Approaches to Space and Environment
Social Utopian & Anarchist Geographers/Planners
Thomas More’s Utopia (1516)
Greek: ou-topos (no place), or eu-topos (good place)
“Planning as Social Mobilization” (Friedmann, 1987)
- Encompassing three major oppositional movements of the 19th century
- France & England
- Perspective of victims of industrialization and critique of industrialism
Social Utopianism
- Possibilities of a secular life in small communities apart from State
- Money-free economy based on exchange of Labour (L) time
- Influence of social & physical environment on human character
- Importance for human development of balance between industrial and agricultural
pursuits (fields & factories)
- Free reign given to passionate nature of human beings as 1st break with rational
Benthamite tradition
- Role of play in education and learning
Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
- Besancon, France
- Poverty as the principle cause of disorder
- ‘Concern and ‘cooperation’ as the secrets of social success
- Distribution of the social product according to need
- Assignment of function according to individual faculties and inclinations, irrespective
of gender
- Constant mutations of functions
- Shorter work periods
- Central idea: labor pleasure
- Universele aantrekkingskracht: ‘Attraction passsionnée’ -> (1) luxury & pleasure of
the five senses, (2) formation of libidinal groups (friendship & love), (3) establishment
of a harmonious order with groups that work in accordance with individual passions
Fourierist Phalanstere
- New social world
- 12 passions -> 810 types of character (1620 people per phalanx)
- Wealthy on top floor; low-income on ground floor
- Children’s education: focus on interchanging occupation, creativity, etc.
- Ambition: 6 million phalansteres, ruled by a World Congress of Phalanxes
- Influence on 1848 Revolution and Paris Commune 1871
- Rise of ‘intential communities’ in the US
,Henri Nicolaas ter Veen (1883-1949)
- Social Utopian
- Haarlemmermeer als kolonisatiegebied (1918/1925)
o Lax state control, power of absentee landownership
o Social Darwinism: tenant farmers, hired hands, society’s misfits
o Dutch version of the ‘American frontier’ (wild west)
o Ter Veen: ‘Once, but never again’ -> de staat bemoeide zich te weinig
- Wieringermeer Polder Reclamation
Anarchism
- Dissolution of ‘government’
- Contract between free individuals
- Revival of communal tradition
- Arbeidersverenigingen: wederzijdse uitwisseling van goederen en diensten (behoefte
ipv werk)
- Self-sufficient economic development (regional scale)
- Classless society
- Education integrale: manual & intellectual labor (‘fields, factories and workshops’)
- ‘Attractive work’
- Struggle and conflict not only inevitable, but desirable
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865
- Besancon, France
- Master in art of printing
- Society as part of natural/universal order -> individual freedom rooted in natural
processes
- Property = the sum of its abuses
- Possession = the right of man to effective control over his dwelling, land, tools as
condition of ‘liberty’
- Anarchy as a form of government
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842-1921)
- Moskow
- From ‘thought’ to ‘Action’
- Believed in revolution against inequality as ‘natural’ process leading to ‘social
equality’
- Fieldwork in Sibera: he discovered the horrible living conditions of prisoners there
- Mutual Aid: manifesto that argues that what makes humans thrive is not
competition, but solidarity and communal work
Anarchist Regionalism
- Kropotkin
- Region with communities
- No rulers
- Production of everything that is necessary and useful
- Social life resumed with the greatest energy
, Elisee Reclus (1830-1905)
- Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, France
- Supporter of Paris Commune
- 1872: banished from France for political activities
- ‘La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes’: book which laid the
foundations of bioregionalism & anti-imperialism
Science (according to Anarchists)
- Scientists should be like workers
Nijmeegse Stadsnomaden: real-life social-utopian and anarchist community
Sphinx in the City
Leonie Sandercock: The power of (planning) history
- Nations keep their shape by molding their citizens’ understanding of the past
-> Make them forget what was wrong and remember what was right
Planning history -> creating moral & social power to prevent disorder in the city
Past England: typische stedeling was een dronkaard die ruzie zoekt en geld vergokt
-> fear of the city
Sandercock: problems with modernist planning -> planning happens from above (like
superman)
New York: the horror of the slums (1889) -> Jacob Riis (photographer)
- 19th century industrialization & urbanization -> mass migration to cities
- Poverty -> widespread use of low paid, casual work and home-work
- Inability to move
- Incompetent & corrupt local government
Spaces of fear
- Fear of dirt and unhygienic living conditions
- Fear of disease
- Fear of disorder
- Fear of (unaccompanied) women in public space
- Fear of colonial subjects in public space (Suriname, etc.)
- Fear of gays in public space
- Fear of the dangerous classes (unemployed, socialist, etc.)
