The Ballet of the Streets: Teaching about Cities at Street Level

Autor/inn/en	McGuire, Patrick A.; Spates, James L.
Titel	The Ballet of the Streets: Teaching about Cities at Street Level
Quelle	In: Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 20 (2011), S.71-86 (16 Seiten) PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1085-4568
Schlagwörter	Social Systems; Dance; Figurative Language; Foreign Countries; Urban Areas; Life Style; Metropolitan Areas; Comparative Analysis; Research Methodology; Urban Studies; Canada (Toronto); New York + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Social system; Soziales System; Tanz; Ausland; Urban area; Stadtregion; Lebensstil; Ballungsraum; Research method; Forschungsmethode; Stadterkundung
Abstract	The urban scholar Jane Jacobs once described city life as "the ballet of the streets." In more than a quarter century of joint teaching, the authors have used Jacobs' metaphor to help their students understand that cities are living organisms created and maintained, for good or ill, by the people who live and work in them. At heart their teaching are intense encounters with cities, a "street level" experience designed to give students a chance to walk the city's streets, and to meet its people, prominent and not, so that they can discover for themselves, in living context, the city's culture, varying life-styles, and issues. Given their international importance and astronomical growth over the last half century, cities are arguably the most significant social systems in the world and, as a result, are crucial for students to understand as such. The purpose of this paper is to share, first, the methodology the authors have developed for studying cities "at street level"; and second, to suggest how that methodology might be used in the study of cities anywhere. Starting with a course comparing New York and Toronto, they have used a similar approach to study cities in England, Ireland, Italy, Central Europe, China, and Vietnam. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Frontiers Journal. Dickinson College P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013. Tel: 717-254-8858; Fax: 717-245-1677; Web site: http://www.frontiersjournal.com
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10