William H. Whyte is best known for The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces a textbook study of behaviour in public space. Set mainly in 1970s Midtown Manhattan, the book and associated documentary concentrated on how people interacted with the physical design of modernist public space. His focus was on “exchange, the most vital measure of the city’s intensity”. Lesser known is Whyte’s commitment to theoretical framing for understanding this intensity and how his research into the behaviour of the everyday users of the city had the potential to debunk hypothesis on congestion and to subvert a broader perception of a beleaguered city post-war.
Professor of Sociology Nathan Glazer characterized Whyte as “the man who loved cities . . . one of …show more content…
Due to his resolve, Groates and Wang in their Architectural Research Methods dedicated a full chapter to Whyte’s work describing his approach as exemplary Correlation Research which is a way of recognising his tenacity; that he pursued multiple variations of theories to get to a root cause. ‘
To appreciate the till-then-illusive enchantment of cityness, Whyte made public space the cauldron for his potent fusion of emerging theories. How Whyte tapped into the ferment of “an intellectual maelstrom of the late 1960s” for the benefit of understanding The Sorcery Of Cities is the narrative this essay seeks to advance. Using Whyte as a model, the question posed is whether despite the “extraordinary slipperiness of the urban phenomenon itself” there might be benefits in clarifying his operative engagement with …show more content…
Luckily, his interest was piqued at a time fecund with theories in aligned disciplines.
Earth Day Spring 1970 galvanized a panoply of public interests in the environment . It was a period of social unrest in public, a time of burgeoning scholarship in environmental and applied behavioural research in academia. It was also a time of disciplinary discontent with hermetically sealed borders of knowledge , .
Unpacking the respective theoretical frames of influences captures what a rare and timly cauldon Whyte brewed up with his Street Life Project (1970-1975) collating entangled experiments all in pursuit of pinning down the elusive quality of citiness and a hitherto higher order of urban patterning. The 1970s was a time rich in divergent theories; the next section seeks to expand on which theories Whyte’s fused for the City.
Psychology and why Proximity and Propinquity
Professor of Sociology Nathan Glazer characterized Whyte as “the man who loved cities . . . one of …show more content…
Due to his resolve, Groates and Wang in their Architectural Research Methods dedicated a full chapter to Whyte’s work describing his approach as exemplary Correlation Research which is a way of recognising his tenacity; that he pursued multiple variations of theories to get to a root cause. ‘
To appreciate the till-then-illusive enchantment of cityness, Whyte made public space the cauldron for his potent fusion of emerging theories. How Whyte tapped into the ferment of “an intellectual maelstrom of the late 1960s” for the benefit of understanding The Sorcery Of Cities is the narrative this essay seeks to advance. Using Whyte as a model, the question posed is whether despite the “extraordinary slipperiness of the urban phenomenon itself” there might be benefits in clarifying his operative engagement with …show more content…
Luckily, his interest was piqued at a time fecund with theories in aligned disciplines.
Earth Day Spring 1970 galvanized a panoply of public interests in the environment . It was a period of social unrest in public, a time of burgeoning scholarship in environmental and applied behavioural research in academia. It was also a time of disciplinary discontent with hermetically sealed borders of knowledge , .
Unpacking the respective theoretical frames of influences captures what a rare and timly cauldon Whyte brewed up with his Street Life Project (1970-1975) collating entangled experiments all in pursuit of pinning down the elusive quality of citiness and a hitherto higher order of urban patterning. The 1970s was a time rich in divergent theories; the next section seeks to expand on which theories Whyte’s fused for the City.
Psychology and why Proximity and Propinquity