Cities Made of Boundaries: Mapping Social Life in Urban Form

Description

Cities Made of Boundaries presents the theoretical foundation and concepts for a new social scientific urban morphological mapping method, Boundary Line Type (BLT) mapping. Its vantage is a plea to establish a frame of reference for radically comparative urban studies positioned between geography and archaeology. Based in multidisciplinary social and spatial theory, a critical realist understanding of the boundaries that compose built space is operationalized by a mapping practice utilizing Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Benjamin N. Vis gives a precise account of how BLT mapping can be applied to detailed historical, reconstructed, contemporary, and archaeological urban plans, exemplified by sixteenth to twenty-first-century Winchester and Classic Maya Chunchucmil. This account demonstrates how the functional and experiential difference between compact western and tropical dispersed cities can be explored. The methodological development of Cities Made of Boundaries will appeal to readers interested in the comparative social analysis of built environments, and those seeking to expand the evidence-base of design options to structure urban life and development. Cover Half-title Title page Imprint Dedication Acknowledgments Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of abbreviations INTRODUCTION TO CITIES MADE OF BOUNDARIES The rationale The questions The content The book CHAPTER 1 TOWARDS RADICAL COMPARATIVE URBAN STUDIES Introduction Urban studies Urban origins Categorical cities Comparative urbanism Social practice based definition of cities What to study comparatively Representation and meaning Environmental determinism Low-level meaning (avoiding conflation) Research practice CHAPTER 2 ADAPTING A CRITICAL REALIST RESEARCH PROCESS Introduction Philosophical position Geography and archaeology Materiality The material The material inhabited built environment Embedding the research process Spatial (in)dependence The social Iterative abstraction CHAPTER 3 CONSTITUTING BUILT ENVIRONMENTS, ESTABLISHING BOUNDARIES Introduction Reasoning towards a theoretical framework The condition of being human Human being in the spatial world Empty space Primordial space Equalitarian space Marked space Filled space Human being in the social world Individual human being Encounter Projects and institutions Autopoietic socio-spatial systems Inhabited built environment Boundaries CHAPTER 4 THEORISING MATERIAL BOUNDARIES, UNDERSTANDING SPATIAL DATA Introduction Theorising boundaries Thinking beyond categories Consolidation and classification Studying boundaries Boundaries in the inhabited built environment Boundary compositions in built environment configurations Fiat and bona fide boundaries Conceptual series towards spatial data Ideational and empirical boundaries Built boundaries Boundary lines Visualised or presented data Towards an ontology of analytical units CHAPTER 5 AN ONTOLOGY OF BOUNDARY LINE TYPES Introduction Requirements for the ontology Formulating a BLT ontology BLT definitions Closing boundaries (1) Facing boundaries (2) Associative boundaries (3) Extended facing boundaries (4) Directing boundaries (5) Virtual boundaries (V) Disclosing boundaries (6) Enclosing boundaries (7) Mutual boundaries (8) Opening boundaries (9) Neutral boundaries (10) Negative definitions Man-made boundaries of unoccupiability (11) Not man-made boundaries of unoccupiability (12) Not man-made negative boundaries (13) Levels of socio-spatial significance of BLTs Towards practice CHAPTER 6 A CONSTRUCTIVE EVALUATION OF METHODS ON URBAN FORM Introduction Considering methods for studying urban built form Urban historical GIS Historical GIS (HGIS) for cities GIS-aided historically reconstructed city plans GIS-based approach to studying urban built form Urban morphology Background to the method The practice of town plan analysis Emerging terms and processes Space syntax Background to the method Space syntax applications Comparative applicability of space syntax Efforts to combine and integrate methods CHAPTER 7 THE EMPIRICAL PROCESS OF MAPPING BLTs: TWO CONTRASTING CASES Introduction Legacy data as a starting point Selecting test cases Considering urban traditions to compare Western urban tradition Maya urban tradition Preparing the datasets of Winchester and Chunchucmil (1) Winchester maps Chunchucmil map Making outline base plans and resolving data gaps (2, 3) Winchester base plan Chunchucmil base plan Topology checks for outline base plan and BLT identifications (3, 4) Identifying BLTs (4) Virtual boundaries Mapping practice and the research process Rules of thumb Mapping practice at Winchester Mapping practice at Chunchucmil Taking BLT mapping forward CHAPTER 8 IDENTIFYING SPATIAL ANALYTICAL MEASURES THAT EXPLOIT BLT DATA Introduction Understanding the BLT data structure Visualising BLT data Diachronic data structure and comparisons Understanding proposed analytical measures Analytical information in the ontology intrinsic to the city Proposing analytical measures: dimensional context Distances and densities Lengths and sizes Proposing analytical measures: locational context Topological segments in context Orientation Paths and crossings Proposing analytical measures: aggregative context Adherence to patterns Final remarks on BLT analyses CHAPTER 9 EXPLORING SOCIO-SPATIAL SIGNIFICANCE WITH BLT MAPPING: TWO TEST CASES Introduction Geocomputational statistics on the ontology intrinsic to the city Exploring Chunchucmil’s BLT data Reading the BLT map Strung beads on a string Traversability and routes Frequencies and diversity Accessing size Exploring Winchester through time Using BLT maps diachronically Exemplifying diachronic BLT development Taking a radical comparative perspective CONTEMPLATING THE FUTURE OF BLT MAPPING Current results Future research REFERENCES Supplement – Abridged BLT Definitions Index Back-Cover