Ira Katznelson
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780198279242
- eISBN:
- 9780191601910
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198279248.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Defeated in the East and discredited in the West, Marxism has broken down as an ideology and as a guide to governance. However, for all its flaws, it remains an important tool for understanding and ...
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Defeated in the East and discredited in the West, Marxism has broken down as an ideology and as a guide to governance. However, for all its flaws, it remains an important tool for understanding and raising questions about key aspects of modern life. In Marxism and the City, Ira Katznelson critically assesses the scholarship on cities that has developed within Marxism in the past quarter century to show how some of the most important weaknesses in Marxism as a social theory can be remedied by forcing it to engage seriously with cities and spatial concerns. He argues that such a Marxism still has a significant contribution to make to the discussion of historical questions such as the transition from feudalism to a world composed of capitalist economies and nation‐states and the acquiescence of the western working classes to capitalism. Katznelson demonstrates how a Marxism that embraces complexity and is open to engagement with other social–theoretical traditions can illuminate understanding of cities and of the patterns of class and group formation that have characterized urban life in the West.Less
Defeated in the East and discredited in the West, Marxism has broken down as an ideology and as a guide to governance. However, for all its flaws, it remains an important tool for understanding and raising questions about key aspects of modern life. In Marxism and the City, Ira Katznelson critically assesses the scholarship on cities that has developed within Marxism in the past quarter century to show how some of the most important weaknesses in Marxism as a social theory can be remedied by forcing it to engage seriously with cities and spatial concerns. He argues that such a Marxism still has a significant contribution to make to the discussion of historical questions such as the transition from feudalism to a world composed of capitalist economies and nation‐states and the acquiescence of the western working classes to capitalism. Katznelson demonstrates how a Marxism that embraces complexity and is open to engagement with other social–theoretical traditions can illuminate understanding of cities and of the patterns of class and group formation that have characterized urban life in the West.
David Wengrow
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159041
- eISBN:
- 9781400848867
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159041.003.0005
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter considers the cultural ecology of composite animals. Paleolithic and Neolithic societies sometimes created durable images of composite beings, and the few surviving candidates have often ...
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This chapter considers the cultural ecology of composite animals. Paleolithic and Neolithic societies sometimes created durable images of composite beings, and the few surviving candidates have often been accorded great prominence in modern interpretations. Yet they remain strikingly isolated. If the popularity of minimally counterintuitive images is to be explained by their core cultural content and its appeal to universal cognitive biases, the question that arises is: Why did composite figures fail so spectacularly to “catch on” across the many millennia of innovation in visual culture that precede the onset of urban life? Much hinges here upon our conceptualization of the “counterintuitive” and its role in cultural transmission. To determine what kind of “cultural ecology” the composite animal belongs to, the chapter examines composites in early dynastic Egypt before discussing the relationship between the spread of urban civilization and the widespread transmission of images depicting composite beings.Less
This chapter considers the cultural ecology of composite animals. Paleolithic and Neolithic societies sometimes created durable images of composite beings, and the few surviving candidates have often been accorded great prominence in modern interpretations. Yet they remain strikingly isolated. If the popularity of minimally counterintuitive images is to be explained by their core cultural content and its appeal to universal cognitive biases, the question that arises is: Why did composite figures fail so spectacularly to “catch on” across the many millennia of innovation in visual culture that precede the onset of urban life? Much hinges here upon our conceptualization of the “counterintuitive” and its role in cultural transmission. To determine what kind of “cultural ecology” the composite animal belongs to, the chapter examines composites in early dynastic Egypt before discussing the relationship between the spread of urban civilization and the widespread transmission of images depicting composite beings.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199844425
- eISBN:
- 9780199943357
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199844425.003.0008
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter argues that the crime decline documented in this study requires a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between urban life and urban crime in the 21st century. Most of the high rate ...
