Arbeitsbericht 163 (HU Berlin): Quartiere neu denken - Arbeitskreis ...

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The concept and the Charter of New Urbanism are divided into three different scale
levels. The first is on the Region where urban sprawl supposed to be decreased through
use of free land in cities, regeneration of old city centres, building density, shared
revenues and resources among municipalities and centres, and coordination of public
transport system. The second level is the neighbourhood, the district, and the corridor.
Neighbourhoods should be compact and pedestrian friendly, and offer different activi-
ties, housing in different price categories, community gardens and public spaces. On the
third level is the block, the street, and the building presented. It is a question of archi-
tecture that creates a sense of place through identification and clear sense of location.
Streets and squares should be safe, comfortable and increase meeting between the
inhabitants (cnu.org; newurbanism.org; Schemionek 2005 pp 70-72)
3. COMMUNITARIANISM
It is important to mention that the political field of communitarianism is broad and
highly complex, and it has been developed in different directions over the years. There
are several different views of what it means and it can hardly be defined as one political
vision (Beckmann et.al 2000; Haus 2003; Meier 2000). Communitarianism contains a
broad spectrum of political views from the Left liberal to the conservative (Reese-
Schäfer 2001 p 11; Schnur 2003 p 53). Below I will give a brief overview of the main
thoughts of communitarianism to give a first understanding as to what it means and
make it possible to discuss the ideas in connection with New Urbanism.
Communitarianism can be described as being in the middle of individual rights and
social obligations. It can be understood by placing it in the middle on a scale in between
individual rights and social obligations. It is about creating a balanced community
program with shared conceptions and values from which they can create a meaningful
life. It is about the mutuality and acknowledgment of the others. Further it is based on
the thought that everyone is depending on one another and has obligations to one
another between participators in the community as well as between the community and
its participators (Vorländer 2001 pp 19-21). This can be seen also in the thought of
Miller (1988) that argues, “the duties we owe to our compatriots are more extensive
than the duties we owe to strangers” (p 647).
Communitarian suggests that justices can and have to be found within societies concern-
ing their form of life and traditions and, those can vary in different contexts (Bell 2005
p 216). To make this function they take one step away from the personal fulfilment
thoughts towards the importance of families, schools, neighbourhoods, and national
political life. They use the already existing basic civil and political liberties but in a
slightly authoritarian way, and argue that individuals have an interest in living commu-
nal lives since communal attachments are crucial to our sense of well-being, but in a
way that does not sacrifice individual freedom too much (Bell 2005 pp 227-228, 230).