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CULTURE AND THE CITY (ANTH 3500)

Fall Quarter 2018

TF 10:00-11:50

Sturm Hall 154

Professor Dean Saitta

Department of Anthropology

Cities, in the opinion of geographer David Lowenthal, have long been viewed "through the opposing lenses of redemption and corruption." On the one hand, they are presented as the greatest cultural achievement of humankind, the "locus of justice, truth, and progress, the source of civic freedom.” On the other hand, they are seen as "seats of tyranny and corruption, sources of impurity and subversion, their populace alien, their pursuits parasitical."

History seems to be settling this issue in favor of the more positive view of the city. Today, for the first time in history, most human beings on the planet live in cities...and the trend toward urban life is accelerating. There is a very good chance that you will live the rest of your life in a city. This raises a bunch of questions. Among them is the following: What kind of urban physical environment best allows human well-being, freedom, creativity, and justice to flourish?

This course examines this question from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing on anthropology, geography, history, sociology, urban planning, art and architecture we will consider the past and future of the city as a human built environment that reflects and reproduces cultural values, ideals, and ways of living. Our notion of "urban form" or urban materiality covers both the design and architecture of cities, including the form and arrangement of buildings, streets, squares, parks, other open spaces,and public monuments. Our analysis is sensitive to both the technologies and aesthetics of urban form and evolution.

We have two main objectives. One objective is to put the city into trans-historical and cross-cultural perspective so as to better understand the political, economic, and cultural factors that produce variation in urban form. The other objective is to use this understanding of variation in urban form to explore how cities might be redesigned to deal with the great questions of 21st century urban life. How can cities manage their material environments so as to become ecologically-sustainable? What does the socially equitable or just city look like? What aesthetic values in the design of buildings and public space can help integrate cultural diversity and promote shared civic pride? In short, what makes for the "Good" City in the New Urban Age?

Banner Image: Section of The Ideal City by Fra Carnevale, c. between 1480-1484.