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This chapter argues that the crime decline documented in this study requires a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between urban life and urban crime in the 21st century. Most of the high rate of life-threatening violence and predatory crime that observers have regarded as an inherent element of the structure and social content of polyglot big cities in the United States is not a necessary outgrowth of modern urban life. The chapter is organized around four topics. The first section revisits the data presented in Chapter 1 to argue that the scope of New York's decline is singular because its variability undermines conventional assumptions about the link between urban populations and urban crime rates. The second section then contrasts previous assumptions about the malleability and variability of urban crime with the experience in New York City since 1990. The third section provides preliminary data on the impact of crime policies and crime rates on minority populations. The final section considers the implications of what we are learning about the malleability of urban crime for criminological theories about crime causation and distribution and for social theories about modern urban life.Less
This chapter argues that the crime decline documented in this study requires a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between urban life and urban crime in the 21st century. Most of the high rate of life-threatening violence and predatory crime that observers have regarded as an inherent element of the structure and social content of polyglot big cities in the United States is not a necessary outgrowth of modern urban life. The chapter is organized around four topics. The first section revisits the data presented in Chapter 1 to argue that the scope of New York's decline is singular because its variability undermines conventional assumptions about the link between urban populations and urban crime rates. The second section then contrasts previous assumptions about the malleability and variability of urban crime with the experience in New York City since 1990. The third section provides preliminary data on the impact of crime policies and crime rates on minority populations. The final section considers the implications of what we are learning about the malleability of urban crime for criminological theories about crime causation and distribution and for social theories about modern urban life.
David Midgley
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198151791
- eISBN:
- 9780191672835
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198151791.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter describes the traditionally strong antagonism between stereotypical conceptions of urban and rural life, and the particular political significance with which it became invested under the ...
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This chapter describes the traditionally strong antagonism between stereotypical conceptions of urban and rural life, and the particular political significance with which it became invested under the circumstances of the Weimar Republic. The main goal is to examine how the cultural tensions of the time are reflected in the depiction of Berlin on the one hand and provincial society on the other.Less
This chapter describes the traditionally strong antagonism between stereotypical conceptions of urban and rural life, and the particular political significance with which it became invested under the circumstances of the Weimar Republic. The main goal is to examine how the cultural tensions of the time are reflected in the depiction of Berlin on the one hand and provincial society on the other.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195181159
- eISBN:
- 9780199944132
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181159.003.0071
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter examines crime in New York City, but uses New York as a laboratory for new theories about the linkage between crime and social structure in urban American life. New York City received a ...
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This chapter examines crime in New York City, but uses New York as a laboratory for new theories about the linkage between crime and social structure in urban American life. New York City received a double dose of crime decline in the 1990s, with serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and auto theft dropping by more than 70%. The chapter first explores the size and character of the city's crime decline, comparing what happened in New York City with the national pattern. Second, it estimates the incremental portion of the city's total crime decline that might be the subject of a separate evaluation. Third, it probes the particular history of the city during the 1990s, searching for atypical social or policy shifts that might qualify as the explanation of the city's incremental crime decline. Fourth, it addresses the lessons to be learned from the city's adventures in the 1990s. The city stands as an example of dramatic changes in the rate and risk of violent crime without major social, economic, or ecological changes.Less
This chapter examines crime in New York City, but uses New York as a laboratory for new theories about the linkage between crime and social structure in urban American life. New York City received a double dose of crime decline in the 1990s, with serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and auto theft dropping by more than 70%. The chapter first explores the size and character of the city's crime decline, comparing what happened in New York City with the national pattern. Second, it estimates the incremental portion of the city's total crime decline that might be the subject of a separate evaluation. Third, it probes the particular history of the city during the 1990s, searching for atypical social or policy shifts that might qualify as the explanation of the city's incremental crime decline. Fourth, it addresses the lessons to be learned from the city's adventures in the 1990s. The city stands as an example of dramatic changes in the rate and risk of violent crime without major social, economic, or ecological changes.
Kian Tajbakhsh
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520222779
- eISBN:
- 9780520924642
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520222779.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This book proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of cities and urban life. Finding the contemporary urban scene too complex to be captured by radical or conventional approaches, the book ...
