The “South-Italian City” — a cultural-genetic type of city
The “South-Italian city” is characterized at four different levels as an independent cultural-genetic city-type:1.The characteristics arrangement of the functional areas and the residential areas of different social groups is represented in a model.2.From the model, developments and changes in the arrangement of the functional areas can be identified which clearly deviate from those which are derived from the universal city model.3.Some of the structural individuality can be directly explained by the peculiar features of the respective social and economic history.4.Some of the special features must, however, be traced back to a wider historico-cultural background. Through this run processes which flow through the universal city development in similar forms, to the deviating structure of the “South-Italian city”.
WORLD REGIONS IN URBAN GEOGRAPHY1
ABSTRACT Most cities are influenced by those cultures which they serve and represent. At the same time, the cultures are influenced by their respective cities. This mutual relationship among cities and cultures constitutes a complex of processes of functional interrelationships. The geographic approach to these processes leads to the delimitation of twelve major world-regions and several sub-regions that are characterized by the areally varying processes associating cities and cultures. A system of world-regions of this nature is proposed in the present paper. The proposed system places every city of the world into a hierarchy of functional regions, far beyond the city's own hinterland. Every city is then visualized as a molder and reflector of its cultural environment. In addition, the following implications of such a regional system on the field of urban geography are discussed. First, the urban geographer is able to contribute to regional studies by considering the influence the cities have upon a give...
Law as Palimpsest: Conceptualizing Contingency in Judicial Opinions (forthcoming 2009)
Metaphors create conceptualizations, and for decades legal academics have employed metaphors to shape understandings of legal problems. But no metaphor in current use successfully conceptualizes the contingency of judicial opinions and the complexity of the relationship between opinions and precedent. This Article seeks to fill this void by introducing a new metaphor, the palimpsest, into the realm of legal analysis. A palimpsest is a writing surface that can be cleared away for reuse, like a personal blackboard. What distinguishes a palimpsest from other writing surfaces is that its removed contents do not disappear, but remain, obscured yet recoverable: A writing on a palimpsest never goes away. This Article argues that thinking of judicial opinions as being part of a shared, ever-evolving palimpsest underscores the fact that they are ultimately contingent and serves as a reminder of the multiple levels of interconnectedness between them and the cases they cite. Precedents—like the underlayers of a palimpsest—never go away, and they inform and shape the application of opinions in ways far more significant than simply serving as points of reference. A palimpsestic approach to understanding judicial decisionmaking also helps to explain why even the oldest, most reviled cases remain part of our national psyche—like underlayers of a palimpsest, they can never truly disappear, and their continued presence forces us to grapple with their existence. Finally, considering judicial opinions as part of a shared palimpsest reminds us that even the most troubling opinion is ultimately contingent, its application subject to reexamination and revision by future courts and future generations. Just as such an opinion replaces its precedents, it too will one day be replaced, like each of a palimpsest’s layers. 2 Law as Palimpsest [Vol. __:__ Law as Palimpsest: Conceptualizing Contingency in Judicial Opinions