Phenomenology of the Winter-City

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Intertwining Consciousness, Human Body and the Environment

   • Abraham Akkerman

   Pages 1-13

3. Winter and the North in the Emergence of Civic Space

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15

      PDF

   2. Human Posture and the Nightly Sky: Cosmos in Prehistoric Myth

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 17-31

   3. The North, Axis mundi and Gender Myths in the Rise of Civic Space

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 33-49

   4. Winter Acumen and Mood Disorder: Apollo, Dionysus and Foucault’s History of Madness

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 51-65

   5. Hero Under the Weather: Mood Disorder and the Emergence of Civic Space

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 67-79

   6. Psychocultural Aspects of Weather and Place: The Little Ice Age

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 81-90

4. Body-Earth-Sky and City-Form

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91

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   2. Sky Myths and Gender Projection in Early City-Form

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 93-101

   3. The North and Paradigms of Balance: Harmony and Equilibrium as an Urban Ideal

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 103-116

   4. Axial Age Civilizations as a Project of North-Hemispheric Masculinity: The Antipodean Myth

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 117-125

   5. Philosophical Urbanism from Thomas More to Walter Benjamin

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 127-137

5. Phenomenology of the Winter-City

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139

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   2. The LIA: Prelude and Aftermath, from the Garden to City Without Streets

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 141-154

   3. From Cartesian Doubt to Heroic Design: The Late LIA and the Myth of the Grand Designer

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 155-168

   4. The Late LIA and Its Urban Sequel: Reason, Mental Illness and the Emergence of Crowd

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 169-179

6. Solvitur Ambulando

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 181-181

      PDF

   2. Reflections on the LIA: Loss of Place and the North American Winter-City

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 183-199

   3. Epilogue

      • Abraham Akkerman

      Pages 201-210

This book explores how the weather and city-form impact the mind, and how city-form and mind interact. It builds on Merleau-Ponty’s contention that mind, the human body and the environment are intertwined in a singular composite, and on Walter Benjamin’s suggestion that mind and city-form, in mutual interaction, through history, have set the course of civilization. Bringing together the fields of philosophy, urbanism, geography, history, and architecture, the book shows the association of existentialism with prevalence of mood disorder in Northern Europe at the close of Little Ice Age. It explains the implications of city-form and traces the role of the myths and allegories of urban design as well as the history of gender projection onto city-form. It shows how urbanization in Northern Europe provided easier access to shelter, yet resulted in sunlight deprivation, and yielded increasing incidence of depression and other mental disorder among the European middle-class. The book uses the examples of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and Kafka, to show how walking through the streets, squares and other urban voids became the informal remedy to mood disorder, a prominent trait among founders of modern Existentialism. It concludes by describing how the connection of anguish and violence is relevant to winter depression in cities, in North America in particular.

• Earthmother, Skyfather, Grand Designer
• Femininity and urban void
• Little Ice Age and urbanism
• Masculinity and urban edifices
• Mind and city-form
• Myths of the environment
• Winter-cities and mood disorder
• urban geography and urbanism

• Department of Geography and Planning, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

  Abraham Akkerman

Born at Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) in 1948; B.A. (1973) in philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; M.Sc. (1977) in environmental planning, University of Calgary, Canada; Ph.D. (1982) in urban and regional planning, University of Waterloo, Canada; Principal Planner, City of Edmonton (Canada) Planning Department (1982-1990); Associate Prof. of Geography and Planning, University of Saskatchewan (1990-1995); Professor of Geography and Planning, University of Saskatchewan (1996 – present); Assoc. Member, Department of Philosophy, Univ. of Saskatchewan (2000 – present); Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada – grant (1992); SSHRC – grant application under review (2014); Fellow: Royal Geographical Society (London, UK); Member: Canadian Institute of Planners; Canadian Population Society.

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