2021 Volume 72 Issue 2 Pages 100-117
Currently, critical urban studies focus on the concept of “city” as people use it in their practice. However, how did the concept of city spread in the first place? This paper seeks to clarify the diffusion process of the concept of city in modern Japan. To this end, the paper focuses on the introduction of city planning. City planning authorities attempted to secure citizens` cooperation in city planning in the late 1910s and early 1920s. To achieve this, they attempted to make urban residents accept the concept of city. From the perspective of learning theory, this paper analyzes the practices of city planning authorities in making urban residents familiar with the concept of city.
First, the article uncovers that the concept of city was explained as an “organism.” Urban residents were positioned as “citizens” who constituted it. Therefore, they had a responsibility for learning about the city. The city planning authorities attempted to increase the citizens' knowledge about the city visually by comparing European, American, and Japanese cities through city planning exhibitions. Further, the city planning authorities tried to confirm the learning effect of urban residents, and in the process they identified the limitations of city planning exhibitions.
From the above, the practice of city planning authorities, which made urban residents learn the concept of city entailed the dynamics of forming them as citizens. In the process, the city planning authorities also learned from the responses of the urban residents.
