ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the legitimisation and utilisation of urban knowledge from an institutional point of view referring to examples and case studies. It will examine epistemologies that created the framework for the development of urban knowledge institutions. The legitimacy of these institutions in matters of urban politics was based on new forms of expertise. Our contribution revisits the history of the way in which urban knowledge institutions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century developed powerful epistemological models and narratives to analyse and picture the physical reality and development of a city. These, in turn, legitimised the implementation of city government strategies and the constitution of the urban planning and design disciplines. The urban epistemologies at the origin of this evolution were based on science, aesthetics, observation and description. They were intended to save the city from disorder, decay and destruction. To serve this civic purpose, the newly acquired urban knowledge was communicated through documentation, visual statistics and various displays (such as maps, diagrams, models, panoramic installations and interactive displays). This chapter illustrates the development of three epistemological fields through a series of case-studies: urban reform and the Musée Social in Paris; historicism and the Altstadt movements; city surveys and the Urbaneum.
