NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles: Mayoral Speeches as a Source of Information

Clovis Ultramari

doi:10.11648/j.urp.20190403.14

Abstract

This paper is part of a larger research carried by its author on the big scenarios of the contemporary city. It is thus part of a larger effort to understand what the contemporary city is, who its main social agents are and what its main characteristics, problems and potentialities are. This paper presents the results of a specific investigation on the use and potentialities of mayoral inaugural speeches as a tool to understand cities and their contexts. It is based on a previous understanding that these documents are rich in information, both explicit and implicit ones. As a case study three North American cities are taken as examples: New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Main source of information are: a theoretical review by means of an exploratory investigation and contemporary mayoral speeches available in the internet. Conclusions are limited to the volume of documents selected but indicate the validity to enlarge temporal and geographic scopes. Despite political intentions and hidden interests, speeches confirm to be potential sources of information to understand specific cities, and, what is considered more important, to describe aspects of contemporary urban life in similar socio and economic circumstances. Selection of other cities, of circumscribed geographies, as well as the increase of sources analyzed may reiterate conclusions presented in this paper and lead to other global or regional urban scenarios.

Highlights

Speeches by political leaders are most commonly written objects of research from the perspective of partisan and ideological alignments
To fulfill the primary purpose of validating the critical reading of political speeches in order to contextualize urban realities, this article proposes an examination of selected inauguration speeches that are understood to be rhetorical pieces distanced from the electoral process and, are closer to the material reality of urban management—the main topic of interest to me in this paper
This study evaluates whether the reading of the selected speeches, through the representativeness of their cities in the national or international urban system, beyond their political characteristics and relationships of local interests, may contribute to the construction of a large urban scenario, sometimes submitting to broader contexts and sometimes imposing facets upon the scenario itself

Summary

Introduction

Speeches by political leaders are most commonly written objects of research from the perspective of partisan and ideological alignments. The study presented in this article was subjected to the difficulty of accessing mayoral inauguration speeches from different historical series, even when the search was restricted to global or large international cities. Unlike the dialectic that proposes a philosophical dialogue, the art of persuasion, of which the speeches analyzed here are examples, comprises the imposition of an opinion – doxa on a group of listeners In this case, it is a group of diverse constituents and agents of the city. This study evaluates whether the reading of the selected speeches, through the representativeness of their cities in the national or international urban system, beyond their political characteristics and relationships of local interests, may contribute to the construction of a large urban scenario, sometimes submitting to broader contexts and sometimes imposing facets upon the scenario itself. Studies conducted with a greater number of discursive pieces would broaden the analytical wealth of these findings, perhaps revealing temporal changes, and regional particularities and specificities according to urban typologies

Identifying Periods

The Urban Question

Conclusion