During the vastly transformative stages of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, notions of the urban and definitions of childhood mutually intersected to create and define a modern Argentine landscape. The construction of new urban environments for children defined and reflected larger liberal elites’ definitions of childhood writ large. To better understand the production of this modern childhood in Argentina, this dissertation examines its other through the spatial-discourses behind constructions of childhood for the socio-economic lower classes - children who largely did not meet the expectations of the elite. I employ the use of both published and archival sources, from 1880 to 1955, providing textual analyses of the language of reformers – primarily state and municipal authorities, pedagogues, hygienists, philanthropists and urban planners – alongside spatial analyses of the built environment, including kindergartens, playgrounds, and open-air schools within the city of Buenos Aires, as well as a healthcare facility and themed park in the province of Buenos Aires. Urban intellectuals, educators and overall reformers increasingly considered play as paramount to children’s physical and psychological development, focusing on where children played, how they played and what their play meant. Childhood became a contested ideological space, constructed and negotiated alongside notions of Argentine national identity. By moving beyond textual analyses of professionals’ discourses, this dissertation not only contributes to our understanding of Argentine childhood, but also points to ways in which the built environment embodies modern notions of childhood.

This thesis sets out to explore the implications that transport infrastructures have on the production and perception of the urban built environment. Particularly, it focuses on the Victorian brick viaducts constructed to support the elevated railway in Manchester, England. It concentrates on Manchester’s post-industrial restructuring and re-imaging since the late 1960s, exploring how the presence of brick railway viaducts, as well as the uses beneath their arches, have impacted strategies for revalorisation in the wake of gradual deindustrialisation. In exploring the changing symbolic economy of landscapes dominated by railway infrastructure, as well as the shifting uses and images of railway arches, this thesis explores the interplay between political economy and the aesthetic and symbolic dimensions of urban regeneration. Upon establishing the mutually constituted history of Manchester’s elevated railways and its city centre and demonstrating how this 19th century process has shaped the form and character of the city, it excavates a cultural history of the infrastructural landscapes of the city. Special emphasis is placed on the uses and perceptions of railway arches, which have long served as symbols of dereliction and social disorder. These spatial and cultural histories act as a foundation for analysing how the city’s railway viaducts have been implicated in the re-imagining of Manchester as a post-industrial city. These histories and representations are explored in relation to property-led strategies of environmental improvement, industrial displacement, and heritage tourism along the southern fringe of Manchester city centre, focusing on three thematic and spatially bound case studies. These case studies rely on documentary data of planning and design strategies, interviews with elite actors involved in the re-imaging of Manchester city centre, and ethnographic observation. Using critical discourse analysis, the thesis unpacks the narrative relationship between dominant representations of these spaces and professional justifications for their material and symbolic reconfiguration.

A la fin du XIXe siècle, le fluide électrique a été responsable des transformations profondes dans la vie quotidienne de la société asturienne, qu'incluaient, par exemple, des nouvelles formes d'organiser le temps social, de planifier le travail et les loisirs. L'électricité a consacré la rupture dans la séparation rigide entre la nuit et le jour qui existait avant de son apparition, et s'est révélée comme le meilleur moyen d'éclairage en surpassant aux huiles végétales ou minérales et au gaz d'éclairage. L'électricité alors est devenue une image symbolique du progrès et sa brillante lumière a commencé à conquérir l'espace public, l’espace de travail et même le domaine privé, comme une métaphore du triomphe de la société moderne industrielle et en induisant des modifications dans les habitudes et les coutumes. Ce qui est proposé avec cette étude c’est, par conséquent, un projet de recherche capable d'établir les commencements et le premier développement de l'industrie électrique dans les Asturies, comme contribution générale à l'étude du processus espagnol d'électrification. Cette étude essaie également de déployer une ample vision dans l'analyse, capable d'intégrer les multiples facettes et les implications du phénomène. Surtout, il y aura une attention spéciale aux approches socioculturelles du phénomène électrique, comme ceux qui se rattachent aux loisirs, à la divulgation de l'électricité, l'électricité et les espaces de représentation urbaines, l’imaginaire et les représentations de cette énergie ou à l'électricité et la vie quotidienne ou l'espace domestique. Bref, il s'agit de développer une vraie histoire sociale et culturelle de l'électricité, de ses représentations et ses pratiques à partir en utilisant les Asturies, cette région espagnole, comme laboratoire pour analyser l'interaction mutuelle entre techniques, société et culture. / At the end of the 19th century, the electricity has been responsible for deep modifications in the daily life of the Asturian society that included, for example, new forms of organizing the social time or planning the paces of work and leisure. Electricity establishes the break in the rigid separation between night and day which existed prior to its appearance, and proved itself as the best way of lighting in surpassing other technologies as mineral or vegetable oils and gas lighting. The electricity then became a symbolic image of progress and its brilliant light began to conquer the public space, the workspace and even the private sphere, as a metaphor for the triumph of modern industrial society and by inducing changes in habits and traditions. What comes with this study is, therefore, a research project capable of establishing the beginnings and the first development of the electric industry in Asturias, a peripheral region in Spain, as a general contribution to the study of the Spanish electrification process. This study also tries to deploy a broad vision in the analysis, capable of integrating the many implications of the phenomenon. Above all, there is special attention to the socio-cultural approaches to the electrical phenomenon, such as those which relate to the leisure and the sociability, to the cultural outreach of electricity, electricity and urban spaces of representation, the imaginary of this energy or the relations between electricity, and everyday life or the domestic sphere. In short, it is to develop a true social and cultural history of electricity, its representations and practices from using Asturias, this Spanish region, as a laboratory to analyze the mutual interaction between technology, society and culture.

