Demopolis
Demopolis (from Hellene δέμοπόλις, "city of the people"), also referred to as demopolitanism, is a social and artistic movement that originated in Gylias in the mid-20th century. It is defined by celebration of organic urban vibrancy, pursuit of a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood character, and an opposition to high modernism.
The movement originated in urbanism in the 1950s, towards the transition from the Free Territories to Gylias. It consolidated around the idea of the "people's city": a style of urban planning and architecture based on decentralisation, democratisation, and expansion of social freedoms. Its leading theorists, Jane Berger and Chris Alexander, championed architecture as a means to enhance freedom.
During the Golden Revolution, demopolitanism had a leading role in the fundamental reshaping of Gylian cities, and extended into the political arena through the Urban Movement. It served as an umbrella for many of the social movements of the period.
The movement had an enduring impact on Gylian culture. It synthesised various strands such as gauchic, Art Deco, and Levystile into a coherent worldview which emphasised the modern city, everyday glamour, and a metropolitan atmosphere. It influenced numerous forms of art, including architecture, visual arts, cinema, comics, literature, and music.
Overview
Background
Demopolitanism originates from the rapid urbanisation of Alscia, and the experience of anarchist administration in the Free Territories. Alscia was instrumental in associating modernisation with urbanisation in the public imagination, but the accelerationist tendencies of the "hurried province" were disavowed during the Liberation War, owing to the ominous precedent of Megelan's Futurist regime.
Several factors favoured urbanisation in the Free Territories. The institution of direct democracy through communal assemblies encouraged consolidation of population into communities large enough to facilitate self-governance. Increased agricultural production and application of agronomy spurred migration to cities.
Additionally, the Free Territories accorded priority to improving quality of life and improving well-being, often in non-monetary ways. Provision of social services, relative safety, and access to culture contributed to making cities attractive for new arrivals.
The conditions of the Free Territories helped lay the foundation for demopolitanism's success. Gylians' self-image as a "small country" allowed Gylias to begin independence close to an optimum population. Various Golden Revolution-era developments — including ecovillages, back-to-the-land movements, art colonies, and new intentional communities — served as a countervailing power to urbanisation, helping stabilise demographics.
Cities thus gained a romantic allure — being associated with glamour, modernity, and metropolitan appeal — without absorbing a large enough influx of residents to cause gentrification.
Theorists and practitioners
Many demopolitan practices emerged unplanned from the experimentation of the Free Territories and were disseminated gradually. The movement consolidated in the late 1950s, as several theorists combined its parts into a unified whole.
The key "manifestos" of the movement are considered Jane Berger's The Death and Life of Great Cities (1961) and Chris Alexander's A Pattern Language (1967). Both were of German descent and shared a preoccupation with how architecture could be used to improve quality of life. They took different approaches to the subject:
- Jane defended the natural diversity and dynamism of urban communities. She advocated mixed-use developments, low-rise buildings, and the importance of pavements as mechanisms for social integration and maintenance of order.
- Chris argued that good design results from a series of "patterns", similar to computer programming, which can be adapted for the needs of any project or environment. He advocated using architecture to enhance an individual's sense of freedom. Methods for this purpose included avoiding centralised entrances, favouring many open entrances and stairs leading off public streets, and encouraging local cafés.
An additional influence outside urbanism was environmental economist Ernst Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful (1973). The book condemned the "bigger is better" mindset, and instead championed appropriate technology as a means to achieve sustainable development.
Demopolitans enjoyed a powerful ally in Eðe Saima, the public works minister in the Darnan Cyras government. Eðe shared their abhorrence of totalitarian architecture and staunchly supported putting communal assemblies in charge of drafting and approving construction plans. Her own preferences — mixed-use developments, low-rise houses, numerous public spaces and parks, and quality public transport — largely matched those of the demopolitans, and her high profile helped popularise the ideal as the foundation of Gylian urbanism.
Connections with other movements
Demopolitans forged close ties with many social movements that participated in the Golden Revolution. Their ideal of livable cities brought about an alliance with the environmentalist, appropriate technology, and car-free movements.
The demopolitan ideal of vibrant and diverse cities has generated significant overlap with advocacy of direct democracy, and alliances with feminist, LGBT, reproductive justice, minority, autonomous social centre and squatter movements.
Demopolitans have allied with movements that preserve Gylias' service occupations, such as elevator attendants, tray vendors, tea servers, filling station attendants, telephone operators, and paid dance partners.
