Special Feature: Making the civic city: architectural interventions and experiments in the urban

Abstract

This Special Feature seeks to inform contemporary debates about the role of architectural design on the development (or not) of civic cultures within our cities. Contributors to this Special Feature present research that covers a wide spectrum of case studies that demonstrate the influence of urban design on the articulation of new models of citizenship, and the role of architecture in shaping patterns of exclusion in contemporary cities. In response to these issues, we highlight how the effects of architectural elements within their individual buildings can have much wider social implications in terms of the often impoverished dynamics of the urban spaces they foster; we offer examples of how urban infrastructures hold the potential for animating more just public cultures; and we review examples of the convivial cultures that support citizenship on the ground in cities today. In the final analysis of the impact of architectural interventions in the development of civic cultures, we argue that urban researchers should work with methods that trace the sonic qualities of public space in order to supplement visual approaches to the urban.

Keywords:

• architecture
• citizenship
• conviviality
• public space
• urban infrastructure

Acknowledgements

This Special Feature arose out of a symposium held at the University of York in May 2022. We would like to thank Irena Bauman, Phil Bixby, Owen Hatherley, Joshua Mardell, Simon Parker, Ola Uduku, and Ken Worpole for their contributions to the symposium itself, the audiences whose questioning helped to shape the papers presented here, and Anna Richter, journal reviewers, and editorial colleagues at City for their support of the collection throughout the publication process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daryl Martin

Daryl Martin is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of York. Email: [email protected]

Alice Wilson

Alice Wilson received her PhD in Sociology from the University of York. 
Email: [email protected]