This week we will be looking at effect of power in planning in the urban environment. We will start with Foucault’s analysis of the Panopticon as a metaphor for the implications of design and social control. We will follow it up with an excerpt of Mike Davis’s City of Quartz to apply this concept to the urban environment. We will also read about Robert Moses as an example of large scale, top down planning and its effect in shaping the city of New York in the 20th century.

We will then counter this top-down approach with a people centered one and look at Jane Jacobs and William Whyte as examples of inclusive, rather than exclusive urban design principles.

————-

In thinking about contemporary and applied approaches to many of these concepts, please read this Washington post article to give you an idea of how Mike Davis’s argument has been at work in other cities.

Read CityLab’s “Reading Jane Jacobs Anew” to give you a context for the article we will be reading. Read also “New Way of Understanding Eyes on the Street” as possible critique of some of her ideas.

We will read William Whyte’s “Social Life of Small Urban Spaces”, but also watch at least some of the film its referring to in order to give you a sense of his approach (see CityLab’s article “Classic Documentary on Public Space…” for the link).

Finally, please watch this film before Thursday: “Jane Jacobs and Robert Mosses: Urban Fight of the Century”: