[Ideas] Avner de-Shalit: Spirit of Cities

Cities shape the lives and outlooks of billions of people, yet they have been overshadowed in contemporary political thought by nation-states, identity groups, and concepts like justice and freedom. The Spirit of Cities revives the classical idea that a city expresses its own distinctive ethos or values. In the ancient world, Athens was synonymous with democracy and Sparta represented military discipline. In his talk, Avner de-Shalit explores how this classical idea can be applied to today’s cities, and explain why philosophy and the social sciences need to rediscover the spirit of cities.

While with us in Brussels, Avner de-Shalit also held a workshop on ‘Poverty and Disadvantage: making societies more equal’.

ABOUT

Professor Avner De-Shalit is the Max Kampelman Professor of Democracy and Human Rights at the department of political science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His fields of research and teaching are equality, democracy and human rights, environmental politics and environmental political theory.

GOOD READS

The Spirit of Cities: Why the Identity of a City Matters in a Global Age. Daniel A. Bell & Avner de-Shalit (2011). Disadvantage (2007, 2013), co-authored with Jonathan Wolff.

KEY LINKS

Avner's website