There is much literature available today on the empirical characteristics of the “global city.” A good portion of this literature also offers a cohesive conceptual frame in which to understand these characteristics. But there is relatively little work on cities today that can be described as properly “philosophical,” not in the sense of an academic discipline but rather, of a style of thought.
Although in the West this tradition runs from Plato to Augustine and beyond, a useful foundation for understanding the city as an object of critical, philosophical reflection was laid in the early part of the twentieth century by a variety of thinkers concerned with the problem of the modern metropolis.
This reading seminar will review key aspects of early twentieth-century metropolitan thought and follow these forward into the present, adding new reference points along the way. Special emphasis will be given to interactions between political economy, society, and culture, including the role of architecture and urbanism therein. The goal is not a metalanguage but rather, the elaboration of a critical discourse by which urban artifacts and phenomena can be interpreted, even as they contribute to it.
Readings include Marx, Simmel, Weber, Benjamin, Kracauer, Adorno and Horkeimer, Arendt, Tafuri, Cacciari, Fanon, Appadurai, Hardt and Negri, Chakrabarty, Damisch, Vidler, Spivak, Foucault, Agamben, and Arrighi
Same as ARCH A6779
