Paradoxical Urbanism : Anti-Urban Currents in Modern Urbanism

Miles, Malcolm

Springer Verlag, Singapore（2020/09発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 128 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9789811563409
• DDC分類 307.76

Full Description

Modernist urbanism seems progressive, even Utopian: design for a better world through a democratic and humane built environment. But two currents undermine this vision from within: an Arcadianism which turns to a rural idyll as retreat from change and the effects of industrialization; and an instrumentalism by which the humane vision becomes prescriptive and anti-democratic. Malcolm Miles argues that these two currents undermine modernism's progressive vision. This book examines the roots of modernist urbanism in the seamless, self-contained systems of Cartesian space; and identifies contradictions within modernist urbanism in its instrumentalism and reliance on de-politicised professional expertise. Miles adroitly reviews the postmodern culture of industrial ruinscapes; and posits that if cities are to be places of proximity, diversity, mobility and agency, this will require a move from modernist instrumentalism to a creative and radically democratic co-production of the built environment.

Contents

Chapter 1 Colliding Utopias.- Chapter 2 From Arcadia to Plotlands.- Chapter 3 Drawing a Line.- Chapter 4 The Contradictions of Modernism.- Chapter 5 Post-industrial Ruinscapes.- Chapter 6 An Urban Revolution?.