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The Joy Experiments: Starting A New Conversation On City Building
Published January 1, 2021
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September 21, 2022
I should note that this book is by Scott Higgins and Paul Kalbfleisch, not Sean Higgins as listed here at the moment.
A colleague recommended this book to me, noting that it might help with my current doctoral work in urban planning. This was not the case.
Overall, I found the arguments weak unless you had already bought into the authors' ideas. By and large, other books on planning, design, etc. have already made stronger arguments for what they put forward here. Their solution to our social problems is to focus on community, but this seems so broad and vacuous that I doubt geography and goodwill will hold society together. Their comments lauding the loss of social institutions also seemed rather strange (and somewhat contradictory, given that similar forces seem to cause the loss of bricks-and-mortar retail that they mourn). The numerous spelling/grammar mistakes and misuses of words (e.g., "populist" and "carbon-positive") did not help either.
I found a few good ideas in the book, namely the discussions about mixed-use developments and 15-minute cities; I lean toward giving it 2 stars for these sections, but getting to those points was a slog. The book also has a nice layout with sidebars and good spacing, though because of the content I sometimes felt like they were trying to distract from the thin discussion. There are photos interspersed throughout of what they feel conveys urban joy, although the beauty may be in the eye of the beholder when it comes to these.
A colleague recommended this book to me, noting that it might help with my current doctoral work in urban planning. This was not the case.
Overall, I found the arguments weak unless you had already bought into the authors' ideas. By and large, other books on planning, design, etc. have already made stronger arguments for what they put forward here. Their solution to our social problems is to focus on community, but this seems so broad and vacuous that I doubt geography and goodwill will hold society together. Their comments lauding the loss of social institutions also seemed rather strange (and somewhat contradictory, given that similar forces seem to cause the loss of bricks-and-mortar retail that they mourn). The numerous spelling/grammar mistakes and misuses of words (e.g., "populist" and "carbon-positive") did not help either.
I found a few good ideas in the book, namely the discussions about mixed-use developments and 15-minute cities; I lean toward giving it 2 stars for these sections, but getting to those points was a slog. The book also has a nice layout with sidebars and good spacing, though because of the content I sometimes felt like they were trying to distract from the thin discussion. There are photos interspersed throughout of what they feel conveys urban joy, although the beauty may be in the eye of the beholder when it comes to these.
Displaying 1 of 1 review