Lars Försters Artikel resümiert die Rolle der Stadt Chemnitz als Zentrum der sächsichen Reformpädagogik seit dem 20. Jahrhundert, wobei besonders die Bernsdorfer Schule und die Humboltschule berücksichtigt werden.

This dissertation focuses on lay Catholic ministry to Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia when Frank Rizzo was mayor. Gramsci’s concept of “organic intellectuals” is employed to explain the praxis of the Philadelphia Young Lords, an organization formed in a Puerto Rican neighborhood during the confrontational politics of the 1970s. The dissertation advances previous scholarship on the Young Lords by offering reasons to consider these youthful leaders as lay Catholic advocates of social justice in Philadelphia and describes the role of faith convictions as they pursued social justice in the style of the biblical prophetic burden. Through interviews and textual analysis, the dissertation traces the evolution of lay volunteerism before the Second Vatican Council as foundational to the Young Lords’ application of liberation theology. The Young Lords in Philadelphia also followed the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party’s definition of the people’s multiracial identity and the Nationalists’ defense of Catholic principles. Their experiences are inserted into the general history of Philadelphia, a city which Quakers had founded as a cluster of urban villages, producing a distinctive pattern of ethnic enclaves of Philadelphia’s row house neighborhoods. The city’s Catholicism had structured parish life upon the civic culture, and initially extended this model to its Puerto Rican ministry. However, racial polarization at a time of municipal crisis under Rizzo invited new pastoral strategies towards civil right and the Vietnam War. Despite the Young Lords’ reliance on Marxist principles and the confrontational politics of the Black Panthers, local Catholic clergy supported many of their efforts. The dissertation explores the symbolic capital gained by the Young Lords which made them into a vanguard organization in the city’s fields of political and pastoral interaction. / Religion

