A groundbreaking sociologist and political theorist, Paul Hirst (1946-2003) was Professor of Social Theory at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a constant friend of the AA School. Hirst’s research interests and publications spanned critiques of Marxism, essentialism, democratic governance, political pluralism, and associationalism. Across the several lectures he gave at the AA over the years, his “The Politics of Space” talk is his most compelling argument regarding power and how it is constrained by and shapes the character of the built environment. From his apology for his terrible fashion sense in the face of an AA audience to his rousing conclusion, Hirst breathlessly builds a complex argument about the making and breaking of public space in 1993 that seems all the more urgent in 2020’s Brexit pandemic Britain.
Mark Morris, Head of Teaching and Learning, recalls Hirst’s approach to teaching and his unique educational experiment, the London Consortium PhD programme comprised of the AA, ICA, BFI, Tate, and Birkbeck. Mark is author of Models: Architecture and the Miniature (Wiley, 2006) and, most recently, “Neither Here nor There” in the Cornell Journal of Architecture (2020).
source
