Creating Ordinary Places: Slow Cities in a Fast World

Abstract

This paper explores the interdependence between urban design and the social construction of place. Following the recent contribution to the discussion of sense of place, authenticity and character by Jivén & Larkham (Journal of Urban Design, vol. 8, 2003, pp. 67–81), it is suggested that architects, planners and urban designers should be attentive to the theoretical underpinnings that are relevant to place-making. The emphasis here is on the relationships between the pace of life and the capacity of urban settings to facilitate the routine encounters and shared experiences that underpin the intersubjectivity that, in turn, leads to the social construction of place. These issues are placed in the context of the ‘fast world’ of globalization and of grass-roots reaction to its consequences, as illustrated by the Slow City movement.

Notes

 1. The ‘slow world’, on the other hand, consists chiefly of the impoverished places and regions within less developed countries and accounts for about 85% of the world's population.

 2. Italian journalist and food writer Carlo Petrini, aghast at the announcement of plans to open a McDonald's restaurant in the Piazza di Spagna in the heart of Rome in 1986, was the founder of the Slow Food movement. His reaction struck a chord with many others in Italy, who recognized that fast food is culturally invasive and corrosive, a serious threat not only to healthy diets but also to the sociability of eating and to valued patterns and rhythms of life. The Slow Food movement was officially launched in 1989 with a manifesto that states its aim as “rediscovering the flavours and savours of regional cooking and banishing the degrading effects of fast food” (Slow Food Manifesto, available at: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/about/manifesto/html). The Slow Food philosophy is what Petrini calls tranquillo—calm, unhurried and restorative of body and soul.