Women Reclaiming the City: International Research on Urbanism, Architecture, and Planning

by Tigran Haas (Editor)

Overview

The originality of Women Reclaiming the City lies not only in the variety of themes being presented, but also in the variety of all these different highly respected women researchers. This book is the first in which current societal themes revolving around urbanism, architecture, and city planning are put forth solely through female perspectives. It reveals the importance of having female lenses on certain societal debates.

Twenty-five leading female urban scholars draw on principles, concepts, and positions that are foundational to other frameworks and fields—specifically, critical studies, indigenous and ethnic studies, postcolonial theory, queer theory, feminist theory, progressive urban theory, social ecology, urban planning and design, architecture, urban economics and urban social geography, landscape urbanism, new urbanism, heritage management and urbanism, political ecology, and cultural studies— to present alternatives to the current classical theories and conceptualizations that have failed to engage a truly intersectional analysis of dominant city and urban discourses, policies, and practices.

The book is intended for scholars of urban studies, policy makers, and city planning professionals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538162668
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Tigran Haas is a tenured associate professor of Urban Planning + Urban Design at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, and a guest research scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT in Cambridge in the Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU). He is also the former director of the International Centre for the Future of Places (CFP) at KTH, and the Graduate Studies in Urbanism (MUSE), Stockholm and the current director of the New Halcyon Athenaeum Laboratory (HAL). Dr. Haas is an architect, urban designer and city planner, knowledge researcher, public speaker, author and all-round leading global urbanism networker. He is the editor of New Urbanism and Beyond, Sustainable Urbanism and Beyond, co-editor of Emergent Urbanism, In The Post-Urban World, and of Essays on Jane Jacobs.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction

SECTION I – Politicised Spaces and Beyond

1. Doreen Massey On Space

Doreen Massey

1. Cities of Capital – The Indifferent City: Learning from Doreen Massey

Christine Boyer

1. Unequal Cities, Divided Spaces – The Search of Equality

Fran Tonkiss

1. Why Public Space Matters

Setha Low

1. Landscape Literacy and Design for Ecological Democracy: The Nature of Mill Creek

Ann Whiston Spirn

1. Planning, Design, and the Just City

Susan Fainstein

1. Comparative Urbanism in Gentrification Studies: Ongoing Debate

Loretta Lees

SECTION II – Contemporary Urbanism Grounds

1. The New Design With Nature

Nan Ellin

1. Retrofitting Suburbia for 21^st Century Challenges

Ellen Dunham Jones

1. The Ecosystem of Local Shopping Streets and the Architecture of Difference

Sharon Zukin

1. The Meta-Principles of Good Urbanism

Emily Talen

1. Can Architecture Survive Our Global Housing Crisis?

Dana Cuff

1. Leading with Landscape: Investing in Green Infrastructure for Resilience

Nina-Marie Lister

SECTION III – New Urban Social Geographies

1. Feeling the Past: Heritage, Encounter and Engagement

Emma Waterton

1. Memorials as Spaces for Engagement: Design, Use and Meaning

Karen Franck

1. Health in the City

Anne Vernez Moudon

1. From Housing Projects to Healing Gardens: Reflections on a Career Considering the Psychology of Place

Clare Cooper Marcus

1. Enriching Places for Longevity: Does a Gender Perspective Make a Difference?

Ann Forsyth

1. How Does Body Conscious Design Contribute to Urbanism?

Galen Cranz with Chelsea Rushton

SECTION IV – Collective City Futures – Dwellings and Cultures

1. Everyday Urbanism: Public Spaces and Beyond

Margaret Crawford with Jennifer Mack

1. Edges and Eddies: Learning to be a High-Rise Society in Post-Independence Singapore, 1960-1995

Jane M. Jacobs with Belinda Yuen

1. The Right to Housing

Adele Santos

23. The City as a Collective Good

Saskia Sassen

24. The Empathy Gap: Digital Culture Needs What Talk Therapy Offers

Sherry Turkle

List of Contributors

Index

About the Editor

Editorial Reviews

This Book serves as a pleasant reminder that the most prolific thinkers in urban design and planning are female. The imposing roster of authors in this Book has created the canon for urban scholarship over the past years and decades; it speaks to editor Dr. Tigran Haas and the Athena lecture series for convening such an insightful and powerful group of scholars. In Women Reclaiming the City, it is a delight to read their latest insights on cities, their potentials, and their contemporary challenges.

