Visible cities. Saundersian meditations on the concept of collective consumption
Titel:
Visible cities. Saundersian meditations on the concept of collective consumption
Auteur:
Otnes, Per
Verschenen in:
Housing, theory and society
Paginering:
Jaargang 3 (1986) nr. 4 pagina's 217-232
Jaar:
1986
Inhoud:
In his introduction to Cartesian Meditations (1977), Husserl speaks of his phenomenology as almost a neo-cartesianism, although he rejects nearly all of the Cartesian philosophy as a result of his radical unfolding of Cartesian themes: from cogito ergo sum emerge not only a defiant cogitatum ergo es but even an et tu cogitas. Of course, no resemblance is implied between Descartes and Husserl on the one hand, and Peter Saunders and the present author on the other. There are, though, two minor exceptions. First, out of admiration for Saunder's work I attempt, not an exegesis or a review, but a similar radical unfolding of my own, possibly new or contradictory themes. Second, just like Husserl based his meditations on Cartesianism, not on Descartes (i.e., on the school, not on the person), I view Saunders as an eloquent and orderly spokesman for the 'new urban sociology' in its post-structuralist phase, focussing on its most central proposition (read result or insight: its 'urbito' in mock latin): In essence, the urban is the same as collective consumption. Within this school, Saunders is notable for arriving at a definition of the urban which emphasizes its non-spatiality. Anticipating my criticism, I have adapted the title from Calvino's novel Le citta invisibili. While acknowledging the utopic and spiritual aspects of cities' lives, I will insist on their being based on very visible, material spatial processes. A city without a sewage system is less than city-like. A city without streets is unthinkable. Hence the title Visible Cities.
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