Urbanity
Seminar tutor: Pierre PurseigleLink opens in a new window
Urbanization is a defining feature of modernity and its history. Although the majority of the world population did not live in towns and cities before 2008, the experience of urban life illuminates the making of the modern world. Centres of political power, cultural influence, and economic activities, towns and cities have long played a critical role in global history. Though most if not all of us have personal, direct, and long experiences of city life, defining urbanity as an object of historical inquiry is all but straightforward. Urban history nonetheless continues to be a vibrant and stimulating field of study.
Core reading
N. Kenny, The Feel of the City: Experiences of Urban Transformation (Toronto, 2018).
Recommended
N.H. Kwak, 鈥楿nderstanding 鈥渦rban鈥� from the disciplinary viewpoint of history鈥�, in D. Iossifova, C. Doll, and A. Gasparatos (eds.), Defining the urban: interdisciplinary and professional perspectives (London - New York, 2018), pp. 53–62.
The following texts may be found in R.T. LeGates and F. Stout (eds.), The city reader, The Routledge urban reader series (London鈥�; New York, 2016).
F. Engels, 鈥淭he Great Towns鈥� from The conditions of the working class in England in 1844 (1845), 55-62
L. Wirth, 鈥淯rbanism as a way of life鈥� from American Journal of Sociology (1938), 116-123
D. Harvey, 鈥淭he right to the city鈥�, from New Left Review (2008), 272-278
L. Vale, 鈥淩esilient cities: clarifying concept or catch-all clich茅鈥�, 621-628
Seminar questions
路 How should historians define the urban?
路 How can historians account for the experience of urban life?
路 Is urban history a field of historical inquiry or a sub-discipline of history?
路 How can the study of towns and cities contribute to transnational, comparative, or global histories?