Conrad Kickert

For too long we have largely understood the world through the male voice. Women Reclaiming the City changes that. With this anthology, Tigran Haas brings to us the voices of the foremost female contemporary urban scholars that present diverse perspectives on architecture, urban design, and planning for a more humane, inclusive, and resilient urban future.

Vikas Mehta

The importance of this extraordinary volume, first of all, is that it encompasses an impressive and well-curated range of contemporary explorations of urbanism, architecture and planning by some of the most prominent and ground-breaking researchers. The scope of its coverage of contemporary issues and the quality of the research represented provide an excellent introduction to the field for students and a resource for serious scholars. The fact that the researchers included in the volume are women highlights the uniquely significant contributions to the field made by women since Jane Jacobs.

David Brain

At different times and in different parts of the World, Women's voices in the city have been suppressed, marginalized, or ignored. This hugely valuable collection of essays from some of the World's leading urban thinkers - all women - demonstrates beyond any doubt the profound folly of such approaches and speaks to the importance of a pluralistic society where all voices on the city are valued equally.

Matthew Carmona

60 years ago, Jane Jacobs wrote that "cities... can provide something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody." This book, reimagining urban studies through women's perspectives, shows exactly what it means to bring "everybody" to the table."

Carlo Ratti

I had the honor of attending five of the Athena Lectures and feared that these fantastic presentations would be lost to obscurity. Tigran Haas's stellar compendium assures access to diverse audiences everywhere.

Charles R. Wolfe

How can we know the contemporary city? Let us count the ways…

This anthology is a comprehensive introduction to contemporary urban theories and perspectives, from politicized social concerns, to evidence-based conceptions of human and ecosystem health, to historical and evolving cultures, to physical and digital forms. Presented by a unique assembly of powerful scholars, a myriad of topics will enrich the reader’s knowledge of contemporary urbanism and the interaction of humans and nature in built form.

And what better way to learn about so many urban aspects than by reading and listening to women scholars!

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

Contemporary cities are the mainstage for multiple social, political, economic, ecological, and technological dramas of the twenty-first century. The contributors to this ground-breaking collection provide fresh and poignant insights on the fascinating place-based dynamics of the human condition. Great stuff!!

Andrew Karvonen

This impressive collection by major authors is a testimony to the longstanding efforts and admirable enthusiasm invested by Professor Haas in developing and disseminating research in urbanism, architecture, and planning.

Ali Madanipour

Women Reclaiming the City is an important compilation of female contemporary urban scholars filling a real knowledge gap: this is a unique anthology that has emerged from a series of lectures presented at KTH in Stockholm, illuminating the relevant role these distinguished scholars are playing in urban studies today.

Dr. Steffan Lehmann

This Book gives new and fascinating perspectives on equality, justice, and equity in cities. Edited by one of the leading urbanists of our time, Tigran Haas, many female scholars present new, alternative views to the mainstream literature.

Professor Hans Westlund

With a timely and relevant selection of City topics, and with an unmatched repertoire of scholars from a wide range of scholarly backgrounds, this book has much to offer to students, policymakers, and fellow academics in any field.

John Östh

The Athena Series is one of the most powerful ideas I've heard about. I would encourage everyone to read the book when published, particularly if they are interested in women's perspective on cities.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

This volume brings together an incredible collection of essays by leading female urbanists. Based on their Athena Lectures at Sweden's KTH University, its chapters provide tremendous insight into the organization and challenges of contemporary cities, charting the way forward to a more diverse, inclusive, and sustainable urbanism for the 21st century.

