Skateboarding and the City

Author(s):  
Gregory J. Snyder

This chapter offers a brief history of the subculture and introduces readers to skateboarding practices. There is a detailed description of tricks and a discussion of how skateboarding forces a reexamination of classic urban sociology by focusing on the specific history of the growth of Los Angeles. In doing so we come to appreciate not only how skateboarding changes one’s perception of urban space, but also how skaters’ cognitive maps of the city offer a critique of classic Chicago School sociology.

Author(s):  
Trippe Micah

This essay examines skateboarding as an architectural act of pleasure that allows private spaces in cities to be appropriated for alternative uses. In particular, the appropriation of swimming pools by skateboarders will be explored, from the renegade to the officially sanctioned, to explore socio-political aspects of space. The film Dogtown and Z-Boys (Stacy Peralta, 2001) provides a primary source for this examination, and will be used as a vehicle through which to examine these issues, particularly in Los Angeles. Recent appropriations of swimming pools in New York will provide a secondary reference. In Dogtown and Z-Boys , swimming pools form a playground in which skaters in 1970s Los Angeles re-appropriated urban space for their own use. This paper will argue that the appropriation of swimming pools by skateboarders has provided a viable venue for alternative uses of the city that include both play and dissent. By framing the history of swimming pools in late 20 th century America, a case will be presented for how skateboarders’ appropriation of swimming pools in 1970s Los Angeles can provide clues to continual opportunities for alternative configurations and uses of twenty-first century urban space.


1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-128
Author(s):  
Catherine S. Ramirez

Throughout the twentieth century (and now the twenty-first), the specter of a Latina/o past, present, and future has haunted the myth of Los Angeles as a sunny, bucolic paradise. At the same time it has loomed behind narratives of the city as a dystopic, urban nightmare. In the 1940s Carey McWilliams pointed to the fabrication of a “Spanish fantasy heritage” that made Los Angeles the bygone home of fair señoritas, genteel caballeros and benevolent mission padres. Meanwhile, the dominant Angeleno press invented a “zoot” (read Mexican-American) crime wave. Unlike the aristocratic, European Californias/os of lore, the Mexican/American “gangsters” of the 1940s were described as racial mongrels. What's more, the newspapers explicitly identified them as the sons and daughters of immigrants-thus eliding any link they may have had to the Californias/os of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries or to the history of Los Angeles in general.


Author(s):  
Carlos Machado

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Dana Osborne

AbstractThis analysis examines the ways in which a single speaker, Ana, born in mid-century East Los Angeles, organizes and reflects upon her experiences of the city through language. Ana’s story is one that sheds light on the experiences of many Mexican Americans who came of age at a critical time in a transitioning L.A., and the slow move of people who had been up until mid-century relegated largely in and around racially and socioeconomically segregated parts of L.A. These formative experiences are demonstrated to have informed the ways that speakers parse the social and geographical landscape along several dimensions, and this analysis interrogates the symbolic value of a special category of everyday language, deixis, to reveal the intersection between language and social experience in the cityscape of L.A. In this way, it is analytically possible to not only approach the habituation and reproduction of specific deictic fields as indexical of the ways that speakers parse the city, but also to demonstrate the ways in which key moments in the history of the city have shaped the emergence and meaning of those fields.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-11
Author(s):  
Adam Rogers

The city of Los Angeles is converting its streetlights from orange-gold sodium vapor technology to cold, white light-emitting diodes. It’s a transition that will change the color of the city at night, in a place with a long history of experimentation with artificial lighting technology. That means not only that the city will appear different, but it will no longer correspond to memories of its coloration, or to its depictions in famous films.