This dissertation investigates the modern American stadium from the late 1940s to the early 1980s, examining the ideologies that shaped these monumental buildings and the meanings people affixed to them. Stadiums were significant components of the modern landscape, frequently hosting massive audiences, costing tens of millions of public dollars, and uniquely symbolizing cities and their citizens’ civic spirit. Through interpretations of these stadiums’ architectural expression, spatial constitution, discursive construction, and visual representation, this study explores the ideological landscape of the modern United States, expands understandings of modern space, and examines what it meant to be “modern” throughout this period. A response to the old stadiums they replaced—largely masculine, inter-class, inter-racial, rambunctious places locked into run-down neighborhoods—new stadiums eliminated traditional and iconic sites of urban diversity, reconstituting sports spaces as modern, suburban, and technological. They re-gendered stadium space, integrating women into it as consumers and service workers. They re-classed stadium space, outfitting it with exclusive restaurants and private luxury boxes. They technologized stadium space, conspicuously loading it with exploding scoreboards and massive video screens. They re-racialized stadium space, relocating it from old ballparks adjacent dense African-American neighborhoods to open sites along freeways convenient to booming white suburbs or as anchors to clean-sweep downtown redevelopment. They fundamentally altered stadium experience, shifting emphasis from games on the field to entertainments and consumption opportunities around it. In doing all these things, modern stadiums materialized an ideological apparatus privileging a range of values and practices including gender distinction in mixed-gender settings, socio-economic and racial segregation, technological scientism, and consumption-oriented stimulation. Roy Hofheinz, the force behind the iconic Houston Astrodome’s planning and execution, fully understood the relationship of the material and the ideological; as he put it, “You’ve got to have tangibles to sell intangibles.” To illustrate these points, this dissertation engages postwar plans for futuristic new stadiums from designers like Norman Bel Geddes and Buckminster Fuller; the construction of new stadiums in the mid-1960s in New York, Houston, and St. Louis; and the increasingly routinized modern stadium of the 1970s—a controversial expression of modern progress for some, modern artificiality for others. / text

This dissertation pursues three overarching themes. The first of these is empirical: to illuminate the actual functioning of the property market in Delhi. After reconstructing the pattern of depression and boom from 1920-40, I argue that these cycles shaped the nature of participation in the market. During the depression of the 1920s many indigenous financial firms came to rely on property rentals and sales. Alongside these, a nascent sector concentrating primarily in real estate came into existence. Compared to planned state intervention, most of Delhi’s urban fabric was created by private construction. Analysis of the state’s relationship to the property market is the second aim of the work. The colonial state both embraced and was constrained by the commodification of land. Though it was the largest landowner in the city, it did not leverage this position. Rather than construction, the state was happier to act on the market indirectly. One means of indirect action concerned forms representations of urban land as commodity. Leases, advertisements and other documents were crucial for its circulation. The strength of the state in the property market derived from its role as enforcer and repository of representations of commodified space. A third aim is to study the forms of struggle engendered by urban property. Struggles over commodification of urban land, when they took collective forms, did not necessarily splinter along class lines. In fact, subsidised housing emerged out of caste, class and nationalist struggles. Conversely, the commodification of land was at issue in struggles that were not ostensibly about property. For instance, this dissertation tracks its salience for understanding communal conflicts over urban shrines. Taken together, the three themes constitute a picture of the city in which forms of capital accumulation – particularly those relating to space – cannot be ignored.

Cette thèse porte sur les rapports politiques entre villes et monarchie dans le royaume de Naples à la fin du Moyen Âge, à travers le cas de L’Aquila.Dans le premier chapitre, j’analyse la structure institutionnelle de la ville et ses changements entre le XIVe et le XVe siècle. Ensuite j’examine les modalités de fonctionnement des institutions, c’est-à-dire les moyens utilisés par l’élite politique pour gouverner la ville et se maintenir au pouvoir.Dans le deuxième chapitre je prend en considération les secteurs sociaux politiquement importants (marchands, notaires, legum doctores) et je considère le problème de l’aristocratie urbaine. Dans la seconde partie j’analyse l’élite politique de la ville.Dans le troisième chapitre j’examine la figure du comte de Montorio Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, dont j’étudie les éléments du pouvoir féodal, de l’hégémonie sur la ville et du conditionnement dans les rapports avec la monarchie. En outre je prends en considération son rôle en tant que leader de faction.Le quatrième chapitre est dédié aux formes de démonstration de la fidélité, aux relations entre système fiscal urbain et fiscalité monarchique, aux rapports entre justice urbaine et justice royale, aux réseaux diplomatiques de la ville et à la circulation des citoyens dans les offices du royaume.Dans le dernier chapitre j’analyse deux aspects des rapports ville-monarchie. La première partie est dédiée au capitaine royal, dont on examine les pouvoirs et la dialectique avec les citoyens et la monarchie. La seconde partie est dédiée à la mission du lieutenant royal Antonio Cicinello (1476), qui fut la première intervention directe de la monarchie dans la vie politique locale. / This PhD thesis concerns the politic relations between towns and monarchy in the Kingdom of Naples at the end of the Middle Ages, by the case study of L’Aquila.In the first chapter I analyze the institutions of the town and their changes between 14th and 15th centuries. Thereafter I examine the political processes of the institutions, that is the ways the local elite used to rule the city and to preserve its power.In the second chapter I consider the social groups which had a political importance (merchants, notaries, legum doctores) and the problem of the urban aristocracy. In the second part of the chapter I analyze the local elite.In the third chapter I examine the figure of Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, count of Montorio, his feudal power, his hegemony in the city and his ability to influence the relations between town and monarchy. Moreover I consider his role as leader of a faction.The fourth chapter focuses on the ways of demonstrating fidelity, the relations between urban fiscal system and royal fiscal system, those between urban justice and royal justice, the diplomatic network of the town and the flows of citizens in the royal administration.In the last chapter I analyze two aspects of the town-monarchy relations. The first part is about the power of the royal captain and the dialectic between this public official, the citizens and the monarchy. The second part concerns the mission of the royal lieutenant Antonio Cicinello (1476), which was the first direct intervention of the monarchy in the local political life.