Richard Florida

One of the great things about the Athena Talks in Stockholm is that it is such an intensely organized event with an impressive diversity of ideas and an amazing efflorescence of urban approaches and perspectives. This lively assemblage of leading female urban scholars will have long-term consequences in regard to future debates on architecture and urban design, surely providing a vigorous discussion at the present.

Michael Sorkin

This remarkable volume brings together voices of leading women scholars in architecture, planning, and urbanism. From everyday urbanism and just city to landscape literacy and health in the city, each contributor challenges established boundaries (or glass ceilings) of the field and stakes new grounds. What we know about society and the built environment today would not be the same without their insights and sensibilities.

Professor Jeff Hou

Basic assumptions about contemporary urbanism are proving wrong, and we need a new model. We can't just ignore this professionally or morally in light of the transformation we see happening before our eyes; it is a big, interdependent complex problem. This fantastic Athena series in Stockholm provokes awareness, a sense of urgency, and ideas for rejuvenating and intensifying our cities, bringing about some of the leading female urban scholars. As this anthology proves, the editor, Dr. Tigran Haas, is one of the most upbeat, energetic, and conscientious colleagues and academics I know as an ambassador for and tribute to urbanism.

Late Professor Emeritus Douglas Kelbaugh

Women Reclaiming the City will be regarded as a landmark in the history of urban thought. Although female scholars have made pathbreaking contributions to urban studies for several decades, no one before Tiran Haas recognized the need to celebrate this contribution. Professor Haas has tapped into his scholarly breadth and multi-national background in handpicking the group of female giants who contributed to the Book. In a single book, one discovers a fascinating, multifaceted urban picture composed of perspectives and methods from urban design, history, landscape architecture, urban sociology, anthropology, geography, social psychology, psychoanalysis, economics, architecture, and technology. Spanning scholars with academic backgrounds in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Singapore, this Book whets readers' appetite for more.

Professor Emerita Rachelle Alterman

This is a long time coming book which had grown from a pioneering series of public lectures given by female scholars, at a time when we had just started to think more seriously about gender and representation in the architecture and built environment academe. I look forward to reading more and reflect on its implications for feminist and critical theory in urban studies.

Catalina Turcu

Only Tigran Haas could have put together such an astonishing book by some of the greatest female contemporary urban scholars in the world. And in our collapsing world, it is precisely the urban question - and what kind of cities and forms of living-together do we build - that might as well determine our future.

Srecko Horvat

Thank you, Tigran Haas, for having assembled the most formidable, courageous, radical, inspiring female urban scholars that critically reflect on architecture, urbanism, and city planning. Adèle Naudé Santos, Ann Forsyth, Anne Vernez-Moudon, Anne Whiston Spirn, Christine Boyer, Clare Cooper Marcus, Dana Cuff, Ellen Dunham-Jones, Emma Waterton, Emily Talen, Fran Tonkiss, Galen Cranz, Karen A Franck, Loretta Lees, Margaret Crawford, Nan Ellin, Nina-Marie, Setha M. Low, Sharon L. Zukin, Susan Fainstein, Jane Margaret Jacobs, Saskia Sassen, and Sherry Turkle weave together an amazing tapestry made of many stories that tell of how we live and can live together in cities today.

Professor Massimo Santanicchia

This outstanding anthology reflects Tigran Haas' unparalleled ability to assemble many of the top minds in urbanism from around the world and to share their insights with a larger audience. During his Athena Talks series at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, he took on one of the most egregious gaps in urban research: the historic lack of balance in covering women's urban issues, from the perspective of women urban scholars. Now, with this publication, the combined insights of twenty-five global leaders offer a timely rebalance and an essential addition to the urban literature.

Michael Mehaffy

Only Tigran Haas could have put together such an astonishing book by some of the greatest female contemporary urban scholars in the world. And in our collapsing world, it is precisely the urban question - and what kind of cities and forms of living-together do we build - that might as well determine our future.

Srećko Horvat