Schmooze City: William H. Whyte and "The Social Life of Urban Spaces"
April 1, 2017 3:35 PM   Subscribe

Do you enjoy the city? Vintage documentaries? People-watching and urban planning? The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, William "Holly" Whyte's 1979 documentary, may be right up your alley. It's also available in print (.pdf), and makes for fascinating reading.

Whyte, who died in 1999, was memorialized by the New York Times as "a scholar of the human habitat, specifically as a close observer of street life and urban space. As an urbanologist he wrote, taught, planned and once spent 16 years watching and filming what people do on the streets of New York." The author of The Organization Man (1956), a best-selling book about the dangers of corporate conformity, is still remembered for his work on the life of public spaces:
The Social Life of Public Spaces. Whyte wrote that the social life in public spaces contributes fundamentally to the quality of life of individuals and society as a whole. He believed that we have a moral responsibility to create physical places that facilitate civic engagement and community interaction.

Bottom-Up Place Design. Whyte advocated for a new way of designing public spaces – one that was bottom-up, not top-down. Using his approach, design should start with a thorough understanding of the way people use spaces, and the way they would like to use spaces. Whyte noted that people vote with their feet – they use spaces that are easy to use, that are comfortable. They don’t use the spaces that are not.

The Power of Observation. By observing and by talking to people, Whyte believed, we can learn a great deal about what people want in public spaces and can put this knowledge to work in creating places that shape livable communities. We should therefore enter spaces without theoretical or aesthetic biases, and we should “look hard, with a clean, clear mind, and then look again – and believe what you see.”
* More on Whyte: "Holly Whyte: Visionary for a Humane Metropolis"
* Previously, related: Sociologist Cat is Watching You Text...in Public
* Review: "William H. Whyte on what makes public spaces fail & what makes them succeed"
* And finally, Whyte himself: “The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.”
posted by MonkeyToes (7 comments total) 75 users marked this as a favorite
 
City might be one of the best books ever written. Everyone with anything to do with urban planning ought to be forced to read it!
posted by selfish at 3:47 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


I remember tracking down City after my wonderful Intro to Sociology prof (Dr. Ken Stoddart, RIP) recommended it. It remains one of the most fascinating, accessible, and influential nonfiction books I've read. I will have to check out this documentary and Whyte's other books.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:14 PM on April 1, 2017


I was deeply impressed by The Organization Man when I read it in my youth; I'll have to look for City. Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 4:58 PM on April 1, 2017


Whyte was one of the my favorite authors in graduate school.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:48 PM on April 1, 2017


City: Rediscovering the Center looks delightful, thanks selfish and hurdy gurdy girl!
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:07 PM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


I work for the development center for my city now and I immediately dove back into this documentary. Urban sociology is fascinating, theoretically.
posted by Young Kullervo at 6:39 PM on April 1, 2017


Thanks for this post: I just watched The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, and what a great little documentary! Note that it is free through the above archive.org link, and is short and compulsively watchable.
posted by gold-in-green at 9:23 AM on April 2, 2017


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