenship to state citizenship
- States are increasingly taking over public
administration and services - Urban autonomy diminished
- The end of urban associations
what are Problems with the model of the Oriental City and the Western City?
- Until the mid-19th century studies on the antiquity based on Greece and Rome
- Non-Western cities considered ‘different’:
-Oriental cities were too big
-Too much centered on the royal palace
-Communal structures found in Western cities absent: the agora (central public space) .
Models and opposition of East versus West contested:
- Elements of Oriental City (power and despotism) and Western
City (freedom and citizenship) coexisting in both worlds - Focus on globalization
- Focus on non-Western research
- More comparative research
City and state in Europe 1500-1800
Restricted concept of citizenship became typical of Western tradition since middle ages
Characteristics:
* Exclusive citizenship (citizens vs residants)
* Self-governance of cities
* Communal civic institutions
State-formation leads to decline urban autonomy
Forms of self-governance also in premodern China, Japan and Ottoman Empire, but:
* Mostly more informal
* Much more directed by central governments
what does habermans say?
Public Sphere in Western Europe emerges:
“Realm of social life in which public opinion canvbe formed”
* Rise of public political and social debate
* Newspapers and pamphlets
* Public houses, associations and societies that discuss societal matters
Benedict Anderson (1983) :
Imagined communities
A socially constructed community, imagined by the people who
perceive themselves as a group >
1. Members identify with the community as an entity
2. Shared image of the community
How is represitation expressed in urban communities?
- Through buildings
- Rituals and shared events
- Urban spaces
The representation of social hierarchy in China and Japan
Officials/samurai
Farmers/peasants
Craftsmen
Merchants
The representation of social hierarchy in Europe
Clergy
Nobility
Townspeople (burghers, citizens)
Farmers/peasants
Other types of distinction within cities:
- Ethnicity (colonial cities)
- Religion (Ottoman Empire, Europe)
- Citizens with rights and inhabitants
(Europe) - Rich and poor
- Deserving and undeserving
what does Civil Societies mean?
Non-governmental organizations and institutions of
citizens that serve interests of citizens
Characteristics of pre-modern European urban civil societies:
- Citizens form associations and institution to serve
their own interests - Associations of citizens exist next to governmental
institutions and religious institutions - Public services are provided by the urban
government, church and citizens
Association building in Chinese cities based on kinship group
and lineage, but also: (William T. Rowe (2013))
- Brotherhoods formatted by migrants
- Social organizations for religious practices (neighbourhood
temples) - Artisan guilds and communities of sojourners