Lys de la royauté ou croix de l’Église, l’espace des villes médiévales se caractérise par les marques qu’y ont apposées les institutionsmédiévales. À la fin du Moyen Âge, les nouvelles élites urbaines s’approprient ce marquage de l’espace public par l’image en yimposant leurs propres signes. Elles affirment alors leur présence sur la scène publique et artistique. Aux XIVe et XVe siècles, ledécor civil se fait l’expression tangible de cette transformation sociale ; des signes emblématiques et de petites sculptures figuréesinvestissent l’espace urbain. L’institution municipale fait édifier un bâtiment emblématique, l’hôtel de ville, dont le portail armoriéfait écho aux emblèmes qu’elle fait placer dans les lieux stratégiques. Les particuliers, à leur tour, transposent à leurs habitations cesmodes de représentation monumentale. Officiers ou marchands, ces hommes nouveaux couvrent leurs résidences de blasons, figuresreligieuses ou emblématiques. Les ensembles décoratifs, en les rattachant à un métier, une institution ou une paroisse, disent laposition sociale et les valeurs morales que revendiquent les commanditaires bourgeois. Ceux-ci, par la présentation de leurs insignespersonnels, de leur devise ou de leur nom, mettent en scène leur identité, introduisant dans l’espace public urbain des fragments desubjectivité. Des petites figures singulières et radicales se déploient : corps nus et exposés, scènes grotesques et allégoriques, quifigurent la déchéance possible pour valoriser le statut. Structurés et hiérarchisés, ces décors forment un système relationnel danslequel l’ascension répond à l’exclusion, signes d’un ordre social en transformation. / Whether royal lily or Christian cross, the space of medieval towns is characterized by the marks placed on it by medieval institutions.At the end of the Middle-Ages, the new urban elites make the process of marking the city their own by imposing their own signs onthe public space. Thus, they assert their presence on the public and artistic scene. In the 14th and 15th century, civilian decorationbecomes the tangible expression of this social transformation ; emblems and small sculptural figures conquer the urban space. Anemblematic edifice, the town hall, is erected by the municipal institution, whose emblazoned portal echo other emblems placed atstrategic locations. Private citizens, in turn, transplant into their homes these monumental modes of representation. Officers ormerchants – these men of a new kind – cover their residences with coats of arms, religious or emblematic figures. By linking them toa profession, an institution or a parish, these decorative programs state the social standing and moral values that those affluentcommissioners claim for themselves. By presenting their personal insignia, their motto or their name, they put their identity on stage,thereby introducing fragments of subjectivity in the public and urban space. Some singular and radical small figures begin toproliferate: exposed, naked bodies, grotesque and allegorical scenes that foreshadow one’s possible downfall in order to exalt one’scurrent status. Structured and hierarchically organized, these decors form a relational system in which social promotion dialogueswith exclusion : telltale signs of a social order in transformation.

This thesis examines the ways in which Frank Gehry’s architectural contributions to Los Angeles’ social and built environment have shaped the region’s “postmodern geographies” throughout the 20th and 21st century. Through a focused exploration of three of Gehry’s postmodernist structures in Greater Los Angeles—a house, a library, and a concert hall—this thesis analyses how Gehry and his designs reflected and affected the artistic and socio-spatial development of Los Angeles’ “decidedly postmodern landscape.”