The Social Fabric of Cities
Linking the physical to the social city is the challenge of our times. This is one of the first attempts to systematically do so, and Netto brilliantly succeeds in showing how encounters, segregation, movement and interaction are reflected in our understanding of the form and function of the city.
Michael Batty, CASA, University College London
In our fast-paced, empirically-driven research world, it is a rare treat to come across a theoretical book that merits pause and reflection, especially when written by a young scholar who has had the patience to mature it for a decade before granting it to us. Vinicius M. Nettos meticulously crafted conceptual framework provides us with the tools to rethink some of the fundamental elements of our everyday research and teaching practice: the interscalar and increasingly complex relations between individual and collective bodies and the spaces of place and flow that shape and are shaped by our interactions. Netto offers practical reasons and philosophical ammunition in support of the battle to reclaim the city. This book is an admirable accomplishment.
Clara Irazbal, Columbia University
The city is at the nexus of the socio-economic, technological and cultural networks that are transforming contemporary social life. Vinicius Netto explains why our understanding of this complex process is likely to remain limited so long as the false opposition of materiality and meaning goes inadequately challenged in social theories of the city. His response is an original account of social practice as a communicative act premised on the materiality of urban systems. This highly interdisciplinary and intelligent study comes as a breath of fresh air to urban studies and should challenge entrenched epistemological positions.
Sam Griffiths, University College London
Bringing together ideas from the fields of sociology, economics, human geography, ethics, political and communications theory, this book deals with some key subjects in urban design: the multidimensional effects of the spatial form of cities, ways of appropriating urban space, and the different material factors involved in the emergence of social life. It puts forward an innovative conceptual framework to reconsider some fundamental features of city-making as a social process: the place of cities in encounters and communications, in the randomness of events and in the repetition of activities that characterise societies. In doing so, it provides fresh analytical tools and theoretical insights to help advance our understanding of the networks of causalities, contingencies and contexts involved in practices of city-making.
In a systematic attempt to bring urban analysis and research from the social sciences together, the book is organised around three vital yet relatively neglected dimensions in the social and material shaping of cities: (i) Cities as systems of encounter: an approach to urban segregation as segregated networks; (ii) Cities as systems of communication: a view of shared spaces as a means to association and social experience; (iii) Cities as systems of material interaction: explorations on urban form as an effect of interactivity, and interactivity as an effect of form.
Vinicius M. Netto holds a PhD in Advanced Architectural Studies (University College London, UCL), and is currently working as Assistant Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil.
Design and the Built Environment
Series editor: Matthew Carmona
This series provides a means to disseminate substantive research in urban design and its allied fields. Contributions are welcomed which are the result of original empirical research, scholarly evaluation, reflection on the practice and the process of urban design, critical analysis of particular aspects of the built environment, or important conference proceedings. Volumes should be of international interest, although they may focus on the particular experience and practice in one country. They may reflect theory and practice from across one or more of the spatial scales over which urban design operates.
Total Landscape, Theme Parks, Public Space
Miodrag Mitrasinovic
The Design of Frontier Spaces
Control and Ambiguity
Carolyn Loeb and Andreas Luescher
Urban Design in the Arab World
Reconceptualizing Boundaries
Robert Saliba
Towns and Cities: Function in Form
Urban Structures, Economics and Society
Julian Hart
Urban Planning in Lusophone African Countries
Carlos Nunes Silva
Urban Planning in North Africa
Carlos Nunes Silva
Spatial Cultures
Towards a New Social Morphology of Cities Past and Present
Sam Griffiths and Alexander von Lnen
The Social Fabric of Cities
Vinicius Netto
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2017 Vinicius M. Netto
The right of Vinicius M. Netto to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Netto, Vinicius M., author.
Title: The social fabric of cities/Vinicius M. Netto.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016002700| ISBN 9781472470669 (hardback:
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315552804 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: City planning Social aspects. | Urbanization
Social aspects. | Sociology, Urban.
Classification: LCC HT166 .M5876 2016 | DDC 307.1/216 dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016002700
ISBN: 978-1-472-47066-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-55280-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
Translation:
Vinicius M. Netto (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6);
Nick Rands (Introduction, Chapters 7 and 8);
David Rogers (Chapter 1)
Revision:
Nick Rands (Chapters 2, 5 and 6);
David Rogers (Chapters 3 and 4)
