Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was a renowned writer for his thoughts on the development of cities, primarily with the onset of industrialization and the effects, though mostly negative, it had on society as a whole. He focuses these ideas in The City in History, written in 1961; they are mainly found in the excerpt Paleotechnic Paradise: Coketown.
The excerpt is centered on the detrimental effects of industrialization and urbanization that occurred across much of the world beginning in the 1600s. He notes that with the many technological advances came an entirely new way of living; these include the social and economic fixations on the coal mine, the factory and the railroads, and how they affected the natural world. Populations boomed in the cities, forcing living conditions to decline and be haphazardly built. This, in turn, caused many to live in less than satisfactory environments, which created new problems: the changes in societal interactions, general hygiene, and basic human needs. Nature was just a means to power the cities, and there was no regard for its depletion. However, starting in the 1900s, the slums began to improve, though much of what is here today in the cities is reminiscent of the past.
Based on the fast paced advances in technology today, where will cities be in twenty years? How will living conditions be changed, and how will humans be changed psychologically and socially?
No comments:
Post a Comment