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2018 | Book

American Democracy and Its Spaces: An Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

Shaping American Democracy

Landscapes and Urban Design

Author: Dr. Scott M. Roulier

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

This book argues that the design of built spaces influences civic attitudes, including prospects for social equality and integration, in America. Key American architects and planners—including Frederick Law Olmsted, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Moses, and the New Urbanists—not only articulated unique visions of democracy in their extensive writings, but also instantiated those ideas in physical form. Using criteria such as the formation of social capital, support for human capabilities, and environmental sustainability, the book argues that the designs most closely associated with a communally-inflected version of democracy, such as Olmsted's public parks or various New Urbanist projects, create conditions more favorable to human flourishing and more consistent with a democratic society than those that are individualistic in their orientation, such as urban modernism or most suburban forms.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. American Democracy and Its Spaces: An Introduction
Abstract
The introduction explains that the book—using the landscape and urban design visions of Jefferson, Thoreau, Olmsted, Wright, Moses, and several new urbanists—provides a unique history of American democratic ideas. Moreover, to set the stage for the rest of the project, the chapter describes different models of democracy, seeks to define and differentiate landscape and urban design, and offers a brief account of why spatial philosophy matters for politics. Finally, it spells out the book’s key normative claim, to wit, that a communally oriented democratic theory and its associated urban designs strike a better balance than individualistic theories and their built spaces—that the former are able to combine the protection of individual liberty with the nurturing of civic practices and values.
Scott M. Roulier
Correction to: Shaping American Democracy
Scott M. Roulier

Primary Landscapes

Frontmatter
Chapter 2. American Pastoral: Jefferson’s Agrarian Republic
Abstract
This chapter explains that Jefferson endorsed an agricultural way of life because he believed it fostered virtues indispensable for democracy. Unfortunately, as had been the case since the ancient world, the physical demands of agriculture and the scale required to make higher profits, tempted Jefferson and his planter class to adopt the brutal practice of slavery that fundamentally contradicted his own democratic principles and program. In the twentieth century, the chapter notes, Wendell Berry describes how the process of “unsettling” America passed from the plantation to large-scale corporate agriculture, with dire consequences for the land and rural communities. Given this crisis, neo-agrarians have attempted to “re-scale” and re-think agricultural practices to redeem Jefferson’s promise.
Scott M. Roulier
Chapter 3. Democracy Gone Wild: Thoreau and the Wilderness Tradition
Abstract
While Thoreau is not apolitical, he is wary of governmental power that compromises the integrity of individuals by implicating them in activities to which they object. In contrast to his descriptions of the restraints placed on individuals in civil society, he views nature as inviting self-exploration and development. By cultivating an outsider’s view, Thoreau sees like a prophet and is able to call out his fellow citizens for their wanton destruction of nature and the injustices perpetrated upon other human beings. Nevertheless, it is argued that Thoreau’s anemic theory of citizenship undercuts some of his most cherished values, for it tends to rule out the sustained and coordinated political action required to prevent the degradation of nature and persons.
Scott M. Roulier

Rival Democratic Designs

Frontmatter
Chapter 4. Olmsted’s Public Parks: Civic-Spirited Design
Abstract
Olmsted expressed alarm over increasing social segregation in America and its loss of civic spirit and fraternity. To address these problems, Olmsted’s park designs sought to promote communal belonging and to provide spaces for rejuvenation, yielding personal as well as civic benefits. Whether the ambitious goals Olmsted set for his parks could be fully achieved, this chapter claims, is doubtful. Social science research questions whether social contact alone can turn strangers into acquaintances or inspire coordinated action. Also unconvincing is Olmsted’s claim that park beauty would have a positive “moral” impact on visitors. Though Olmsted may have over sold the benefits of his parks, he was a fierce and public-spirited advocate for creating and preserving aesthetically pleasing spaces for all, not just the few.
Scott M. Roulier
Chapter 5. Democracy and Individuality: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacres and the Burbs
Abstract
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacre City is an audacious plan to dismantle or abandon all existing cities. Predicated on the notion that each person or family is entitled to the use of at least an acre of land, this radically egalitarian plan is the platform to achieve his overriding purpose—the nurturing of individuality. Whereas the material prerequisites attached to Broadacre City may be admirably democratic, in terms of politics, the chapter argues, Broadacres’ citizens are distressingly disempowered. In the event, the great cities of America were not leveled, but the “horizontality” of his vision, suburban sprawl, did come to pass, and, instead of Wright’s promised incubator of individuality, America more often received a built environment of mind-numbing sameness.
Scott M. Roulier

Modernism: Promise, Problems and New Prescriptions

Frontmatter
Chapter 6. Democratic Ambivalence: Robert Moses and Modernist Urban Planning
Abstract
Robert Moses, the consummate modern planner, built an intricate network of bridges, parkways, and tunnels that expertly bound together the five boroughs that compose New York City. At first glance, it is difficult to question Moses’s democratic bona fides. He built scores of playgrounds, parks, and parkways in the City and on Long Island—providing hardworking city dwellers with the recreational opportunities and mobility they craved; however, not only did Moses co-opt ostensibly democratic institutions, he was also responsible for evicting hundreds of thousands of residents and destroying the integrity of dozens of neighborhoods and ecologically sensitive sites. This chapter highlights Robert Moses’s democratic inconsistency and, by extension, explicates the democratic ambivalence of the modernist design philosophy he embodies.
Scott M. Roulier
Chapter 7. Democracy and Civic Ecology: New Urbanism
Abstract
After an introduction to New Urbanism’s founders, goals, and design strategies, the chapter hones in on one figure, Peter Calthorpe, for whom a foundational concept is “philosophic ecology,” which provides a foil to and an implicit critique of built spaces that eschew planning and regulation in favor of an unconstrained market. Though the jury is still out on what New Urbanism has accomplished, it is argued that new urbanist experiments should receive further support because, compared to the modernist style of Moses or suburban sprawl, New Urbanism has at least attempted to redress an imbalance between the private and public, has attempted to reconstitute some notion of the Commons, and has also made sustainability a design priority.
Scott M. Roulier

Design Portfolios: A Juried Competition

Frontmatter
Chapter 8. Democratic Designs: A Multipronged Assessment
Abstract
This chapter provides a critical assessment of the democratic purchase of the various models presented in the book. To accomplish this, a variety of metrics are applied: social capital, human capabilities, non-discrimination, and sustainability.
Scott M. Roulier
Chapter 9. Conclusion
Abstract
A concluding chapter summarizes the most valuable insights of each landscape tradition and urban design movement. Then, while acknowledging some of the weaknesses and imperfections in the urban forms most closely associated with the republican or civically oriented version of democracy (Olmsted’s public projects, New Urbanism), it restates one of the project’s main theses—now with the book’s full panoply of evidence behind it—that these urban design models outperform the designs most closely associated with individualistic versions of democracy (sprawling suburbs, urban modernism): the former simultaneously preserve individual liberty and promote the civic values and practices required for a healthy democratic society.
Scott M. Roulier
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Shaping American Democracy
Author
Dr. Scott M. Roulier
Copyright Year
2018
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-68810-7
Print ISBN
978-3-319-68809-1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68810-7