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This book proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of cities and urban life. Finding the contemporary urban scene too complex to be captured by radical or conventional approaches, the book offers a threefold, interdisciplinary approach linking agency, space, and structure. First, it says, urban identities cannot be understood through individualistic, communitarian, or class perspectives but rather through the shifting spectrum of cultural, political, and economic influences. Second, the layered, unfinished city spaces we inhabit and within which we create meaning are best represented not by the image of bounded physical spaces but rather by overlapping and shifting boundaries. And third, the macro forces shaping urban society include bureaucratic and governmental interventions not captured by a purely economic paradigm. The book examines these dimensions in the work of three major critical urban theorists of recent decades: Manuel Castells, David Harvey, and Ira Katznelson. It shows why the answers offered by Marxian urban theory to the questions of identity, space, and structure are unsatisfactory and why the perspectives of other intellectual traditions such as post-structuralism, feminism, Habermasian Critical Theory, and pragmatism can help us better understand the challenges facing contemporary cities.Less
This book proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of cities and urban life. Finding the contemporary urban scene too complex to be captured by radical or conventional approaches, the book offers a threefold, interdisciplinary approach linking agency, space, and structure. First, it says, urban identities cannot be understood through individualistic, communitarian, or class perspectives but rather through the shifting spectrum of cultural, political, and economic influences. Second, the layered, unfinished city spaces we inhabit and within which we create meaning are best represented not by the image of bounded physical spaces but rather by overlapping and shifting boundaries. And third, the macro forces shaping urban society include bureaucratic and governmental interventions not captured by a purely economic paradigm. The book examines these dimensions in the work of three major critical urban theorists of recent decades: Manuel Castells, David Harvey, and Ira Katznelson. It shows why the answers offered by Marxian urban theory to the questions of identity, space, and structure are unsatisfactory and why the perspectives of other intellectual traditions such as post-structuralism, feminism, Habermasian Critical Theory, and pragmatism can help us better understand the challenges facing contemporary cities.
Mona Abaza
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526145116
- eISBN:
- 9781526152114
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526145123
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
In Cairo collages, the large-scale political, economic, and social changes in Egypt brought on by the 2011 revolution are set against the declining fortunes of a single apartment building in a ...
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In Cairo collages, the large-scale political, economic, and social changes in Egypt brought on by the 2011 revolution are set against the declining fortunes of a single apartment building in a specific Cairo neighbourhood. The violence in Tahrir Square and Mohamed Mahmud Street; the post-January euphoric moment; the increasing militarisation of urban life; the flourishing of dystopian novels set in Cairo; the neo-liberal imaginaries of Dubai and Singapore as global models; gentrification and evictions in poor neighbourhoods; the forthcoming new administrative capital for Egypt – all are narrated in parallel to the ‘little’ story of the adventures and misfortunes of everyday interactions in a middle-class building in the neighbourhood of Doqi.Less
In Cairo collages, the large-scale political, economic, and social changes in Egypt brought on by the 2011 revolution are set against the declining fortunes of a single apartment building in a specific Cairo neighbourhood. The violence in Tahrir Square and Mohamed Mahmud Street; the post-January euphoric moment; the increasing militarisation of urban life; the flourishing of dystopian novels set in Cairo; the neo-liberal imaginaries of Dubai and Singapore as global models; gentrification and evictions in poor neighbourhoods; the forthcoming new administrative capital for Egypt – all are narrated in parallel to the ‘little’ story of the adventures and misfortunes of everyday interactions in a middle-class building in the neighbourhood of Doqi.
MAGALI TERCERO
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264461
- eISBN:
- 9780191734625
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264461.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
This chapter presents powerful images and accounts that chronicle contemporary urban life in Mexico. The images discussed were captured by the photographer Maya Goded. These photographs and ...
