160R_What is the city? (research summary)

Are you interested in the city as the theatre for social action? Summary of the article titled What is a city? from 1937 by Lewis Mumford, from the Architectural Record. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how the city can be understood beyond the usual suspects of people, infrastructure and networks. This article presents Mumford’s propositions about city planning and the human potential, both individual and social, of urban life. As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects: The city in its complete sense then is a geographic plexus, an economic organisation, an institutional process, a theatre of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity. Social facts are primary and the physical organisation of a city, its industries and its markets, its lines of communication and traffic must be subservient to its social needs. Instead of trusting the mere population growth to produce the theatre, we must seek these sociological results from deliberate action. You can find the article through this link. Connecting episodes you might be interested in: No.126 - Interview with Corey Gray about beauty for sustainability; No.183 - Interview with Ted Baillieu about previous planning influencing current urban life; You can find the transcript through ⁠⁠this link⁠⁠. What wast the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Let me know on Twitter ⁠⁠@WTF4Cities⁠⁠ or on the ⁠⁠wtf4cities.com⁠⁠ website where the ⁠⁠shownotes⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠are also available. I hope this was an interesting episode for you and thanks for tuning in. Music by ⁠⁠Lesfm ⁠⁠from ⁠⁠Pixabay