| CODE | SPI3712 | ||||||
| TITLE | Anthropology of Urban Space | ||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||
| MQF LEVEL | Not Applicable | ||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Spatial Planning and Infrastructure | ||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will provide students with a broad cross-cultural understanding of the key theoretical debates associated with the anthropology of space, all visually illustrated through ethnographic case studies in India, Congo, the United States of America and Europe. "Buildings and good to think with" (Claude Levi Strausse). The study-unit will explore anthropological approaches to architecture: its materiality, its social practice and its cultural representation. It will focus primarily on the ambivalent distinction between the public and private realms, the way architecture and urban planning shape our lives, and to what extent social conditions are at the origin of architectural forms in public and domestic spaces. Study-unit Aims: The study-unit aims at giving participants a general preview of the meaning of the anthropology of space, and how anthropologists look at the at the built environment in its relation to society. A selection of anthropological approaches will be discussed in order to stress the evolution from primivitist societies to the phenomenologist and Marxist views, from the 19th century evolutionary perspective of the "primitive hut" to colonial concepts of space, place and cultural identity. The study-unit will look at the work of Claude Levi Strausse, and his notion of "house societies". The study-unit will survey European domestic spaces, and look at the consumerist and functionalist general tendencies, so as to understand the rise of gated communities in the context of globalization. Attention will be given to affluent ghettoes in Mumbai, Kinshasa and Los Angeles, and poor enclaves in Chicago and Paris, so as to highlight the different dynamics creating and reproducing such urban enclaves, and so as to enable students to look at a sample of Maltese enclaves, to discuss their characteristics and the reasons for their recent popularity. The study-unit will also focus on urban life, the impact of urban planning on citizen's lives, particularly the model of the compact city compared to that of the sprawling city. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Review the theoretical tools to question the role of architecture and urban planning in public and private spaces; - Identify the challenges of urbanity in the global age; - Compare different norms of behaviour in public and private spaces; - Acknowledge the cultural relativity of architectural forms. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Conduct a simple anthropological observation of a public space; - Analyze the impact of architecture and urban space on society; - Identify how values and the type of organization shape buildings as well as cities; - Apply the anthropological concept of space to the local context. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Filmography: - “The Early films of Peter Greenaway” – dir. Peter Greenaway - 1969. - “Playtime” dir. Jacques Tati - 1967. - “Blade Runner” dir. Ridley Scott - 1982. - “Bonjour” dir. Yasuhiro Ozu - 1959. - “Metropolis” dir. Fritz Lang - 1927. - “Batman, The Dark Knight Rises” dir. Christopher Nolan – 2012. Main Texts: - Rapoport,A., "House, Form and Culture", Prentice Hall Foundations of Cultural Geography Series, 1969. - Bachelard, G., “Poetics of Space” , Beacon Press, Boston, 19949. - Teyssot, G., “A Topology of Thresholds” Home Cultures, Vol. 2 Issue 1, 89-116, 2005. - Walter,B., “The Arcades Project”, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002. - Eds. Dodds, G., Tavernor, R., Rykwert, J., “Body and Building: Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture” , MIT Press, 2002. - Bourdieu, P., “Structures and the Habitus”, Cambridge University Press,1977. - Engels, F., “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State” , Penguin Classics, 1985. - Bourdieu, P., “The Kabyle House or the World Reversed”, Cambridge University Press, 1992. - De Cauter, L., “The Capsular Civilization. On the City in the Age of Fear” , NAI publishers, 2005. - Caldeira, T.P.R., “City of Walls, Crime, Segregation and Citizenship in Sao Paulo”, University of California Press, 2001. - Davis, M., “City of Quartz” , Verso, 1990. - Wacquant, L., “Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality”, Polity, 2008. - Sennett, R., “The Conscious of the Eye. The Design and Social Life of Cities.”, Norton, 1990. - Pieterse, E., Simone, A., “Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities”, Jacana Media, 2013. - Castells, M., “The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective” 2005, Edward Elgars Publishers. - Augé, M., “Non-places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity”, Verso, 1995. - Buchli, V., “An Anthropology of Architecture”, Bloomsbury, 2013. - Arendt, H., “The Human Condition” , University of Chicago Press, 1958. Secondary Texts: - Jacobs,J., "The Life and Death of Great American Cities", Vintage, New York, 1992. - Rudofsky, B., "Architecture without architects: a short introduction to non-pedigreed architecture", University of New Mexico Press, 1987. - Park, R.E., Burgess, E., McKenzie, R., "The City", University of Chicago Press, 1925. - Howard, E., "The Garden Cities of Tomorrow", Faber & Faber, 1902. - Burton, E., Jenks, M., Williams, K., "The Compact City : A Sustainable Urban Form", Taylor & Francis, 2004. - Holston, J., "The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of Brasilia", The University of Chicago Press, 1989. - Sassen, S., "The Global City. New York, London, Tokyo", Princeton University Press, 2001. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture and Independent Study | ||||||
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| LECTURER/S | Rachael Scicluna |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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