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ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES
8 MARCH 2022
WEEK 8
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ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES

Capitalism and the City (carried over)

Bernard Bernier :
• “relations of production shape the character of cities”
• must understand the power relations between classes:
bourgeoisie (owners) and proletariat (workers)
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ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES

Bernard Bernier
•Political economy (Marx)
•profit motive
•labour/work
•how space is used
•
URBAN
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SPACE AND CAPITALISM
• Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991)
“The Production of Space”
Critical of the State and capitalist mode of production because
- capitalism puts the goal of making a profit before
the responsibility to serve the needs of the people
* * Space is a social and political product *
• “the State and the capitalist system organize and rationalize the
space for social production, flow, and reproduction”
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ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES

• Urban space from a political economy perspective:

• Who lives and works in the city , and what are their needs and interests?
• work and income, affordable housing, medical services, food and material
goods, social activities, education, transportation and infrastructure, other
income, recreation …
• Are the interests of all groups being met equally by the services the city
provides?
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ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES

City Dwellers and Capitalism

- Irish Travellers (previously Tinkers)
(throughout England and Ireland)
- nomadic for over 200 years, travel to
do occasional labour, breed and sell
horses, tinsmiths (tinker)
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• Sharon and George Gmelch – anthropological research among Irish

Travellers in Dublin for over 40 years
• Nomadic lifestyle discouraged by Irish government, set up permanent
housing settlements in Holylands, on outskirts of Dublin
• Camp in fields, along roadsides, parking lots, shopping centre lots
• Horse drawn wagons, cars with metal trailers, tent encampments
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TRAVELLING PEOPLES IN ENGLAND
Early and Later Means of Transportation
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Anthropological research among Irish Travellers

• Determine field site (s) – settled housing area in Dublin vs. move into campsite
• Establish rapport – bought a trailer to live in, visiting became frequent, close to others
• Research assistants – key informants, ‘Nan’, interviews and life history
• Note taking: how to record information?
• Participate in activities, visiting, family activities
• Data sources: census, government archives, newspaper accounts,
• Government service workers: social workers, teachers, settlement committee members
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Questions to ask:
• How do the Travellers fit into the larger class hierarchy in the city?
• How is their culture viewed? How are they treated?
• Continuing community and culture in the city – how to study this?
• Continuing city and urban ties: Seasonal movements? Gatherings? Social ties?
Marriages?
• Class and economy – power relations, rights and difference, tolerance?
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Bernard Bernier: “the city is a concentration of labour power and the means for its social
reproduction in the context of increasing concentrations of the means of production and money-
capital in one place: (p. 301)
- Spatial divisions in city reflect cultural divisions
- zoning, forbidden access (camps); control of land by privileged class
- Entrance as an ‘underclass’
- few skills to trade as ‘labour’ in non-rural setting; versus enter with transferable
skills, knowledge
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Neighbourhoods that disadvantage: isolation from

downtown/work areas; transportation;
- Working-class

- Peripheral
- Ethnic
State Infra-structure - services provides and control exervised
URBANIZATION AND MIGRATION

Caroline Brettell and Robert Kemper: Cityward Migration in

Comparative Perspective
Migration flows can be steady to massive; permanent re-location or short-term =
may earn money and return home - from rural area to urban area •  •
- or step migration = from rural area to urban area to larger urban area •  • 
•
- or from rural area to urban area and then back to rural area •  •
• < ---- = circular
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ANTHROPOLOGY OF CITIES

Watch on your own please (10-15 minutes) section on rise of urban parks:
Creating parks in the New York City, 1800s:
Film (U Ottawa library, available online)
“New York, 1825-1865: Order and Disorder”:
http://fod.infobase.com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/p_ViewVideo.aspx?xtid=44171
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• Essay Questions and How to write a Research Essay

Handout