Urbanism: Imported or Exported?

The modes of diffusion of ideas that shape planned environments, and the ways these ideas are realised, have been gaining prominence as subjects of study and discussion among planning historians and others. However, most studies have focused on the diffusion that has occurred within the sphere of the so–called First World, where the participants have been considered as relatively equal partners. On the other hand, where the diffusion took place between the First and Third Worlds, these exchanges have often been projected as one–way impositions where the receivers are silent, oppressed, impotent if not outright invisible.

More recently, some researchers have begun to approach the relations between actors and stakeholders in processes of planning diffusion in a more complex and ambiguous way. To begin with, the natives in developing countries, whether colonial or post–colonial, are being recognised as fully–fledged actors in the shaping of the built environment, with a variety of roles to play and means to play them, even if they frequently face many constraints to their actions. Moreover, the planning influences have started to be acknowledged as going in multiple directions, including back to the source of dissemination. Adaptation, hybridisation, mimicry and appropriation are just some of the forms of diffusion and adoption that are relevant. The specific traits of the indigenous also came to be viewed as something that is not necessarily evident: ultimately, who are the locals ?

Urbanism Imported or Exported? is the first book to examine the full complexity of these issues in detail. It raises conceptual questions concerning the identities of locals, the roles of relevant actors, and the modes of diffusion, as well as investigating the methodological implications for historians of the city–building process. Using examples from around the world, with a particular emphasis on Mediterranean countries, it offers a bold new approach to the concepts and methods of the study of planning history.

Preface vii

Introduction: Transporting Planning xi
JOE NASR AND MERCEDES VOLAIT

Chapter 1 Writing Transnational Planning Histories 1
ANTHONY D. KING

PART 1 THE LATEST MODELS 15

Chapter 2 Making Cairo Modern (1870 1950): Multiple Models for a European–style Urbanism 17
MERCEDES VOLAIT

Chapter 3 The Transformation of Planning Ideas in Japan and its Colonies 51
CAROLA HEIN

Chapter 4 Learning from the US: the Americanisation of Western Urban Planning 83
STEPHEN V. WARD

PART 2 CITY–BUILDING, STATE–BUILDING AND NATION–BUILDING 107

Chapter 5 Urbanism as Social Engineering in the Balkans: Reform Prospects and Implementation Problems in
Thessaloniki 109
ALEXANDRA YEROLYMPOS

Chapter 6 From Cosmopolitan Fantasies to National Traditions : Socialist Realism in East Berlin 128
ROLAND W. STROBEL

Chapter 7 The Preservation of Egyptian Cultural Heritage through Egyptian Eyes: The Case of the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l Art Arabe 155
ALAA EL–HABASHI

PART 3 POWERFUL SUBJECTS 185

Chapter 8 From Europe to Tripoli in Barbary, via Istanbul: Municipal Reforms in an Outpost of the Ottoman
Empire around 1870 187
NORA LAFI

Chapter 9 Beirut and the Étoile Area: An Exclusively French Project? 206
MAY DAVIE

Chapter 10 Local Wishes and National Commands: Planning Continuity in French Provincial Towns in the 1940s 230
JOE NASR

PART 4 FOREIGN EXPERTS, LOCAL PROFESSIONALS 263

Chapter 11 Foreign Hires: French Experts and the Urbanism of Buenos Aires, 1907 32 265
ALICIA NOVICK

Chapter 12 Politics, Ideology and Professional Interests: Foreign versus Local Planners in Lebanon under President Chehab 290
ERIC VERDEIL

Chapter 13 Towards Global Human Settlements: Constantinos Doxiadis as Entrepreneur, Coalition–Builder and Visionary 316
RAY BROMLEY

Contributors Biographies 341

Index 345