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Metropolitanism and the Transformation of Urban Space in Nineteenth‐Century Colonial Metropoles
Author(s) -
Rotenberg Robert
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.2001.103.1.7
Subject(s) - bourgeoisie , colonialism , urban space , right to the city , movement (music) , economy , sociology , political science , political economy , ethnology , aesthetics , economic geography , geography , law , politics , art , economics
In this paper, I argue that the nineteenth‐century movement of "metropolitanism" was a transnational attempt to rebuild and re‐imagine cities in a bourgeois image and through a capitalist process of investment. This movement began with the attempt by wealthy residents of imperial metropoles to remake their cities in ways that created greater social distance between themselves and their colonies—both external and internal. I explore how a discourse with specific urban content can engender a movement that revolutionizes people's view of the city. The analysis points toward a revitalization of this movement in the present moment of global transformations, suggesting that the reshaping of urban social organization and urban institutions through transnational processes is not new. [urban, metropolitanism, colonialism, housing, architecture]