Modernity/German School (Jan 10)

Orientalist

  • city = civilization idea (orietnlism view from Europe)

  • modernity of the West is linked to the idea that the East is not the same

  • proposes an ideal type of what an Islamic city is (however, Islam doesnt always mean Arab, ex: Indonesia)

  • Generalizes all of east as not advanced, historical, frozen in time

  • focus on a couple of cities and use that for whole islamic world

  • Lila focused on the problem of Orientalist within Islam in her work, same as Edward Saeed

    • The Islamic City--Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance (Author(s): Janet L. Abu-Lughod)


Arabo-Islamic City (how is it characterized)

Seen as a social process, not a product

  • The Umma or community of believers

    • Relationship to territorial segregation and the infrastructural role of neighbourhoods

    • islam always has this community of believers (may live in segregated parts of the city)

    • creates ethnic neighbourhoods


  • The encouragement of gender segregation

    • Created a set of architectural and spatial imperatives with limited solutions

    • A need to divide functions and spaces based on gender (emphasis on gender segregation)


  • Customary law and its relationship to property rights

    • Reproduction of nested series of spaces that emphasize access to entrance

    • might be a strong central state, or neighbourhoods would have control over their area


Modernity throughout human periods

  • European modernity, 15th – 18th century

    • Enlightenment and scientific revolution

    • Industrial revolution, 1760-1820


  • Victorian modernity

    • Queen Victoria’s reign, 1837-1901

    • Birth of anthropology as a discipline


  • Inter-war modernity

    • 1918-1939


Mechanical and Organic Solidarity

  • ideas from Emile Durkheim’ s Division of Labor, 1893

  • Durkheim observed that as societies transitioned from traditional, agrarian structures to industrialized ones, there was a corresponding shift in the nature of the division of labor. Industrialization led to a more complex and specialized organization of work.

  • Mechanical Solidarity:

    • Definition: Mechanical solidarity is associated with traditional or pre-industrial societies.

    • Characteristics: In such societies, people share similar values, beliefs, and lifestyles. The cohesion of the community is based on a strong collective conscience, and individuals have similar roles and functions.

  • Organic Solidarity:

    • Definition: Organic solidarity is linked to industrialized or modern societies.

    • Characteristics: In contrast to mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity arises from the interdependence of individuals with different roles and functions. The unity of society is based on the complementary nature of diverse tasks and professions. People rely on each other for goods and services.


Anthropology and the savage slot Michel-Rolph Trouillot (2003)

  1. Origins of the "Savage Slot":

    • anthropology did not create the concept of the "savage." Instead, it emerged as part of a broader Western narrative.

    • "savage slot" refers to a conceptual space or category created by the West to define and understand societies that were perceived as less advanced or civilized.

  2. Alter Ego for the West:

    • notion of the "savage" serves as an alter ego for the West. It is a constructed counterpart against which Western societies define and distinguish themselves.

    • creation of this dichotomy allowed the West to articulate its own identity by contrasting it with the perceived "otherness" of non-Western societies.

  3. Linked to Ideas of Order and Utopia:

    • The construction of the "savage" is intertwined with notions of order and utopia. By portraying non-Western societies as "savage" or "primitive," the West justified its own social and political structures as more advanced, ordered, and utopian.

  4. Structured World:

    • Trouillot highlights that the world was already pre-structured in the Western imagination into categories of "urban civilized people" and "non-urban civilized people" or the "savage." This division reflected not only a geographical but also a cultural and social hierarchy.

Does Modernity need tradition

  • country sides are built by cities

  • the shaping of the rural linked to the rise of the city


Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaf: tradition versus modernity

  • ideas from Ferdinand Toennies’s, Gemeinschaft und Gesellshaft, 1887

  • does modernity need tradition?

  • shows binary opposition

Gemeinschaft (Tradition)

  • Confident, intimate personal relations

  • Moral, collective, cooperative, joint bonds

  • Reciprocity, barter and exchange

  • Stability

  • Divine sanction

  • Status

  • Blood

  • Mechanical solidarity

  • Pre-capitalist

Gesellschaft (Modernity)

  • Relations between strangers

  • independent, depersonalized bonds

  • Purchase and contract

  • Change

  • Secular sanctions

  • Contract (Sir Henry Maine)

  • Soil (Lewis Henry Morgan)

  • Organic solidarity (Durkheim)

  • Capitalist (Marx


Connections between Metropolis and Blade Runner

Clear stratification of class & Division of Labor

  • conforming lower class population (dehumanized like parts of machine, we are the machine) showing the explosion to the showing the god in the worker city which is getting back to savage ideas

  • referencing that becoming the machine is just as bad as sacrifice following a god. (The workers are being sacrificed to run the machine)

  • “down below the earths surface” is the workers sity (workers seen as the bottom of society)

  • High class society above earth surface (seen as top of society, have libraries, gardens, etc)

  • saviour complex of woman saving the worker children

  • workers do all the hard work, that allows high class to thrive

  • same type of overpopulation and buildings seen in Blade Runner


Modernity and the city: The German School

  • 1st evidence of a European study of the city

  • Idea from Richard Sennett

  • is the city is a good thing? it might be dehumanizing people (idea shown in the movie above)

  • Modernity is a mindset of how to understand the world

  • first modern effort at urban studies

    • Max Weber (Cosmopolitanism)

    • Georg Simmel (Psychic stimulation)

    • Oswald Spengler (rise and fall of cities)


Cosmopolitanism

  • idea from Max Weber

  • Cosmopolitanism = Greek for citizens of the world

  • City as a social form (not just buildings) that permits the greatest degree of individuality and uniqueness

  • A set of social structures that encourage social individuality and innovation

  • saw city as an instrument for historical change

  • based on city-states of Renaissance Italy, not own modern, industrializing city

  • idea of cosmos

  • city allows chance for full freedom (not be tradition bound)


Psychic stimulation

  • idea from Georg Simmel (A psychological approach to the city)

  • Overwhelmed feeling for urban cities development is inescapable

  • hes worried about mental breakdowns for city dwellers (easier to live in the country side)

  • The city overwhelms people through an excess of psychic stimulation

  • Leads to defensive posture and not reacting emotionally to people

  • Will not react as whole humans but live in segmented functional relationships with other people

  • The defense leads people to break life into neat compartments


Decadent West and the cyclical rise and fall of cities

Idea from Oswald Spengler

  • Civilizational Life Cycles:

    • Spengler's Theory: civilizations go through predictable life cycles similar to the growth, maturity, and decline observed in organic life. He argued that civilizations, like living organisms, have a natural lifespan.

  • Rise and Fall of Cities:

    • City as Expression of Culture: Cities, according to Spengler, are the primary expressions of a culture during its vitality or youth. They are centers of cultural and artistic achievements.

    • Decay and Decline: As a civilization ages, Spengler argued, its cities enter a phase of decay and decline. The once vibrant cultural centers become ossified, and creative energies wane.

  • Natural Cycle for Human Societies:

    • Inevitable Decline: Spengler's perspective was pessimistic, suggesting that the decline of civilizations is an inevitable and natural part of their life cycle. He believed that attempts to revive or rejuvenate a civilization are futile, as decline is an inherent and irreversible process.

  • Implications for the View of Cities:

    • Not a Happy View: Spengler's theory provides a rather gloomy view of the fate of cities and civilizations. It challenges the idea of continual progress and advancement, emphasizing instead a cyclical pattern where decline is an integral part of the natural order