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European Urban Traditions: An Anthropologist's View on Polis, Urbs, and Civitas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Giuliana B. Prato
Giuliana B. Prato*
Affiliation:
University of Kent, UK
*
Giuliana B. Prato, School of Anthropology & Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK. Email: G.B.Prato@kent.ac.uk
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Abstract

The argument developed in this article originates from the reflection that what constitutes a city or what is meant by urban are differently understood in different parts of the world and by different scholars. Thus, I first address the problematic of incommensurability. I argue that this key issue in the philosophy of science is central to how the debate on urban anthropology has developed. Then I ask whether this problematic extends to cross-disciplinary debate among the contemporary social sciences and what relevance the resulting understanding of the city has outside the academic world. I maintain that social analysis should endeavour to bring out the political, economic, and socio-cultural complexity of urban life. Having carried out research in urban Europe, I offer an analysis of the city that encompasses the meaning of urbs, polis, and civitas. Finally, I discuss the epistemological significance of urban ethnography, drawing on my field research in Brindisi, a South-Italian city.

Keywords

CivitasurbspolisincommensurabilityethnographyItaly
Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 63 , Issue 3-4: Urban Anthropology , August 2016 , pp. 9 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2018

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