Papers and ideas Flashcards
main ideas of Jane Jacobs in the Death and Life of Great American Cities
- city planning is a “pseudoscience”
- 1950s urban planning policy was responsible for the decline of many US neighbourhoods
- advocated mixed-use development over large-scale urban renewal
- walkable streets
- need to deeply know the city to implement effective policy, not just care about its impression
When was Death and Life of Great Cities published?
1961
Give the main ideas of Lewis Mumford’s “the city in history”
- technology should achieve a balance with nature and culture
- organic relationship between people and their living spaces
- uses medieval city as basis for his “ideal city”
- he feared that a local community culture was not being fostered by city institutions
- feared urbanisation and alienation
- suburbia presents a false, innocent vision of the world
when was the City in History published
1961
explain the term “right to the city”, as proposed by Henri Lefebvre and supported by David Harvey
the right of individual citizens to have agency to change the city and themselves, new access to urban life
explain Lefebvre’s theory in The Production of Space”
space is a social product/ complex social construction that affects spatial practices and perceptions
social production of space is fundamental to the reproduction of society and capitalism itself
Thrift and Amin’s ideas about Seeing like a city
renewal of urban politics through looking at its infrastructures
machinic infrastructures bring together human and non-human actors
call for cross-disciplinary knowledge- overly general or narrow perspectives are not adequate
“spatial dynamic” determines productivity of a city, not the agglomeration
need to attend to prosperity of entire city
give a brief description of Gandy’s paper on New York and water
Water and the City
history of a city can be seen through the history of its water
colonial relationships that supported the infrastructure
originally private and public wells segregated
then ambitious water projects in early to mid 1800s eg. Croton aqueduct
rising importance of hygiene
water infrastructure becoming tied up in ideals of modernity
achieved projects through capital motivations, technical expertise and public concern
describe Harold Wolpe’s ideas on interior colonialism in SA
The Theory of Interior Colonisation: The South African Case
white SA acts in place of the now-departed imperialists, appear as an advanced capitalist state
non-white SA oppressed like a colony, shows deep inequalities still remain
based on system of capitalist exploitation which appears as race divisions
keep tribal groups out of the capitalist system while using their labour within it
what were the ideas of Friedrich Ratzel
environmental determinism
based around 19th century colonialism
the state is an organism that needs to sustain itself by consuming other countries: organic theory
famous for “lebensraum”- living space needed for state
europeans had the right to colonise other countries because they are superior by their superior environment
what were the ideas of Émile Durkheim
one of founding members of discipline of sociology
saw society as an organism made up of coercive and powerful social facts
common consciousness can be strengthened through crime and punishment
suicide levels increase with increase in individualism, excessive hope, too much freedom, atheism and weakening of the state and family
ideas of Homi Bhabha
Nation and Narration nations can be read like narratives dynamic, identity is not settled nations omit parts of history in order to survive borders are in-between places
ideas of Halford Mackinder
geographic determinist- how society is shaped by geography
Heartland Theory
who controls the heartland can control the world-island, and therefore the world
who controls eastern europe can gain access to the heartland
aim for Hitler
Gramsci’s ideas about how the bourgeoise stay in power
hegemony, all-pervasive and dominant ideas that become taken for granted in society
Masseys ideas in a Global Sense of Place
draws on Harvey’s time-space compression
everything is speeding up and spreading out
need to move past a static idea of place
power-geometry= the unevenness of time-space compression (who can shape the meaning of a place)
dangers of idealising places and holding onto their past identities
no single identity, constantly dynamic
