Discussion Notes from the March 30, 2016 meeting
Industrial Utopias in the Early Twentieth Century: Contested Visions of Planned Landscapes for the Common Good
Lead by Kathryn Oberdeck
Industrial Utopias in the Early Twentieth Century: Contested Visions of Planned Landscapes for the Common Good
Lead by Kathryn Oberdeck
- Applications versus theory: how do the ideas of the Garden City change as Howard puts it in to place? How does it change as others use the idea of the garden city outside of England?
- How are planned communities “utopian only in the most cynical sense”? Can we look at Kohler’s vision as utopian in a non-cynical sense? If so, how can we look at Kohler as a continuation of Garden City principles? How do the utopian ideas about urban planning affect the built environment of Kohler? The unbuilt environment?
- What role do protests about planned communities play in our understanding of them? How does this connect to the dialectical tension between utopia and dystopia?
- There’s a common perception of cities of the 19th century as dystopic: how do these movements come out of that? Can they be looked at as successes?
- Howard’s work has a large focus on finances. Why does he see it as important? How do they connect to his utopian vision?
- What differentiations exist between the vision of the garden city and the typical 19th c city? How can we bring in the later variations of the garden city/industry towns/etc.?
- What role does rent play? Many envisioned these communities as eventually being rent-free; what is utopian about those visions? How does Kohler draw upon those ideas?
- Labor unions weren’t very enthusiastic about these ideas in Kohler, and the Garden City movements never grew a working class base of support. Was the idea of a planned community every a working class goal, or was it always the vision of middle class reformers?
- How do big categories—race, empire, gender, nationalities—factor in?
- Can these planned cities be cosmopolitan?
- To what extent did Howard’s ideas spread?
- Howard’s politics: “a radical in sheep’s clothing.” Can his emphasis on money be looked at as a desire to cover up his socialist vision?
- What role does new technology play? Cars allow for the creation of the suburb, which destroys the need for a centralized city.
- Environmental impact: how was the garden city created to be “green”?
- How did Howard’s idea run parallel to the co-op movement? How does it draw upon the same ideas?
- What tensions exist between socialism and anarchism in Howard’s vision? How do they connect to Howard’s conception of freedom?
- How do planners link together physical space and the effect it has on people’s behavior?
- Howard keeps using attraction metaphors of attraction: magnets, marriage, pull. But if the (male) city and (female) country are having the child of the garden city, what gender is the garden city?
- Note also that in the magnet metaphor, not all of the positive mentions from town and country make it into the category of “town-country”
- What type of people were attracted to these planned communities, especially the Garden City? Although it initially attracted people on the social margins, they eventually leave–why?
- Can a fully realized vision ever be utopian?
- Role of amusement: There is an attempt to bring in “high culture” into the Garden City, but no bars. The entertainment is designed to be passive. How was this an attempt to make people into a specific type of people (and how does this connect to eugenic goals)?
- To what extent were these visions limited based on race? Kathy found a document in the Kohler archives that had “whites only” written and crossed out, from around the time that the Supreme Court banned redlining.
- While it’s not immediately clear who is white (the large population of Volga Germans in Kohler weren’t considered white), there was a strong sense of othering of blacks, Asians, and other communities of color
- Kohler was very interested in national identity; he launched comprehensive programs of Americanization. Does Howard discuss this at all? Does race or nationality emerge, or is it implicit in the text? Is there an assumption that the otherized populations of London (e.g. East Enders, like the Jews and Irish) would not join in, or was the assumption that the Garden City would essentially overwrite the deviousness of people like that who would choose to join in?
- To what extend did the Garden City movement attract conservatives? In Britain, it became popular as a means of creating a population that was fit enough to serve in the army.
- There was a paradox in the housing construction of Letchworth: in order to make the housing affordable for the working class, it would be made out of shoddy materials; the designers refused to compromise, and because the housing was no longer affordable, the town became gentrified.
- Can you collectivize on the consumptive level but not on the productive level, and have it work? This is the big difference between Howard’s ideas and company towns like Kohler.
- Howard promoted co-operative productive models, but didn’t require anything
- Howard has a sense that people will make the right decision, and the town will grow through that process. To what extent does Kohler use the same concept?
- There’s a constant tension over what is public and what is private and where the divides exist; fences are emblematic of this debate (they’re common in England, but very rare in the US).