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This chapter presents powerful images and accounts that chronicle contemporary urban life in Mexico. The images discussed were captured by the photographer Maya Goded. These photographs and narratives chronicle the desolation of death, the world of the child and the bleak world of prostitution. In addition to these, the woman’s prison, the attractions of lucha libre (masked wrestling), the national lottery and games of chance, and the mass rallies of the Zapatistas, are painted vibrantly through chronicles and accounts. In these chronicles and photographs, the theme of poverty and the failure of the government to address the needs of the marginalized people form the unifying voice of these accounts. Prostitution, wrestling and the lottery became means for the people to escape poverty and the humdrum of everyday lives marked with difficulties. And the mistreatment of children, the trafficking of the rights of women in prisons and the lack of systematic identification of the victims of death reflect the failure of the government to produce laws and services that protect its people. However, despite the bleakness of the photographs and the chronicles presented herein, they nevertheless reflect the resilience of the Mexicans in surviving the challenges of life despite the feeling of being marginalized.Less
This chapter presents powerful images and accounts that chronicle contemporary urban life in Mexico. The images discussed were captured by the photographer Maya Goded. These photographs and narratives chronicle the desolation of death, the world of the child and the bleak world of prostitution. In addition to these, the woman’s prison, the attractions of lucha libre (masked wrestling), the national lottery and games of chance, and the mass rallies of the Zapatistas, are painted vibrantly through chronicles and accounts. In these chronicles and photographs, the theme of poverty and the failure of the government to address the needs of the marginalized people form the unifying voice of these accounts. Prostitution, wrestling and the lottery became means for the people to escape poverty and the humdrum of everyday lives marked with difficulties. And the mistreatment of children, the trafficking of the rights of women in prisons and the lack of systematic identification of the victims of death reflect the failure of the government to produce laws and services that protect its people. However, despite the bleakness of the photographs and the chronicles presented herein, they nevertheless reflect the resilience of the Mexicans in surviving the challenges of life despite the feeling of being marginalized.
Robin Osborne and Barry Cunliffe (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263259
- eISBN:
- 9780191734618
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263259.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a ...
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Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus, through Greece and Italy, to France and Spain. Scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyse the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the book focuses on the history of the archaeology of urbanization and argues that proper understanding of the phenomenon demands loose and flexible criteria for what is termed a ‘town’. The following eight chapters examine the development of individual settlements and patterns of urban settlement in Cyprus, Greece, Etruria, Latium, southern Italy, Sardinia, southern France, and Spain. These chapters not only provide a general review of current knowledge of urban settlements of this period, but also raise significant issues of urbanization and the economy, urbanization and political organization, and of the degree of regionalism and diversity to be found within individual towns. The three analytical chapters which conclude this collection look more broadly at the town as a cultural phenomenon that has to be related to wider cultural trends, as an economic phenomenon that has to be related to changes in the Mediterranean economy, and as a dynamic phenomenon, not merely a point on the map.Less
Urban life as we know it in the Mediterranean began in the early Iron Age: settlements of great size and internal diversity appear in the archaeological record. This collection of essays offers a systematic discussion of the beginnings of urbanization across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus, through Greece and Italy, to France and Spain. Scholars in the field look critically at what is meant by urbanization, and analyse the social processes that lead to the development of social complexity and the growth of towns. The introduction to the book focuses on the history of the archaeology of urbanization and argues that proper understanding of the phenomenon demands loose and flexible criteria for what is termed a ‘town’. The following eight chapters examine the development of individual settlements and patterns of urban settlement in Cyprus, Greece, Etruria, Latium, southern Italy, Sardinia, southern France, and Spain. These chapters not only provide a general review of current knowledge of urban settlements of this period, but also raise significant issues of urbanization and the economy, urbanization and political organization, and of the degree of regionalism and diversity to be found within individual towns. The three analytical chapters which conclude this collection look more broadly at the town as a cultural phenomenon that has to be related to wider cultural trends, as an economic phenomenon that has to be related to changes in the Mediterranean economy, and as a dynamic phenomenon, not merely a point on the map.
Franklin E. Zimring
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195181159
- eISBN:
- 9780199944132
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181159.003.0091
- Subject:
- Sociology, Law, Crime and Deviance
This chapter isolates seven important lessons that can be derived from the known facts regarding crime in the 1990s and provides a brief summary of the evidence for each. These lessons are as ...
