'A charitable indulgence: street stalls and the transformation of public space in Melbourne 1859-1920'
Urban History 23, 1 (1995): 48-71.
Winner, H.J. Dyos Prize for best article in Urban History.
The automobile is often misconstrued as being exclusively responsible for the decline of traditional street culture.... more The automobile is often misconstrued as being exclusively responsible for the decline of traditional street culture. This paper argues that the marginalisation of street vendors may also be related to developing definitions of the street as the locus of respectability, unobstructed circulation, nationalism and civic pride. Street entrepreneurs of the 1850s became urban nuisances by the 1900s, associated more with obstruction and underservedness as with convenience and enterprise. Licensing records of bootblacks and coffee-stall keepers as objects of municipal benevolence reveal their economic and social roles in the micro-geography of the city. While nostalgia can distort the realities of historical and contemporary public spaces, the street evacuated of social density and diversity is one of the great losses of modern urban life.
'Ideas from Australian cities: relocating urban and suburban history'
Australian Economic History Review 49, 1 (2009): 70-84.
This article draws on preliminary research into the social history of Melbourne, on the ways that suburban life in the... more This article draws on preliminary research into the social history of Melbourne, on the ways that suburban life in the post-World War II era provides both explanation and counterweight to persistently negative stereotypes of suburbia. Over recent decades, suburban histories have been eschewed in favour of historical reconsiderations of the inner city or the bush. The history of the Australian suburb, particularly since 1945, is yet to be written. Oral history and municipal archives will be crucial to the writing of such histories. The article suggests several research pathways, including intergenerational life stories, a wider scale of geographical analysis, and a subtler reading of cultural conformity and social differentiation.
Download (.pdf) High Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century
Forthcoming from Yale University Press in 2012
Today, one in five homeowners in American cities and suburbs lives in a multifamily home rather than a single-family... more Today, one in five homeowners in American cities and suburbs lives in a multifamily home rather than a single-family dwelling. As the American dream evolves, precipitated by declining real estate prices and a renewed interest in city living, many predict that condos will become the predominant form of housing in the 21st century. In this unprecedented study Matthew Gordon Lasner explores the history of co-owned multifamily housing in the United States, from New York City's first co-op, in 1881, to contemporary condo and townhouse complexes coast to coast. Lasner explains the complicated social, economic, and political factors that have increased demand for this way of living, situating the trend within the larger housing market and broad shifts in residential architecture. He contrasts the prevalence and popularity of condos, townhouses, and other privately governed communities with their ambiguous economic, legal, and social standing, as well as their striking absence from urban and architectural history.
Ethnicity and machine politics
by Jerome Krase
This is a book I co-wrote with Charles La Cerra: Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1992.
Rosário e seus vínculos com o debate internacional: uma análise do Parque España (1979-1993) (port) / Rosario y sus vínculos con el debate internacional: un análisis del Parque España (1979-1993).
Published in Arquitextos, nro 115, texto 532, diciembre 2009.
Se analizan una serie de vínculos entre Rosario y el debate internacional en torno a formas de pensar e... more Se analizan una serie de vínculos entre Rosario y el debate internacional en torno a formas de pensar e intervenir en la ciudad. A partir del Parque España (1979-1993) situado en la costa de Rosario, cuyo anteproyecto corresponde a los catalanes Bohigas, Martorell y Mac Kay, se analizan una serie de experiencias y debates que se vinculan a las posibilidades de una intervención arquitectónica en la ciudad en debate con la planificación tradicional.
Arquitectos proyectistas y transición democrática. El concurso ´20 ideas para Buenos Aires´.
Published in Anales del Instituto de Arte Americano, nro 41, 2012, pp. 203-212.
El artículo analiza la expansión de las redes de arquitectos proyectistas que proponen intervenir en la ciudad a... more El artículo analiza la expansión de las redes de arquitectos proyectistas que proponen intervenir en la ciudad a partir de proyectos puntuales y fragmentarios. En un marco de disputas entre técnicos y proyectistas, se interrogan los factores que favorecen la expansión de estos últimos, como ser: su sintonía con aspectos clave del contexto político y económico, sus conexiones políticas y el uso de intercambios con pares españoles. Así, en un contexto de transición democrática y crisis económica, se analiza el concurso “20 ideas para Buenos Aires” (1986), organizado entre la Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires y la Comunidad de Madrid. Esta iniciativa es abordada en tanto indica la expansión de arquitectos proyectistas que cuentan con trayectorias y un saber hacer vinculado a la práctica profesional privada y a la enseñanza de la arquitectura.
