On the utopian city notion (UCN) for city image analysis (CIA): a briefing
Written by Joseph, K.K. Ho dated:
May 21, 2022
Abstract:
The academic literature on the utopian city notion (UTN) and city image
analysis (CIA) is substantial and widely scattered in different academic
journals in social sciences. The writer utilizes his own teaching materials for
Housing Studies students to come up with a more focused and organized briefing
on the UTN and CIA. Concept explanation (UTN and CIA) and concept association,
notably between the UTN and CIA, are examined with academic references. Specifically,
this briefing note sheds some light on how the UCN can be employed for CIA.
Lastly, Housing Studies students are encouraged to study not only this briefing
note but also the pertinent academic literature on the UCN and CIA for their
long-term intellectual learning journey.
Key
words: cities, city image, city
image analysis (CIA), the utopian city notion (UCN).
Introduction
This brief article makes use of this writer’s
teaching materials on Geographical Imagination for his Housing Studies students.
It offers a concise introduction to the utopian city notion (UCN), the city
image analysis (CIA), and the value of the UCN for CIA.
On
city image analysis (CIA)
The theory of city image was postulated by
Kevin Lynch in his 1960 milestone book of “The Image of the City”. Lunch, as
cited in Huang et al. (2021), made
three imperative claims, namely, “cities have a series of public image held
consistently by citizens; 2) city images can be conveniently classified into
five elements: “path”, “node”, “edge”, “district” and “landmark”; 3) the
ability of the physical urban form to evoke mental images…. offers a sense of
emotional security and the intensity of human experience” (Huang et al., 2021). These claims imply that
(i) shared city images do exist; (ii) city image elements can be studied with
rigor and (iii) city image can be experienced intensely, notably with regard to
emotional security. The city image notion has subsequently been further
elaborated on by other writers:
A. Priporas et
al. (2020), point out that (i) city image is “a multi-dimensional
construct…. which can offer people a better perception of cities” (citing
Cassia, et al, 2018) and (ii) city image can be portrayed as “the set of
beliefs, idea and impressions people hold regarding any city” (citing Kotler,
1997: 607);
B. Broadway and Broadway (2018), drawing on Relph
(1976) and Avraham (2004), point out that “images of places” [including cities]
are conveyed by opinion leaders and distributed by journalists using
stereotypes”;
C. Sainz (2012), citing Avraham (2004), reminds us
that negative city image is “an obstacle that prevents it from becoming more
attractive and in fact forestalls a brighter future”.
In view of the accumulated literature on city
image and how it can be analysed, as the examples of ideas above exemplify,
city image analysis (CIA) is a conceptually sophisticated way to study the
subject of city. Particularly, to this writer, it is clearly a useful topic for
his Housing Studies students to learn, since the Housing Studies subject very
often is examined in the context of cities. To further illuminate the city
image analysis (CIA), this writer next considers what the utopian city notion
(UCN) is and its value for city image analysis (CIA).
What
is the utopian city notion (UCN) for city image analysis (CIA)?
Cities, according to Sandercock (2002), are
“built thought” and “the containers of dreams and desires, hopes and fears”. As
such, utopian thinking on city, crystallizing in a particular utopian city
image in a certain period of time and place by a certain utopian thinker, is an
important topic of study in Geographical Imagination in general and Housing
Studies in particular. For this discussion, the ideas of utopian thinking on
city [the thinking] and the utopian city image [the crystallized image from the utopian thinking] together
constitute the utopian city notion (UCN) for city image analysis (CIA). A brief
elucidation on the UCN is now presented to gain additional understanding of it.
This is done by referring to a few selected points from the relevant UCN academic
literature as follows:
A. To “envision possibilities for more equitable,
just and ecologically sustainable urban future…. most of what passes for city
planning has been inspired by utopian modes of thought” (Macleod and Ward,
2002, citing Harvey 2000);
B. Ganjavie (2015), citing Baeten
(2002) and Pinder (2002), points out that “utopian planners used provocative
and subversive urban designs which mostly took on dystopian forms in order to
educate citizens;
C. For Friedmann (2000), principles of
the good city “must be drawn from somewhere”; they “must be logically connected
to some foundational value”. Such value, as formulated by Friedmann (2000) as
“the right to human flourishing”, is: “Every human being has the right, by
nature, to the full development of their innate intellectual, physical and
spiritual potentials in the context of wider communities”.
These three points of illustration from the literature on the UCN underline
its analysis value for city planning purpose, which needs to be adequately
informed by the CIA. Besides, examples of utopian (including dystopian) images
abound in science fictions and movies. They are useful urban scenarios for the
CIA. Using the UCN for CIA, informed by their rich academic literature, can be
a highly stimulating analysis exercise; it encourages a critically-aware and
idealized form of urban analysis and design thinking.
Concluding remarks
A short review of the academic literature on the
UCN and CIA shows the analytical value of them for Geographical Imagination and
Housing Studies. The utopian city notion offers an intellectually fruitful set
of ideas for a critical, idealized and creative way to carry out the CIA
exercise.
This brief note should be a useful reading for
Housing Students, especially those who study Geographical Imagination. The
academic literature of these two topics takes much more engaging and long-term learning
effort to grasp; nevertheless, doing so in a leisurely pace should be a quite
enjoyable and rewarding intellectual learning experience.
References
Avraham, E. 2004. “Media
strategies for improving an unfavorable city image” Cities 21 (6): 471–479.
Baeten, G. 2002. “Western
utopianism/dystopianism and the political mediocrity of critical urban
research” Geografiska Annaler Series B: Human
Geography 84 (3–4): 143–152.
Friedmann, J. 2000. “The Good
City: In Defense of Utopian Thinking” International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24(2) June: 460-472.
Ganjavie, A. 2015. “On the future
of urban design: Fabricating the future through Bloch’s utopians” Planning Theory 14(1): 90–108.
Harvey, D.
2000. Spaces of Hope. Edinburgh
University ,Press, Edinburgh.
Huang, J.X., Obracht-Prondzynska, H.,
Kamrowska-Zalyska, D, Sun, Y.M. and Li, L.S. 2021. “The image of the City on
social media: A comparative study using “Big Data” and “Small Data” method in
the Tri-City Region in Poland” Landscape
and Urban Planning 206, Elsevier: 103977.
Kotler, P. 1997. Marketing Management 9th edition, Prentice-Hall.
Lynch, K. 1960. The Image of the city, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press.
Macleod, G. and Ward, K. 2002.
“Spaces of utopia and dystopia: landscaping the contemporary city” Geografiska
Annaler: Series B, Human Geography
84(3-4): 153-170, DOI: 10.1111/j.0435-3684.2002.00121.x
Pinder, D. 2002. “In defense of
utopian urbanism” Geografiska Annaler Series B: Human Geography 84(3–4): 229–241.
Priporas, C.V., Stylos, N. and Kamenidou, I.
2020. “City image, city brand personality and generation Z residents’ life
satisfaction under economic crisis: Predictors of city-related social media
engagement” Journal of Business Research
119, October, Elsevier: 453-463.
Relph, E. 1976. Place and placelessness. London: Pion.
Sainz, M.A. 2012. “(Re)Building
an Image for a City: Is A Landmark Enough? Bilbao and the Guggenheim Museum, 10
Years Together” Journal of Applied Social
Psychology 42(1): 100–132.
Sandercock, L. 2002. “Practicing Utopia: Sustaining Cities” disP–The Planning Review 38(148): 4-9, DOI: 10.1080/02513625.2002.10556791.
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