A Theory of Urbanity by Anton Zijderveld

Author:Anton Zijderveld [Zijderveld, Anton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781412808200
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 2008-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

If one tries to determine which components of urbanity are still relevant and ought to be maintained, pursued, and fostered today, it may be helpful to focus on the conditions that have a distinctly negative impact, as well as on the conditions that bear positively upon a possible revitalization of urbanity. However, I am fully aware of the circularity of such an argument. Therefore, it should not be read as scientific proof of the alleged timeliness of urbanity in today's late modem urban society. With this limitation in mind, I mention only the most obvious of these negative conditions:

The polarization of the public and the private spheres of life has been apparent in comprehensive welfare states. This polarization, as we saw, bears strong centrifugal forces which affect the autonomy and vitality of civil society. Obviously, if this centrifugal polarization in society-at-large and in urban habitats in particular, would be perpetuated, there could be, given the nature of urbanity, very little hope for its revitalization in contemporary or future cities.

Narrowly related to this is the antithesis of urbanity and the ethos of the welfare state. As we have seen, the latter is characterized by the primacy of consumption over production, by heavy emphasis on privacy and subjective experiences at the expense of the public commonwealth and the collective history and tradition. All of this is contrary to the work ethic, the emphasis upon civic responsibility, the orientation towards collective interests and enterprises, so typical of urbanity. Here again, if the welfare state is not really and successfully restructured through decentralization, privatization, and internationalization, socioeconomic and cultural conditions will be perpetuated which are square to the economic and civic culture of urbanity.

A further negative condition for urbanity and its revitalization into a vital and vigorous economic and civic culture, is the prominent and often powerful position many urbanologists have occupied in urban policy making. Experts of urban design, planning, and housing—often architects, geographers, sociologists, and lately anthropologists (probably in search of new islands and new “natives”)48—had a considerable impact on the substance and direction of urban policies. However, with the exception of most anthropologists, who have generally managed to maintain their instinct or intuition for urban culture, these urbanologists usually operate from a rather limited methodological frame of reference with little awareness and knowledge of the cultural factor. Urbanity does not exist, because it does not fit the abstract models of the urbanologists. As urban policymakers and their administrative bureaucrats call upon these urbanologists for advice, many contemporary urban development programs are drenched with anti-urbanism.

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