9 views
Seen by:
Intercambios internacionales, estrategias urbanísticas y aspectos políticos: España, Buenos Aires y Rosario (1976-1993)
Published in Revista Iberoamericana de Urbanismo, nro. 7, 2011. p. 19-30.
El presente artículo aborda una serie de intercambios internacionales de ideas y estrategias urbanísticas en relación... more El presente artículo aborda una serie de intercambios internacionales de ideas y estrategias urbanísticas en relación a aspectos políticos entre España (Madrid, Barcelona y Andalucía), Buenos Aires y Rosario, entre 1979 y 1993. Se analizan los desajustes que sufren las ideas y estrategias urbanísticas una vez que son retomadas en contextos políticos y culturales diversos y se indagan las legitimaciones cruzadas a niveles políticos y urbanísticos que suponen estos intercambios. Entre 1979 y 1993, Buenos Aires y Rosario reciben visitas de arquitectos, gestores urbanos, consultores y suscriben convenios de cooperación con ciudades españolas, de los cuales se analizará el anteproyecto del estudio de arquitectos MBM para el Parque España de Rosario, el Concurso 20 ideas para Buenos Aires, la operación Puerto Madero a partir del plan estratégico Antiguo Puerto Madero y la Manzana de San Francisco, producto de la cooperación entre la MCBA y la junta de Andalucía.
Del Parque España a Puerto Madero: circulación del “urbanismo de los arquitectos” y la planificación estratégica entre Argentina y España (1979-1993).
In press. Cuaderno Urbano, nro. 12, 2012.
El artículo analiza algunas características de la circulación internacional de ideas urbanas a partir del despliegue... more
El artículo analiza algunas características de la circulación internacional de ideas urbanas a partir del despliegue de una serie de inicitaivas urbanísticas en Buenos Aires y Rosario entre 1979 y 1993. Sólo algunas de las numerosas ideas y estrategias del debate internacional “llegan” a Buenos Aires y Rosario, y lo hacen de una manera desarticulada. Así, se abordan algunos elementos del discurso ´español´ en torno al “urbanismo de los arquitectos” y la planificación estratégica. Se analiza su contexto de recepción, revisando el debate disciplinar y considerando las condiciones políticas y económicas en las aquellas ideas “llegan” y los actores públicos y privados que participan en estos procesos. Respecto a Rosario, se analiza la presencia del arquitecto catalán Oriol Bohigas y su anteproyecto para Parque España realizado en el año 1979. En Buenos Aires, se examina el inicio de la operación Puerto Madero.
The aim of this paper is to analyse various characteristics of the international circulation of urban ideas from the point of view of their applications in Buenos Aires and Rosario between 1979 and 1999. Only some of the numerous ideas and strategies of the international debate arrived at Buenos and Rosario, and they did so in an unarticulated manner. I take into account some elements of the Spanish discourse around urban projects and urban management. The context of the reception of those ideas requires a review of the disciplinary debate around urban projects and urban management as well as the political and economical conditions in which they arrive and the public and private actors involved. For Rosario, I look into the presence of the Catalan architect Oriol Bohigas and his project for the Parque España (1979). In Buenos Aires I examine the revitalized industrial area of Puerto Madero.
Políticas urbanas en un contexto de dictadura militar. Algunos interrogantes a partir de la ciudad de Buenos Aires (1976-1983)
Co-authored with Luján Menazzi. In press. Bitácora urbano-territorial, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, nro 20.
