David Harvey, professor of geography at Johns Hopkins University, has
written what IMO is the most intelligent and cogent critique of "new
urbanism" that I've yet read. "The New Urbanism and the Communitarian
Trap" appears in Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997
(hdm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
An excerpt:
" ... the idea attracts, drawing support from marginalized ethnic groups,
impoverished and embattled working-class populations left high and dry by
deindustrialization, as well as from middle- and upper-class nostalgics
who view it as a civilized form of real estate development encompassing
sidewalk cafes, pedestrian precincts, and Laura Ashley shops.
"The darker side of this communitarianism remains unstated: from the very
earliest phases of massive urbanization through industrialization, 'the
spirit of community' has been held as an antidote to any threat of social
disorder, class war, and revolutionary violence. 'Community' has ever been
one of the key sites of social control and surveillance, bordering on
overt social repression. Well-foounded communities often exclude, define
themselves against others, erect all sorts of keep-out signs (if not
tangible walls). As I. M. Young points out, 'Racism, ethnic chauvinism,
and class devaluation ... grow partly from the desire for community' such
that 'the positive identification of some groups is often achieved by
defining other groups as the other, the devalued semihuman.'"
===================================
Michael Kaplan
Professor of Architecture
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
mkaplan@xxxxxxx
written what IMO is the most intelligent and cogent critique of "new
urbanism" that I've yet read. "The New Urbanism and the Communitarian
Trap" appears in Harvard Design Magazine, Winter/Spring 1997
(hdm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
An excerpt:
" ... the idea attracts, drawing support from marginalized ethnic groups,
impoverished and embattled working-class populations left high and dry by
deindustrialization, as well as from middle- and upper-class nostalgics
who view it as a civilized form of real estate development encompassing
sidewalk cafes, pedestrian precincts, and Laura Ashley shops.
"The darker side of this communitarianism remains unstated: from the very
earliest phases of massive urbanization through industrialization, 'the
spirit of community' has been held as an antidote to any threat of social
disorder, class war, and revolutionary violence. 'Community' has ever been
one of the key sites of social control and surveillance, bordering on
overt social repression. Well-foounded communities often exclude, define
themselves against others, erect all sorts of keep-out signs (if not
tangible walls). As I. M. Young points out, 'Racism, ethnic chauvinism,
and class devaluation ... grow partly from the desire for community' such
that 'the positive identification of some groups is often achieved by
defining other groups as the other, the devalued semihuman.'"
===================================
Michael Kaplan
Professor of Architecture
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
mkaplan@xxxxxxx