Building and Dwelling by Richard Sennett

Author:Richard Sennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

PART THREE

Opening the City

7

The Competent Urbanite

Part Two has pictured three ways a city can impoverish people’s experience: fast-track growth on the Shanghai model; recoil from those who differ; the stupefying effects of misused technology. These urgent problems also sharpen Jane Jacobs’ question to me, ‘So what would you do?’ In Part Three I am going to answer her – with a big caveat.

Issues like recoil from people who differ have no ‘solution’ in the sense that there is social medicine you can take to cure yourself of this disease. Fear of others constitutes instead a chronic illness which has to be managed. Just as the symptoms of a chronic illness can be put in remission, so too the civic body can enjoy long spells of vigorous health – as when people who differ are able to live together. Even so, the collective body never escapes the threat of relapse.

In this chapter I investigate some ways in which urbanites might better engage with the cité. In the following chapter, I explore what forms in the ville could help them do so. Finally, I present certain ways to bring cité and ville together. As will appear, my answers to the question ‘So what would you do?’ are guided by treating the healthy city as an open system.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.