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This chapter isolates seven important lessons that can be derived from the known facts regarding crime in the 1990s and provides a brief summary of the evidence for each. These lessons are as follows. The crime decline was real, was national in scope, and was larger and longer than any documented decline in the twentieth century. The crime decline of the 1990s was a classic example of multiple causation, with none of the many contributing causes playing a dominant role. It will not be possible to comprehend what caused declining crime in the United States until more is known about the parallel crime decline in Canada. New York City had a crime decline during the 1990s almost twice the national average, and the city's downtrend has continued through 2004, making it a natural laboratory for studying the effects of a lower crime environment on urban life. Two kinds of parochialism have hampered the effort to understand the effects that social and criminal justice factors have on crime rates: firstly, the failure by many investigators to consider data and insights outside their narrow disciplinary perspective; and, secondly, the failure to consider events outside the United States. Since the national crime decline ended in 2000, rates have stayed near the lowest levels of the 1990s. But there are indications that crime rates could drop further, perhaps much further, without major changes in the American social framework. Finally, whatever else is now known about crime in America, the most important lesson of the 1990s was that major changes in rates of crime can happen without major changes in the social fabric.Less
This chapter isolates seven important lessons that can be derived from the known facts regarding crime in the 1990s and provides a brief summary of the evidence for each. These lessons are as follows. The crime decline was real, was national in scope, and was larger and longer than any documented decline in the twentieth century. The crime decline of the 1990s was a classic example of multiple causation, with none of the many contributing causes playing a dominant role. It will not be possible to comprehend what caused declining crime in the United States until more is known about the parallel crime decline in Canada. New York City had a crime decline during the 1990s almost twice the national average, and the city's downtrend has continued through 2004, making it a natural laboratory for studying the effects of a lower crime environment on urban life. Two kinds of parochialism have hampered the effort to understand the effects that social and criminal justice factors have on crime rates: firstly, the failure by many investigators to consider data and insights outside their narrow disciplinary perspective; and, secondly, the failure to consider events outside the United States. Since the national crime decline ended in 2000, rates have stayed near the lowest levels of the 1990s. But there are indications that crime rates could drop further, perhaps much further, without major changes in the American social framework. Finally, whatever else is now known about crime in America, the most important lesson of the 1990s was that major changes in rates of crime can happen without major changes in the social fabric.
Amin Ghaziani
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691158792
- eISBN:
- 9781400850174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691158792.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Gay neighborhoods, like the legendary Castro District in San Francisco and New York's Greenwich Village, have long provided sexual minorities with safe havens in an often unsafe world. But as our ...
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Gay neighborhoods, like the legendary Castro District in San Francisco and New York's Greenwich Village, have long provided sexual minorities with safe havens in an often unsafe world. But as our society increasingly accepts gays and lesbians into the mainstream, are “gayborhoods” destined to disappear? This book provides an incisive look at the origins of these unique cultural enclaves, the reasons why they are changing today, and their prospects for the future. Drawing on a wealth of evidenc—including census data, opinion polls, hundreds of newspaper reports from across the United States, and more than 100 original interviews with residents in Chicago, one of the most paradigmatic cities in America—the book argues that political gains and societal acceptance are allowing gays and lesbians to imagine expansive possibilities for a life beyond the gayborhood. The dawn of a new post-gay era is altering the character and composition of existing enclaves across the country, but the spirit of integration can coexist alongside the celebration of differences in subtle and sometimes surprising ways. Exploring the intimate relationship between sexuality and the city, the book reveals how gayborhoods, like the cities that surround them, are organic and continually evolving places. Gayborhoods have nurtured sexual minorities throughout the twentieth century and, despite the unstoppable forces of flux, will remain resonant and revelatory features of urban life.Less
Gay neighborhoods, like the legendary Castro District in San Francisco and New York's Greenwich Village, have long provided sexual minorities with safe havens in an often unsafe world. But as our society increasingly accepts gays and lesbians into the mainstream, are “gayborhoods” destined to disappear? This book provides an incisive look at the origins of these unique cultural enclaves, the reasons why they are changing today, and their prospects for the future. Drawing on a wealth of evidenc—including census data, opinion polls, hundreds of newspaper reports from across the United States, and more than 100 original interviews with residents in Chicago, one of the most paradigmatic cities in America—the book argues that political gains and societal acceptance are allowing gays and lesbians to imagine expansive possibilities for a life beyond the gayborhood. The dawn of a new post-gay era is altering the character and composition of existing enclaves across the country, but the spirit of integration can coexist alongside the celebration of differences in subtle and sometimes surprising ways. Exploring the intimate relationship between sexuality and the city, the book reveals how gayborhoods, like the cities that surround them, are organic and continually evolving places. Gayborhoods have nurtured sexual minorities throughout the twentieth century and, despite the unstoppable forces of flux, will remain resonant and revelatory features of urban life.