El presente artículo busca reflexionar acerca del accionar de la última dictadura militar argentina sobre la ciudad de... more
El presente artículo busca reflexionar acerca del accionar de la última dictadura militar argentina sobre la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Así, se analizarán las políticas urbanas de la dictadura en general profundizando en particular ciertas intervenciones, tales como los fallidos intentos de traslado del Mercado Nacional de Hacienda y el plan de Autopistas Urbanas, que supuso una serie de demoliciones y expropiaciones en un área que sería testigo al poco tiempo de medidas de protección patrimonial. Estas intervenciones, entre otras, suponen ciertas fisuras o contradicciones que nos alejan de entender el accionar de la dictadura como algo unívoco. En ese sentido se señalan los distintos organismos estatales desde donde se producen estas intervenciones, las distintas perspectivas y lógicas de intervención y los efectos en ocasiones contradictorios sobre el territorio. A partir del análisis de estas intervenciones se problematizarán dos aspectos: la idea que supone un accionar unívoco, sin fisuras ni disputas internas por parte de la dictadura, y la imagen de un gobierno dictatorial omnipotente, sin actores sociales con capacidad de oponerse a sus distintas iniciativas.
This paper analyses the last military dictatorship urban policies for the city of Buenos Aires. It deepens certain interventions, such as the failure attempts to transfer the National Cattle Market and the urban highways plan, which brought a series of demolitions in an area that would be protected as urban and architectural heritage after a short period of time. These interventions, represent certain fissures or disputes which contradict the image of the military dictatorship policies as univocal. The paper identifies the various state agencies that produce these interventions, the different perspectives and logics of intervention and the incongruous effects on the territory. Based on these analyses two issues will be discussed: the image of the military dictatorship as univocal, without internal fissures nor disputes, and the idea of an omnipotent dictatorial government, without stakeholders with capacity to oppose its different initiatives.
‘Squabbling siblings: gender and monastic life in late Anglo-Saxon Winchester’, Gender & History 23:3 (2011), 653-684
Also printed in Gender and the City before Modernity, pp. 163-94
In early medieval Winchester, three monastic communities were enclosed together in the south-eastern corner of the... more In early medieval Winchester, three monastic communities were enclosed together in the south-eastern corner of the town. By the later Anglo-Saxon period, Old Minster was a monastic cathedral and New Minster and Nunnaminster were monastic communities for men and women respectively. This paper addresses ways in which the three foundations collaborated and co-ordinated with each other and with the city. While gender segregated these communities, both liturgy and the urban context integrated them, as can be seen from the books used and produced by religious men and women in this city in later Anglo-Saxon England. The importance of prayer to the inhabitants of the city and the wider locale can be seen in the documents that request liturgical services – most often prayers and masses – in return for grants of land and other gifts. Ecclesiastical and lay individuals alike allied themselves to these religious houses, seeking commemoration and often also burial in their cemeteries and hoping to benefit spiritually from their prayers. The ways in which gender affected the religious experiences of Winchester's citizens and their consecrated brothers and sisters are complex, but they are also important in understanding how the saints and their servants on earth related to God, to each other and to the surrounding urban space.
Allotment Gardens: A Reflection of History, Heritage, Community and Self
by Lesley Acton
Allotments are small parcels of rented land, in rural and urban locations, used for growing fruits and vegetables for... more Allotments are small parcels of rented land, in rural and urban locations, used for growing fruits and vegetables for personal consumption. The demand for allotments and their availability have changed over time. In this article, I focus on the reasons for the changing demand and the motivation behind taking up this activity. In so doing, I refute the long held assumption that allotmenteering was taken up primarily for economic reasons. Instead, I show that while allotments have at various times been used for the alleviation of hunger, it is the social aspect of this hobby that primarily motivates most plot holders. Accordingly, I show the various ways in which allotments are valued both by the individual and the collective, including as part of our history and cultural heritage.
Housing Policy, Federal: An Overview
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History, eds. Donald T. Critchlow and Philip R. VanderMeer (New York: Oxford, 2012)
The Making and Remaking of Zokak el-Blat: The History of an Urban Fabric
in: H. Gebhardt, D. Sack, R. Bodenstein et al.: History, Space and Social Conflict in Beirut. The Quarter of Zokak el-Blat, (Beiruter Texte und Studien; 97), Beirut: OIB & Würzburg: Ergon 2005 , S. 35-107.
Review / Mélanie Traversier, Gouverner l’opéra. Une histoire politique de la musique à Naples, 1767-1815
Transposition. Musique et sciences sociales, 2012 (2)
