Urban Studies 200: Suburbia

Today, we're going to explore two interesting urban studies questions: what are "suburbs"? What do they mean at this point in history, when we now live in a majority urban world but an increasingly suburban world?

If you peek below, you'll see four questions that you should read and think about. They start out very simple, and then they get a bit more complicated and interesting. Take a few minutes to read these questions. Then start up a conversation with the talented and hardworking colleagues you're sitting next to! Move around if you'd like. You can read the textbook if you have it with you, or you can read my lecture notes. But you can also call or text someone, or you can facebook with friends or family. You can tweet with your followers. Do anything you'd like to explore, learn, and brainstorm. Start with the first question, and just see how it goes.

Now, here are the four questions:

1. What is a "suburb"?

2. Is suburbanism a distinctive way of life?

3. If so, is it better or worse than other ways of life that are not suburbia -- all those small towns and rural areas, or all those places where people see themselves as urbanites, as city-zens?

4. If so, for whom is it better, and for whom is it worse?

Discuss! Start a conversation! If, at any time, you want me to stand up and give a lecture -- to a small group, or to the entire class -- then come up and ask. Or you can look over my shoulder while I revise the notes I've been taking on suburbia in recent years.

Or, why don't I give the document to you, and you can do whatever you want with it?

It's here.

Right now it has my name on it, but you should free to "open source" the authorship with as many people as you'd like.

What does it mean to open-source the authorship?

Revise and rewrite this document as you see fit. Change as much as you'd like. You can select the entire text and press 'delete' and start from scratch. Or you can start working through my paragraphs bit by bit, reading my words, reading some of the stuff I cite if that interests you, and you can change the paragraphs and sentences. Very soon -- it happens very fast -- you'll realize that rewriting and starting from scratch can get you to the same destination. It's about getting your voice into the conversation.

And it's important to get your voice in, so I can teach you what you know, and you can teach me what you know.

Because if you want to, you can use this as your independent written project idea for this class. Talk to me if you want further details on this option. If you make any revisions, add your name to the author line, and then below that put another authorship that looks like this:

EKWGG: [anagram of Elvin Wyly and YOUR NAME]

What's an Anagram?

An anagram is "a word or phrase made by changing the order of letters in another word or phrase (in the best anagrams there is a connecting idea between the original word and the anagram, e.g., 'best in prayer' is an anagram of 'presbyterian') [fr Mod. L. anagramma fr. Gk])." (Cayne, 1990, p. 32). I've always been inspired by the example of Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson, two of the most brilliant and famous geographers of our era who decided that their coauthored work would appear under a composite name -- J.K. Gibson-Graham (1993).

So in recent years I've been playing around with anagrams with friends and students. When I wrote something with Jason Hackworth, we joked around about calling ourselves "Elworth Wyhack," but we never actually did it. Likewise, James Defilippis and I briefly flirted with the idea of writing as Jams-Del Wyflippys. Not long ago, George Rahi sent me a photograph he took of a performance artist and social critic who goes by the Name of "Reverend Billy." (See the photograph, and then scroll up to see another and read about Holly Foxcroft, when you follow this link.) I found, after spending more time than I care to admit pressing buttons on a dot com website, that one of the anagrams of "Elvin Wyly" and "George Rahi" was "Every Original Rev Elegy" So that's the authorship of that photo and photo caption!

So feel free to rewrite my notes, and come up your favorite anagram!

References

Cayne, Bernard S., ed. (1990). The New Lexicon Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary. New York: Lexicon Publications, Inc.

Gibson-Graham, J.K. (1993). "Waiting for the Revolution, or, How to Smash Capitalism While Working at Home in your Spare Time." Rethinking Marxism 6(2), 10-24.