During the 1990s, local and federal legislation affecting nightlife — including the Law on Night Sky Protection of 1995 — spurred the formation of grassroots pro-nightlife organisations (most notably the People's Party for a Flourishing Nightlife), which allied with demopolitans. Nightlife and its benefits has become a modern area of interest for the movement.
Notably, Jane Berger's notion of the "ballet of the sidewalk" found unexpected resonance with Concordian notions of the "cosmic dance".
Urbanism
The foundation of demopolitanism is an appreciation of urban communities' organic vibrancy and diversity. Demopolitans base urban planning on respect for the layered complexity and seeming chaos of urban communities — what Jane Berger famously called "strips of chaos that have a weird wisdom of their own".
Common elements to demopolitan urbanism include:
- The principle that people should design their homes, streets, and communities.
- Defining neighbourhoods at multiple levels, in non-exclusive and horizontal relations to each other, based on functional identity.
- Mixed use development, short blocks, and a variety of dwelling types — with terraced houses, shophouses and apartments being particularly favoured.
- Emphasis on walkability, use of sidewalks, narrow streets, and public transport.
- Connected street network, providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any destination and dispersing traffic.
- Frequent parks, playgrounds, and urban open spaces.
- Height-restriction laws, serving both aesthetic and architectural conservation purposes.
The influence of anarchism on demopolitans is most pronounced in the advocacy of popular involvement in community design, and strong opposition to International Style, high modernism, and similar developments perceived as totalitarian and controlling.
The result is a high level of public control over the work of Gylian architects, and comparative obscurity relative to famous Tyranian architects.
Demopolitanism has produced a diversity of architectural styles, united by a common aesthetic that is influenced by Art Deco and New Urbanism. Urban beautification is a recurring element, exemplified by frequency of parks, popularity of Art Deco-influenced architecture, and embrace of graffiti as an art form and element of building decoration.
Politics
Demopolitan approaches to urbanism have largely been assimilated into the Gylian consensus, and are broadly represented and defended across the Gylian political spectrum.
The political extension of the demopolitan movement is the Urban Movement. The UM is one of the significant non-inscrit parties of Gylias, and has traditionally been dominant in municipal politics. Another significant demopolitan party is the People's Party for a Flourishing Nightlife.
In general, demopolitanism views cities as the drivers of development and economic growth. This city-centred perspective influenced economic policymaking, leading to policies that attempt to impart onto villages the same traits of diversity and vibrancy characteristic of cities.
Media
The main media outlet for demopolitan ideas is the urbanism magazine CityLab.
It has also been a significant influence on the worldviews and presentation of The Travelling Companion, as well as L'Petit Écho, Silhouette, Downtown, the Mişeyáke Metro Mail, and Radix.
Art
Demopolitanism has been one of two leading artistic movements to exercise a significant influence on Gylian culture since independence, together with gauchic. The two have notable areas of overlap aesthetically and have synthesised and combined easily, particularly in visual arts and clothing.
Gylian cinema has been influenced by demopolitanism, producing recurring elements such as celebratory depictions of cosmopolitan communities and slice of life storytelling techniques. The orgone film genre emerged as a confluence of demopolitanism and cinematic eroticism, while telefoni bianchi films served as a notable predecessor. City symphony films have also gained a notable audience through the movement, and have influenced many genres of Gylian film.
Demopolitan influence has manifested in music through various genres, the most prominent being the Gylian Sound. While the worldview of Gylian Sound has been shaped by demopolitanism, this aspect reached its peak through the development of sampling. Neo-Gylian Sound and its subgenre city pop incorporated the celebratory cosmopolitanism and emphasis on vibrant neighbourhoods into their music — through their lyrics, music, and use of sampling to convey the atmosphere.
Other genres of music that have displayed demopolitan influence include hip hop, electronic music, dance-rock, house, and certain soundtracks.
Legacy
The demopolitan movement has played a crucial role in the development of modern Gylian society and culture. Its ideals remain significant components of modern Gylian life and prevalent in popular culture.
Various commentators have identified demopolitanism as important to the success of the Gylian consensus. It helped disseminate the thick sociality and communitarian ethos of the Free Territories by consoldiating support for cheap public housing, free public education and health care, and generous social security — elements which guaranteed more expansive social freedoms than other Tyranian countries.