Church Lecture Series: Jason Young

Please Note: This event has been rescheduled to January 26. 

“skirmishes with the MacroPhenomenal”

Arguably, the city is the most celebrated and academically cherished formal and spatial configuration of urbanism. Sustained exploration of material conditions within post-industrial cities, however, can have the effect of foregrounding a dilemma in one’s urban study. One can uphold the propriety of the city and the disciplines that labor to make sense of it; or, one can let go of the city in favor of urbanism itself, exploring the myriad spatial configurations produced by the processes of urbanization that persist outside of the canonic territory of the city. Young’s approach to American urbanism stems from the recognition that the terms “urbanism” and “city” are often conflated in a manner that is no longer consistent with contemporary forms of urbanism, nor city.  New strategies for urban research are necessary to promote explicit understandings of the suburban landscape that have the capacity to change the terms of our collective engagement and participation.