Author(s):  
Piotr Fereński

Город как одно из важнейших явлений современного глобализированного мира является предметом исследования различных научных дисциплин. Это важный феномен для изучения истории цивилизации, процессов урбанизации, развития архитектуры, взаимоотношений между пространственным планированием и религиозными и политическими идеями, для исследования социальных и экономических изменений, городского образа жизни, истории искусства, а также для критики современного искусства. Элементарный анализ города присутствует также в области литературоведения, исследований звука и перформанса, психологии (восприятие пространства и его свойств), педагогики, политологии (с интересом к теме прямой демократии или же городских движений). Вопросы оптимизации моделей функционирования города важны для департаментов, ориентированных на транспорт и инфраструктуру (водоснабжение, газ и т. д.), а также подземное строительство (автостоянки, гаражи, тоннели, метро). В проектировании «умного города» участвуют и информатика, занимающаяся процессом создания новых коммуникационных технологий, и факультеты биологии или охраны окружающей среды, которые ведут исследовательскую и дидактическую деятельность в области «прикладной экологии» – отношений, возникающих между средой, непосредственно окружающей человека, и природой. Сегодня технологические инновации и творческая сила культуры являются ключом к развитию города. Однако что это значит для представителей гуманитарных наук? Какую пользу они могут принести в этой области? Городское пространство может быть показано ими как неоднородное место, полное постоянной напряжённости, столкновений, круговорота значений, ценностей, представлений, а также как область значительных социальных экспериментов. Я воспринимаю человеческие практики и человеческое творчество как то, что постоянно подвергается трансформации и постоянно требует новых прочтений. В своих поисках я часто выхожу за стены Академии и пытаюсь ощутить характер города, ощутить его пространство всеми своими чувствами. Я непосредственно наблюдаю образ жизни жителей, их повседневные практики. Я слушаю, что они говорят, и читаю, что они выражают на стенах домов. Это своеобразное блуждание по городу имеет целью запечатлеть то, что видно, а также то, что остаётся для нас на первый взгляд недоступным. Это собрание заметок, попытка визуальной и аудиозаписи окружающего мира, которые я затем пытаюсь структурировать и интерпретировать. Однако нам, академикам, нужно как экспертам «выходить» в город и по-другому – мы должны выступать в общественных дебатах и влиять на решения различных муниципальных учреждений, оказывать влияние на местную политику. Такова и дискуссия о роли университета в формировании городского пространства и жизни в городе.The city as one of the most important phenomena of the modern globalized world is the subject of investigations of various scientific disciplines. It is important phenomena for studies on the history of civilization, on urbanization processes, on the development of architecture, on the relationships between spatial planning and religious and political ideas, for studies on social and economic changes, for studies on urban ways of life, studies on the history of art, as well as critique of contemporary art. There are also elementary analyzes of a city in the field of literary studies, sound studies, performance studies, psychology (the perception of space and its properties), pedagogy, political science (interested in direct democracy or even urban movements). The issues of optimization of models of the city’s functioning are important for departments oriented on transport and infrastructure (water, gas etc.), as well as underground construction (car parks, garages, tunnels, metro). Informatics dealing with the process of creation of new communication technologies is involved in the design of “smart city”. The faculties of biology or environmental protection conduct research and didactic activities in the field of “applied ecology” – relations that occurring between the human environment and nature. Today technological innovation and creative power of culture are the key to the development of the city. However, what does it mean for the representatives of humanities? What can they bring to it? The city space then appears as a heterogeneous place, full of constant tensions, collisions, circulation of meanings, values, representations, as well as the field of great social experiments. I perceive the human practices and creations as something that is a subject to constant transformation and that constantly requires new readings. In my search, I often go beyond the walls of the academy and try to sense the character of the city and experience its space with all my senses. I keenly observe the ways of life of the inhabitants, their daily practices. I listen to what they say and read what they manifest on the walls of buildings. This peculiar wandering around the city is aimed at capturing what is visible, but also at reaching what remains inaccessible to us at first glance. It is a collection of notes, it is an attempt at visual and audio recording of the surrounding world, which I then try to structure and interpret. However, as experts, we academics need to “go out” to the city also in a different way – we must take the floor in public debates and have an influence on the decisions of various municipal institutions, have an impact on local politics. There is a discussion about the role of the university in shaping urban space and life in the city.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-145
Author(s):  
Sema Tuba Özmen ◽  
Beyza Onur

Architecture, which is associated with the practice of producing space, has always rendered the powers and ideologies visible. This study investigates the government houses in the 19th century Ottoman State with regard to the notions of power and ideology and focuses on the Government House of Safranbolu. It is known that, in the specified period, government houses were important ideological interventions to urban space. This study aims to address the ideological context of the Safranbolu Government House, which is positioned with the ideal of the state. Based on this, first, the urban history of Safranbolu was examined. The importance of Safranbolu Government House in the history of the city, its relationship with the city, its ideological message to the city-dwellers and its architectural style were analyzed through a method based on archival research. All government houses of the period are the artifacts of urban-spatial structures and their architectural style as well as a shared ideology. Safranbolu Government House, which is one of the structures symbolizing the Ottoman State, was also built with a similar ideological consideration. Thus, the readability of the dominant ideology through the production style of Safranbolu Government House, one of the final period architectural artifacts of the Ottoman State, was verified.


Author(s):  
Paulo Cruz Terra ◽  
Marcelo de Souza Magalhães

The city of Rio de Janeiro underwent profound changes between 1870 and the early 20th century. Its population grew dramatically, attracting migrants not only from abroad but also from other regions of Brazil. It also expanded significantly in size, as the construction of trolley and railway lines and the introduction of real estate capital powered the occupation of new areas. Meanwhile, urban reforms aimed at modernization transformed the social ways in which urban space was used. During this period, Rio de Janeiro went from being the capital of the Brazilian Empire to being the capital of the Brazilian Republic. It nevertheless maintained its position as the cultural, political-administrative, commercial, and financial center of the country. Against this backdrop of change, the city was an important arena for the political struggles that marked the period, including demonstrations in favor of abolition and the republic. Rio de Janeiro’s citizens were not inert during this period of transformation, and they found various ways to take action and fight for what they understood to be their rights. Protests, demands, petitions, and a vibrant life organized around social and political associations are examples of the broad repertoire used by the city’s inhabitants to gain a voice in municipal affairs. Citizens’ use of public demands and petitions as a channel to communicate with the authorities, and especially with city officials, shows that while they did not necessarily shun formal politics, they understood politics to be a sphere for dialogue and dispute. The sociocultural history of Rio de Janeiro during this period was therefore built precisely through confrontations and negotiations in which the common people played an active role.


1921 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Stephen Taber

Summary More than a hundred earthquakes have been recorded in southern California during the period February-September, 1920. These earthquakes have originated along several different faults in the vicinity of Los Angeles, but all of them are believed to have resulted from the adjustment of stresses set up in the region by the same general tectonic movements. The series of shocks felt in Los Angeles on July 16th originated along faults which cut Miocene and Pliocene rocks in the northern part of the city. The three strongest shocks on July 16th had epicentral intensities of between VI and VII in the Rossi-Forel scale; and they were felt over areas of from 500 to 2500 square miles. The known seismic history of southern California and the magnitude of the post-Pleistocene movements both indicate that the seismicity of the region is relatively high. There are many faults in the vicinity of Los Angeles; some of which are known to be active, while others are suspected of being active. Fortunately those within the city are short, while the longer ones are seven to thirty miles away, and are therefore less dangerous in so far as Los Angeles is concerned.


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