John Miller
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199288397
- eISBN:
- 9780191710902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288397.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The period 1660-1722 saw political debate and discord become a normal part of English urban life. National politics impinged far more ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The period 1660-1722 saw political debate and discord become a normal part of English urban life. National politics impinged far more on townspeople's lives than in the 16th century, when few parliamentary elections were contested, so there was no need to place issues before the electors. The clear-cut division between Tories and Whigs was thrown into turmoil by James II, but it reappeared in late 1688 as Whigs and Tories jostled for power under the new king. During the 18th century, some corporations became notorious for self-seeking oligarchy and corruption but such vices were less apparent in the early part of the century.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The period 1660-1722 saw political debate and discord become a normal part of English urban life. National politics impinged far more on townspeople's lives than in the 16th century, when few parliamentary elections were contested, so there was no need to place issues before the electors. The clear-cut division between Tories and Whigs was thrown into turmoil by James II, but it reappeared in late 1688 as Whigs and Tories jostled for power under the new king. During the 18th century, some corporations became notorious for self-seeking oligarchy and corruption but such vices were less apparent in the early part of the century.
Clare Brant and Susan e. Whyman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280728
- eISBN:
- 9780191700149
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280728.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This book provides a window into the world of eighteenth-century London for all who are interested in history, literature, and the city. It invites students and teachers to take a walk along the ...
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This book provides a window into the world of eighteenth-century London for all who are interested in history, literature, and the city. It invites students and teachers to take a walk along the dirty, crowded, but fascinating streets of London. It recovers one of the most lively, funny, and thought-provoking statements about urban life: John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). It does all of these things by linking a passionate conviction about scholarship to a very simple idea: that the best way to connect people with different points of view is to read the same text — in this case, Gay's poem. The book offers nine different interpretations of the poem from nine writers who are specialists in the eighteenth century. The notes to the poem offer many surprises about eighteenth-century London and help the reader to understand ways of speaking in Gay's city — its slang, allusions, stories, and rhymes. Topics such as biography, sharing of public spaces, cultural geography, poverty, pollution, plague, and gender.Less
This book provides a window into the world of eighteenth-century London for all who are interested in history, literature, and the city. It invites students and teachers to take a walk along the dirty, crowded, but fascinating streets of London. It recovers one of the most lively, funny, and thought-provoking statements about urban life: John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). It does all of these things by linking a passionate conviction about scholarship to a very simple idea: that the best way to connect people with different points of view is to read the same text — in this case, Gay's poem. The book offers nine different interpretations of the poem from nine writers who are specialists in the eighteenth century. The notes to the poem offer many surprises about eighteenth-century London and help the reader to understand ways of speaking in Gay's city — its slang, allusions, stories, and rhymes. Topics such as biography, sharing of public spaces, cultural geography, poverty, pollution, plague, and gender.
John M. Merriman
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195064384
- eISBN:
- 9780199854424
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195064384.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Unlike most historians of France, who draw a sharp contrast between cities and the countryside, the author of this book focuses on the spatial and social margins of urban life, the faubourgs, or ...
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Unlike most historians of France, who draw a sharp contrast between cities and the countryside, the author of this book focuses on the spatial and social margins of urban life, the faubourgs, or suburbs, where rural migrants and the laboring poor of the cities congregated in growing numbers in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the eyes of the urban elite, the women and men of the periphery—the world of beggars, the most miserable prostitutes, rag pickers, casual labor, and unwanted people; the location of slaughterhouses, gas factories, tanneries, and, increasingly, even executions—resembled barbarians at the gates of civilization. The book examines the cultural and social traditions—as expressed in festivals, in songs, in strikes, and in political movements—that took root in these areas. Neighborhood solidarities developed that were based on a collective sense of exclusion from the urban centre. Urban elites came to realize that the “disreputable” persons they had cast out to the suburbs were becoming a ring of organized worker communities, “the cord that might wring our necks one day”. The author argues that to know the margins is also to know the centre, for the periphery of urban life was a mirror in which the French upper classes viewed the most frightening aspects of their world.Less
Unlike most historians of France, who draw a sharp contrast between cities and the countryside, the author of this book focuses on the spatial and social margins of urban life, the faubourgs, or suburbs, where rural migrants and the laboring poor of the cities congregated in growing numbers in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the eyes of the urban elite, the women and men of the periphery—the world of beggars, the most miserable prostitutes, rag pickers, casual labor, and unwanted people; the location of slaughterhouses, gas factories, tanneries, and, increasingly, even executions—resembled barbarians at the gates of civilization. The book examines the cultural and social traditions—as expressed in festivals, in songs, in strikes, and in political movements—that took root in these areas. Neighborhood solidarities developed that were based on a collective sense of exclusion from the urban centre. Urban elites came to realize that the “disreputable” persons they had cast out to the suburbs were becoming a ring of organized worker communities, “the cord that might wring our necks one day”. The author argues that to know the margins is also to know the centre, for the periphery of urban life was a mirror in which the French upper classes viewed the most frightening aspects of their world.
