
Unbuilding Cities
Obduracy in Urban Sociotechnical Change
Anique Hommels(Author)
MIT Press
Published on 29. August 2008
Book
Paperback/Softback
292 pages
978-0-262-58282-7 (ISBN)
Description
City planning initiatives and redesign of urban structures often become mired in debate and delay. Despite the fact that cities are considered to be dynamic and flexible spaces—never finished but always under construction—it is very difficult to change existing urban structures; they become fixed, obdurate, securely anchored in their own histories as well as in the histories of their surroundings. In Unbuilding Cities, Anique Hommels looks at the tension between the malleability of urban space and its obduracy, focusing on sites and structures that have been subjected to "unbuilding"—redesign or reconfiguration. She brings the concepts of science and technology studies (STS) to bear on the study of cities. Viewing the city as a large sociotechnological artifact, she demonstrates the usefulness of STS tools that were developed to analyze other technological artifacts and explores in detail the role of obduracy in sociotechnical change. Her analysis distinguishes three concepts of obduracy: interactionist, in which actors with diverging views are constrained by fixed ways of thinking and interacting; relational, in which change is difficult because of technology's embeddedness in sociotechnical networks; and enduring, in which persistent traditions influence the development of technology over time.
Hommels examines the tensions between obduracy and change in three urban redesign projects in the Netherlands: a renovated city center that fell into drabness and disrepair; a highway system that runs through a densely populated urban area; and a high-rise housing project, designed according to modernist precepts and built for middle-class families, that became a haven for unemployment and crime. Unbuilding Cities contributes to a productive fusion of STS and urban studies.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
27 illus.; 27 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-58282-7 (9780262582827)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Anique Hommels
Author
Universiteit Maastricht
Editor
Professor of Technology and SocietyMaastricht University
Professor of Science, Technology, and SocietyUniversity of Virginia
Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Professor of SociologyCornell University