- Fear of insurrection & revolution
Emil Zola – book ‘Nana’ (1880)
- Nana is a prostitute who occupied the public space
- “Sphinx in the city”
Social Utopian & Anarchist Geographers/Planners
Thomas More’s Utopia (1516)
Greek: ou-topos (no place), or eu-topos (good place)
“Planning as Social Mobilization” (Friedmann, 1987)
- Encompassing three major oppositional movements of the 19th century
- France & England
- Perspective of victims of industrialization and critique of industrialism
Social Utopianism
- Possibilities of a secular life in small communities apart from State
- Money-free economy based on exchange of Labour (L) time
- Influence of social & physical environment on human character
- Importance for human development of balance between industrial and agricultural
pursuits (fields & factories)
- Free reign given to passionate nature of human beings as 1st break with rational
Benthamite tradition
- Role of play in education and learning
Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
- Besancon, France
- Poverty as the principle cause of disorder
- ‘Concern and ‘cooperation’ as the secrets of social success
- Distribution of the social product according to need
- Assignment of function according to individual faculties and inclinations, irrespective
of gender
- Constant mutations of functions
- Shorter work periods
- Central idea: labor pleasure
- Universele aantrekkingskracht: ‘Attraction passsionnée’ -> (1) luxury & pleasure of
the five senses, (2) formation of libidinal groups (friendship & love), (3) establishment
of a harmonious order with groups that work in accordance with individual passions
Fourierist Phalanstere
- New social world
- 12 passions -> 810 types of character (1620 people per phalanx)
- Wealthy on top floor; low-income on ground floor
- Children’s education: focus on interchanging occupation, creativity, etc.
- Ambition: 6 million phalansteres, ruled by a World Congress of Phalanxes
- Influence on 1848 Revolution and Paris Commune 1871
- Rise of ‘intential communities’ in the US
,Henri Nicolaas ter Veen (1883-1949)
- Social Utopian
- Haarlemmermeer als kolonisatiegebied (1918/1925)
o Lax state control, power of absentee landownership
o Social Darwinism: tenant farmers, hired hands, society’s misfits
o Dutch version of the ‘American frontier’ (wild west)
o Ter Veen: ‘Once, but never again’ -> de staat bemoeide zich te weinig
- Wieringermeer Polder Reclamation
Anarchism
- Dissolution of ‘government’
- Contract between free individuals
- Revival of communal tradition
- Arbeidersverenigingen: wederzijdse uitwisseling van goederen en diensten (behoefte
ipv werk)
- Self-sufficient economic development (regional scale)
- Classless society
- Education integrale: manual & intellectual labor (‘fields, factories and workshops’)
- ‘Attractive work’
- Struggle and conflict not only inevitable, but desirable
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865
- Besancon, France
- Master in art of printing
- Society as part of natural/universal order -> individual freedom rooted in natural
processes
- Property = the sum of its abuses
- Possession = the right of man to effective control over his dwelling, land, tools as
condition of ‘liberty’
- Anarchy as a form of government
Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (1842-1921)
- Moskow
- From ‘thought’ to ‘Action’
- Believed in revolution against inequality as ‘natural’ process leading to ‘social
equality’
- Fieldwork in Sibera: he discovered the horrible living conditions of prisoners there
- Mutual Aid: manifesto that argues that what makes humans thrive is not
competition, but solidarity and communal work
Anarchist Regionalism
- Kropotkin
- Region with communities
- No rulers
- Production of everything that is necessary and useful
- Social life resumed with the greatest energy
, Elisee Reclus (1830-1905)
- Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, France
- Supporter of Paris Commune
- 1872: banished from France for political activities
- ‘La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes’: book which laid the
foundations of bioregionalism & anti-imperialism
Science (according to Anarchists)
- Scientists should be like workers
Nijmeegse Stadsnomaden: real-life social-utopian and anarchist community
Sphinx in the City
Leonie Sandercock: The power of (planning) history
- Nations keep their shape by molding their citizens’ understanding of the past
-> Make them forget what was wrong and remember what was right
Planning history -> creating moral & social power to prevent disorder in the city
Past England: typische stedeling was een dronkaard die ruzie zoekt en geld vergokt
-> fear of the city
Sandercock: problems with modernist planning -> planning happens from above (like
superman)
New York: the horror of the slums (1889) -> Jacob Riis (photographer)
- 19th century industrialization & urbanization -> mass migration to cities
- Poverty -> widespread use of low paid, casual work and home-work
- Inability to move
- Incompetent & corrupt local government
Spaces of fear
- Fear of dirt and unhygienic living conditions
- Fear of disease
- Fear of disorder
- Fear of (unaccompanied) women in public space
- Fear of colonial subjects in public space (Suriname, etc.)
- Fear of gays in public space
- Fear of the dangerous classes (unemployed, socialist, etc.)
- Fear of insurrection & revolution
Emil Zola – book ‘Nana’ (1880)
- Nana is a prostitute who occupied the public space
- “Sphinx in the city”
