I know in my heart and soul how encounters with and presence in mundane yet quality, well-designed, and planned spaces feel, but I am still finding the language to explain what I mean…
Ordinary cities. Not a newfound life interest but beginning to formulate as a research one.
Do you have a special affinity or interest with ‘mundane cities’ as well?
It’s an eerie but also fascinating (and incredibly practical) experience when books you are reading intersect and reflect on multiple threads of thought you are working with.
For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about ‘ordinary cities’, in part because such cities greatly interest me personally (preference for living in such) but I’m also interested in studying them.
These are cities that are definitely not typically ‘destination cities’ but they can have a great (or even brilliant) degree of ‘liveability’.
They might get overlooked in the mainstream urbanism discourse because they simply lack some ‘wow’ factors but conversely, lacking such features and being ‘ordinary’ can be the basis of the low-key, liveable environment that many of their locals value.
Today, as I digested the chapter ‘Cities for Whom’ in the text ‘Urban Geography: A Critical Introduction’ (Wiley) I was fascinated to come across a section on the very topic of ‘Ordinary Cities’.
The authors note that we should ‘…pay attention to the apparently mundane cities and forms of urbanism that exist around the world as much as we should pay attention to apparently cutting-edge and paradigmatic places and ways of life.’ –Andrew E. G. Jonas, Eugene McCann, and Mary E. Thomas
The authors also note that ‘…most urban geographers are interested in cities because they want to understand and improve the lives of those who live and work there.’
This of course resonates as experiencing and studying the mundane in the context of towns and cities is a core part of my motivation for urban research.
Suffice to say, I recommend this book and I also look forward to applying more focus on aspects of great and mundane urbanism.
-Annika