Pamela Walker
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520225916
- eISBN:
- 9780520925854
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520225916.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Those people in uniforms who ring bells and raise money for the poor during the holiday season belong to a religious movement that in 1865 combined early feminism, street preaching, holiness ...
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Those people in uniforms who ring bells and raise money for the poor during the holiday season belong to a religious movement that in 1865 combined early feminism, street preaching, holiness theology, and intentionally outrageous singing into what soon became the Salvation Army. This book emphasizes how thoroughly the Army entered into nineteenth-century urban life. It follows the movement from its Methodist roots and East London origins through its struggles with the established denominations of England, problems with the law and the media, and public manifestations that included street brawls with working-class toughs. The Salvation Army was a neighborhood religion, with a “battle plan” especially suited to urban working-class geography and cultural life. The ability to use popular leisure activities as inspiration was a major factor in the Army's success, since pubs, music halls, sports, and betting were regarded as its principal rivals. Salvationist women claimed the “right to preach” and enjoyed spiritual authority and public visibility more extensively than in virtually any other religious or secular organization. Opposition to the new movement was equally energetic and took many forms, but even as contemporary music hall performers ridiculed the “Hallelujah Lasses,” the Salvation Army was spreading across Great Britain and the Continent, and on to North America. The Army offered a distinctive response to the dilemmas facing Victorian Christians, in particular the relationship between what Salvationists believed and the work they did. The book fills in the social, cultural, and religious contexts that make that relationship come to life.Less
Those people in uniforms who ring bells and raise money for the poor during the holiday season belong to a religious movement that in 1865 combined early feminism, street preaching, holiness theology, and intentionally outrageous singing into what soon became the Salvation Army. This book emphasizes how thoroughly the Army entered into nineteenth-century urban life. It follows the movement from its Methodist roots and East London origins through its struggles with the established denominations of England, problems with the law and the media, and public manifestations that included street brawls with working-class toughs. The Salvation Army was a neighborhood religion, with a “battle plan” especially suited to urban working-class geography and cultural life. The ability to use popular leisure activities as inspiration was a major factor in the Army's success, since pubs, music halls, sports, and betting were regarded as its principal rivals. Salvationist women claimed the “right to preach” and enjoyed spiritual authority and public visibility more extensively than in virtually any other religious or secular organization. Opposition to the new movement was equally energetic and took many forms, but even as contemporary music hall performers ridiculed the “Hallelujah Lasses,” the Salvation Army was spreading across Great Britain and the Continent, and on to North America. The Army offered a distinctive response to the dilemmas facing Victorian Christians, in particular the relationship between what Salvationists believed and the work they did. The book fills in the social, cultural, and religious contexts that make that relationship come to life.
Harry Hendrick
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198217824
- eISBN:
- 9780191678295
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198217824.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This chapter examines the concept and social fact related to social science and realities of working class adolescents in Great Britain during the 1800s. It suggests there were important differences ...
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This chapter examines the concept and social fact related to social science and realities of working class adolescents in Great Britain during the 1800s. It suggests there were important differences between the concept of adolescence and other concepts used by social psychologists with reference to the urban malaise, and contemporary anxieties tended to blur the distinctions rather than clarify them. The two different and separate phenomena of urban life and working class adolescence came together in a single cultural photograph, principally composed by perceptions derived from the social sciences.Less
This chapter examines the concept and social fact related to social science and realities of working class adolescents in Great Britain during the 1800s. It suggests there were important differences between the concept of adolescence and other concepts used by social psychologists with reference to the urban malaise, and contemporary anxieties tended to blur the distinctions rather than clarify them. The two different and separate phenomena of urban life and working class adolescence came together in a single cultural photograph, principally composed by perceptions derived from the social sciences.
