The Villain vs. The Saint: Most important writers ISS
Writers describe two kinds of worlds. The wrong world, the villain world, and the intended world, the
saint world. The Villain is always on the left and the Saint on the right.
A
Jane Jacobs – Death and life of great American Cities
Modernist Orthodox urban planning vs. Old city planning. Jane Jacobs fighting against the
modernistic Robert Moses that destroys communities by demolishing houses and building blocks
without identity with roadways trough the centre of cities. Jane Jacobs advocates for short blocks
(corners and many shops), eyes on the streets, , aged buildings, mixed use (i.e. continuous users and
different people), diversity, sidewalks, concentration
So: 1. Mixed use 2. Short blocks 3. Different architecture (old/new) 4. Density
Jan Gehl – Life between buildings
Modernistic car cities vs. Medieval pedestrian cities. Space to meet between buildings makes the
life between buildings possible and the rise from low contacts to more intense contacts. Life between
buildings is a self-reinforcing process when people are already on the street.
Anthony Giddens – Reciprocity of structures and behaviour
Structuralism (the Durkheim world) vs. structuration theory (the Giddens world). The theory of
structuration is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based on the
analysis of both structure (= society) and agents (agency = individual). Quote: Structuration differs
from its historical sources. Unlike structuralism it sees the reproduction of social systems not "as a
mechanical outcome, [but] rather ... as an active constituting process, accomplished by, and
consisting in, the doings of active subjects. Durkheim mentions that social totalities stretch across
time and space away from any particular agent (p. 169/170). Furthermore, he talks about material
constraint, power constraint and structural constraint (p. 175/176).
B
Robert Putnam – Bowling alone
Putnam’s work is more descriptive in nature. He describes by the Metaphor of Bowling Alone the
decline in in civic engagement, making communities disappear. He distinguishes internal bonding (=
think trust) social capital, that is good for undergirding specific reciprocity and mobilizing solidarity,
and external bridging (= thin trust) social capital, that is better for linage to external assets and for
information diffusion.
David Brooks – Patio man and sprinkler cities
Brooks is talking about the middle class moving to new suburbs looking for harmony and
homogeneity, looking like a patio, and immediately want to stop the growth of the suburb. Those
suburbs that make the sprinkler cities (fast growing, mounting up cities as a sprinkler) are so huge
that they have their own shopping centre, schools et cetera. He mentions the goal of the together
life, the goal of technological heroism, the goal of relaxed camaraderie, the goal of active-leisure
lifestyle and the goal of the traditional, but competitive childhood (p. 125-127) Brooks indicates that
this peaceful patio dream with the happy kids, slender friends and massive barbeque stays a dream.
