Urban space and the university as an example of social and political conflict in New York and Berkeley, 1968–1969

In the 1960s public space, alongside with other social problems, became one of the areas where conflicts and tensions which had accumulated in previous years were visible. The problem was not only its spatial development and the manner in which it was done, but also its availability for local communities. At the time of defragmentation of the American society and searching for access to places for everyone, it became a problem of not only social but also political nature, as it intensified at the height of a deep crisis of the American state institutions. Examples of such tensions are youth protests against the activities of Columbia University in New York and Berkeley in 1968 and 1969, respectively. The universities intended to expand campuses at the expense of the areas, which, despite being wasteland, were significant to the strong counter-culture in Berkeley and the black population of the New York Morningside neighborhood, where the university is located. While in the case of the New York university the desire to build a sports hall resulted from the real needs and the need to expand the housing base, the case of Berkeley shows how delay and the incapability of making decisions translated into unexpectedly large and dramatically ended riots. The similarities between the protests in both universities can be seen in the aversion to large corporations, such as universities, the subject of the dispute (the area necessary for its development), a highly administrative and bureaucratic way of conflict resolution and its result – a strike, violent demonstrations and deaths. The main difference between the protests is the political focus visible in Columbia, consisting in the desire to provoke a sharp crisis in other universities, by carrying out an occupational strike to be a model for other universities and building an alternative community based on countercultural values, in the form of, open to all their manifestations, Berkeley People’s Park. In a broader context, events in both universities can be interpreted as a symbolic clash between the old order and the new one, for which the dispute over public space was only a pretext in the struggle for recognition and acceptance.Uniwersytet Jana Kochanowskiego, w KielcachAvron J. L., Up Against the Wall. A History of the Columbia Crisis, red. R. Friedman, New York 1969Bradley S. M., Harlem vs. Columbia University. Black Student Power in the Late 1960s, Urbana and Chicago 2009.Cash J. D., People’s Park: Birth and Survival, „California History”. The Journal of the California Historical Society 2010, t. 88, nr 1.Clark Kerr: Knowledge Industry, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 4J94a NxLUConfrontation: The Student Rebelion and the Universitites, red. D. Bell, I. Cristol, New York and London 1969.Cottrell R. C., Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’roll. The Rise of America’s 1960s Counterculture, Lanham–Boulder–New York–London 2015.Crisis at Columbia. Report of the Fact Finding Commission Appointed to Investigate the Disturbances at Columbia University in April and May 1968, New York 1968.de Groot G. J., Ronald Reagan and Student Unrest In California 1966–1970, „Pacific Historical Review” 1996, t. 65, nr 1.Hayden T., The Port Huron Statement. The Visionary Call of the 1960s Revolution, New York 2005.Hoving T., Think Big About Small Parks, „The New York Times” 1966, April 10, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.htmlres=9E04E0D81238E036A05753C1A9629C946791D6CF&legacy=trueJacobs J., The Death and Life of Great American Cities, New York 1961.Mitchell D., The End of Public Space? People’s Park, Definitions of the Public, and Democracy, „Annales of the Association of American Geographers” 1995, t. 95, nr 1.Mitchell D., The Right to the City. Social Justice and the Right to the Public Space, New York – London 2003.Lasky M. H., Columbia. The Wound Unhealed, „Political Science Quarterly” 1968, t. 84. nr 2.McCaughey R., Stand Columbia. A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, New York 2003.Public Space and the Ideology of Space in American Culture, red. Miles Orvell, Jeffrey L. Meikle, Amsterdam – New York 2009.The Radical Left. The Abuse of Discontent, red. W. P. Gerberding, D. E. Smith, Boston 1970.Ravitch D., The Troubled Crusade. American Education 1945–1980, New York 1983.Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, New York 1968.Rudd M., Underground. My Life with SDS and the Weathermen, New York 2009Thelin, John R., A History of American Higher Education, Baltimore and London 2004.Tonnelat S., The sociology of urban public spaces, https://www.academia.edu/313641/The Sociology of Urban Public SpacesThe University Crisis Reader. The Liberal University Under Attack, red. I. Wallerstein, P. Starr, New York 1971.„The Columbia Daily Spectator”, 1966–1968.„The Berkeley Barb”, 1969.1621123