Clare Brant and Susan E. Whyman (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199280728
- eISBN:
- 9780191700149
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199280728.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This book is about literature and history, and the city of London. It invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of 18th-century London in an unusual way. Nine ...
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This book is about literature and history, and the city of London. It invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of 18th-century London in an unusual way. Nine leading experts from the fields of literature, history, classics, gender, biography, geography, and costume, offer different interpretations of John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). The poem — a lively, funny, and thought-provoking statement about urban life — accompanies the chapters. The introduction paints a vibrant picture of London in 1716, depicting Gay's fascinating life and literary world, offering an invaluable guide to the poem. Together, these elements allow the heat, grime, and smells of the underbelly of 18th-century London to come alive in new ways.Less
This book is about literature and history, and the city of London. It invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of 18th-century London in an unusual way. Nine leading experts from the fields of literature, history, classics, gender, biography, geography, and costume, offer different interpretations of John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). The poem — a lively, funny, and thought-provoking statement about urban life — accompanies the chapters. The introduction paints a vibrant picture of London in 1716, depicting Gay's fascinating life and literary world, offering an invaluable guide to the poem. Together, these elements allow the heat, grime, and smells of the underbelly of 18th-century London to come alive in new ways.
Robert Tittler
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207184
- eISBN:
- 9780191677540
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207184.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter is an introduction to Part IV of this book, which deals with political culture in the post-Reformation town. Several suggestions have ...
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This chapter is an introduction to Part IV of this book, which deals with political culture in the post-Reformation town. Several suggestions have been offered regarding the effects of the Reformation on the essential cultural aspects of urban life. The last chapters of this book tackle the broad issue of politics and political culture. Together, they explain how civic cultural activities were employed to legitimise the prevailing distribution of power, and to what extent and how successfully such cultural activities conveyed the essential civic virtues of harmony, order, and deference without the theological underpinnings of medieval Catholicism.Less
This chapter is an introduction to Part IV of this book, which deals with political culture in the post-Reformation town. Several suggestions have been offered regarding the effects of the Reformation on the essential cultural aspects of urban life. The last chapters of this book tackle the broad issue of politics and political culture. Together, they explain how civic cultural activities were employed to legitimise the prevailing distribution of power, and to what extent and how successfully such cultural activities conveyed the essential civic virtues of harmony, order, and deference without the theological underpinnings of medieval Catholicism.
Zephyr Frank
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780804757447
- eISBN:
- 9780804797306
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804757447.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This book explores the history and culture of nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro through the genre of the Bildungsroman read against a background of social history and economic data.
This book explores the history and culture of nineteenth-century Rio de Janeiro through the genre of the Bildungsroman read against a background of social history and economic data.
Kristian Kloeckl
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780300243048
- eISBN:
- 9780300249347
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300243048.003.0002
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural History
This chapter introduces the digitally augmented city as a major focus of current design research and practice. It critically examines the impact that the entanglement of networked information ...
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This chapter introduces the digitally augmented city as a major focus of current design research and practice. It critically examines the impact that the entanglement of networked information technologies with the urban realm has produced and discusses this in reference to extant literature. The entanglement of networked information technologies and urban environments has changed cities and urban life, and it has changed how we think about cities. Over the past two decades, a profusion of terms have been coined by scholars and practitioners to describe aspects of this changing urban condition. Networked city, real-time city, virtual city, smart city, hybrid city, responsive city, and ad hoc city are terms that are at times used lightly but that have underlying concepts that can help us capture more of the current urban condition and point to ways of working with it.Less
This chapter introduces the digitally augmented city as a major focus of current design research and practice. It critically examines the impact that the entanglement of networked information technologies with the urban realm has produced and discusses this in reference to extant literature. The entanglement of networked information technologies and urban environments has changed cities and urban life, and it has changed how we think about cities. Over the past two decades, a profusion of terms have been coined by scholars and practitioners to describe aspects of this changing urban condition. Networked city, real-time city, virtual city, smart city, hybrid city, responsive city, and ad hoc city are terms that are at times used lightly but that have underlying concepts that can help us capture more of the current urban condition and point to ways of working with it.
