This article may have too many section headers dividing up its content. Please help improve the article by merging similar sections and removing unneeded subheaders. (May 2012)

This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. Please help relocate any relevant information, and remove excessive detail that may be against Wikipedia inclusion policy. (May 2012)

This article is written like a personal reflection or essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (May 2012)

Urbanism is the study of how dwellers in towns and cities interact with their environment. Urbanism focuses on the geography, economy, politics and social characteristics of the urban environment, as well as the effects on, and caused by, the built environment.

Theory of Urbanism[link]

Urbanism Theory Writers of the late 20th C.

modern urbanism writings

Currently many architects, planners, and sociologists (like Louis Wirth) investigate the way people live in densely populated urban areas from many perspectives including a sociological perspective. To arrive to an adequate conception of 'urbanism as a mode of life' Wirth says it is necessary to stop 'identify[ing] urbanism with the physical entity of the city' , go 'beyond an arbitrary boundary line' and consider how 'technological developments in transportation and communication have enormously extended the urban mode of living beyond the confines of the city itself.' ^[1]

Witold Rybczynski, an architect, professor, author and critic supports Wirth’s ideas of the urban way of life as freed from the boundaries of city limits. Urban habits and mindsets, for example, leak out from cities, urban centers, and urbanized areas into more suburban and rural areas due in part to the ease of cultural diffusion in the twenty first century. ^[2]

In contemporary urbanism, also known as urban design in many parts of the world, there are as many different ways of framing the practice as there are cities in the world. According to American architect and planner Jonathan Barnett the approach of defining all the different ‘urbanisms’ in the world is an endless one. In his essay ‘A Short Guide to 60 of the Newest Urbanisms’^[3] he acknowledges a list of sixty, but sees it as not particularly useful, because it is just about dividing up a field that strives for a comprehensive approach. In this page, such a division is not being made, though, in order to give a clear view, one has to look with a certain perspective.

Mainstream vs. Alternative Urbanism[link]

In the book Cities and Design, Paul Knox refers to one of many trends in contemporary urbanism as the ‘aestheticization of everyday life’. ^[4] Alex Krieger studies urbanism theory in order to provide insight into how urban practitioners work. He identifies ten spheres in which urbanism takes place in practice. The ten are: the bridge connecting planning and architecture, a form-based category of public policy, the architecture of the city, urban design as restorative urbanism, urban design as an art of place- making, urban design as smart growth, the infrastructure of the city, urban design as landscape urbanism, urban design as visionary urbanism, and urban design as community advocacy or doing no harm. Krieger concludes by stating that urban design is less a technical discipline than a mind-set based on a commitment to cities.^[5]

In Three Urbanisms and the Public Realm, Douglas Kelbaugh of the University of Michigan writes about three urbanisms on the cutting edge of theoretical and professional activity in Western cities. These three paradigms include New Urbanism, Everyday Urbanism, and Post- Urbanism. He examines their overlaps and oppositions, methodologies and modalities, strengths and weaknesses, in the hope of sketching the outline of a more integrated position.^[6]

Concepts of Urbanism[link]

Pragmatism[link]

The pragmatic approach to urbanism promotes action above reflection. Pragmatism emphasizes a culture of inclusion within cities where contradiction and disagreement work to build stronger truths. The essence of pragmatism remains in contemporary daily life in urban area as main philosophical ingredient. Although the expression has used for over a century, it is not a fixed concept. While the world that the movement is rooted in has had many changes, as a frame to perceive the world, pragmatism also has experienced different levels of modifications. Those changes are very relevant to the development of cities and basic themes of pragmatism can be applied to the urbanism even more strongly.

In a lecture at The New School University, Richard Bernstein mentioned six themes that can be found from the acknowledged pragmatists: anti-foundationalism, fallibilism, community as inquirers, questioning the sharp distinction between theory and practice, pluralism and democracy.^[7] Moreover, from the following interview, he re-emphasized that “everything” of those themes are useful for re-conceptualizing urbanism and re-thinking urban practice so that they have much great impact on the city and its citizens.^[8]

Anti-foundationalism and fallibilism closely connect to each other. In the same context of these two, the concept of cities is provisional and never absolute or certain, and pragmatists argue that the idea of space needs to be pliable and adaptable and able to cope with unpredictability and change. The notion of a community as inquirers is a continuing process of self-correction and spatial legitimacy is determined from the larger community in which they are presented, in this sense the idea of place will be sustained only as long as there is a community to support it. William James’s engaged pluralism encourages people to actively reach out to the points of intersection where people can critically engage with others. Under pragmatism there cannot be a platonic ideal of “placeless” or an essential definition of place because the place is defined throughout continuous interactions with its dwellers.

John Dewey believed that the personification of knowledge in everyday practices was essential and the proactive question about the relationship between theory and practice connects to the idea of social responsibility. The theme of democracy was central to Dewey’s version of pragmatism. He believed that in a democratic society, every sovereign citizen is capable of achieving personality. He argued that the concept of place should be open to experimentation for the hope of realizing a better world.^[9]

According to Bernstein, “these themes are also basic applications of urbanism.” As pragmatism shares a history of development with modern cities, both pragmatists and urban practitioners have influenced each other. Dewey said that the interaction is human experience: 'For life is no uniform uninterrupted march or flow. It is a thing of histories, each with its own plot, its own inception and movement toward its close, each having its own particular rhythmic movement; each with its own unrepeated quality pervading it throughout.’ ^[10]

See also[link]

• Abahlali baseMjondolo
• Ecological urbanism
• Green urbanism
• Landscape architecture
• Landscape urbanism, an urbanism modeled on the disciplines of landscape architecture and ecology.
• Micro-urban
• MONU - magazine on urbanism
• Networked Urbanism
• New urbanism, a response to contemporary problems such as urban sprawl and traffic congestion.
• Unitary urbanism, a critique of urbanism as a technology of power by the situationists.
• Peer-to-peer urbanism, a form of urbanism that promotes participation and design by a city's inhabitants.
• sustainable urbanism
• Tactical urbanism
• Urban Acupuncture
• Urban geography
• Urban design
• Urban planning
• Principles of Intelligent Urbanism
• Urbanate, a living environment envisioned by the Technocracy movement.
• World Urbanism Day.
• Orangi Pilot Project.
• Orangi Town.
• Akhtar Hameed Khan.
• Slum.
• Shehri.

Endnotes[link]

External links[link]

• urbanism.org - website about urbanism news