Democracy and Urban Form collects Richard Sennett's six Harvard GSD lectures from 1981, arguing that the physical design of cities either enables or forecloses the kind of discourse on which democratic life depends.
About This Book
Delivered at Harvard's Graduate School of Design in 1981, these six lectures by social theorist Richard Sennett mount a pointed challenge to architecture's political disengagement. Sennett's central proposition is precise: discourse is the foundation of democracy, and urban form is either its instrument or its obstacle. The argument moves between political philosophy and built environment, holding the design disciplines accountable for consequences they have long preferred to ignore. Published more than forty years after the lectures were first given, the book returns these questions to a moment of renewed political polarisation — making their urgency harder to dismiss than ever. Essential reading for anyone working at the intersection of urban design, civic space, and democratic theory.
Key Features
- 264 pages of political philosophy and urban theory developed across six structured lectures
- Author: Richard Sennett
- Published by Sternberg Press, 1981
What You'll Discover
- How Sennett frames discourse — not representation or voting — as the operative foundation of democratic life, and why this reframing has direct consequences for spatial design
- The argument that architecture and urban design hold real political agency, and Sennett's diagnosis of why the discipline had abandoned that responsibility by 1981
- How the physical organisation of cities can either open or constrict the conditions for public exchange — with implications for street life, civic infrastructure, and public space
- Why questions posed over forty years ago about political polarisation and urban form have lost none of their urgency in the present moment
About the Author
Richard Sennett is a social theorist and urban thinker whose work sits at the intersection of sociology, political philosophy, and the built environment. He delivered these lectures at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 1981, addressing what he saw as a critical failure of political sensibility within the architecture profession.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 264
- Dimensions: 12.22 x 2.67 x 18.57 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781915609472
- Publisher: Sternberg Press
- Publication Date: 1981
Perfect For: Architects and urban designers engaged with civic space, academics and students of urban theory and political philosophy, and practitioners thinking critically about the relationship between democratic life and the built environment.