Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts

Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts PDF Author: Martin Kindermann
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030552691
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts: Narrating Spaces, Reading Urbanity explores the narrative formations of urbanity from an interdisciplinary perspective. Within the framework of the “spatial turn,” contributors from disciplines ranging from geography and history to literary and media studies theorize narrative constructions of the city and cities, and analyze relevant examples from a variety of discourses, media, and cities. Subdivided into six sections, the book explores the interactions of city and text—as well as other media—and the conflicting narratives that arise in these interactions. Offering case studies that discuss specific aspects of the narrative construction of Berlin and London, the text also considers narratives of urban discontinuity and their theoretical implications. Ultimately, this volume captures the narratological, artistic, material, social, and performative possibilities inherent in spatial representations of the city.

Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts

Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts PDF Author: Martin Kindermann
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030552691
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
Exploring the Spatiality of the City across Cultural Texts: Narrating Spaces, Reading Urbanity explores the narrative formations of urbanity from an interdisciplinary perspective. Within the framework of the “spatial turn,” contributors from disciplines ranging from geography and history to literary and media studies theorize narrative constructions of the city and cities, and analyze relevant examples from a variety of discourses, media, and cities. Subdivided into six sections, the book explores the interactions of city and text—as well as other media—and the conflicting narratives that arise in these interactions. Offering case studies that discuss specific aspects of the narrative construction of Berlin and London, the text also considers narratives of urban discontinuity and their theoretical implications. Ultimately, this volume captures the narratological, artistic, material, social, and performative possibilities inherent in spatial representations of the city.

Spatiality and Symbolic Expression

Spatiality and Symbolic Expression PDF Author: Bill Richardson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137488514
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
In this volume, scholars from a wide range of fields within the humanities explore the links between space and place and their relation to cultural expression. This collection shows that a focus on the spatial can help elucidate important facets of symbolic expression and cultural production, whether it be literature, music, dance, films, or art.

Introduction to Cities

Introduction to Cities PDF Author: Xiangming Chen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119167736
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 435

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Book Description
The revised and updated second edition of Introduction to Cities explores why cities are such a vital part of the human experience and how they shape our everyday lives. Written in engaging and accessible terms, Introduction to Cities examines the study of cities through two central concepts: that cities are places, where people live, form communities, and establish their own identities, and that they are spaces, such as the inner city and the suburb, that offer a way to configure and shape the material world and natural environment. Introduction to Cities covers the theory of cities from an historical perspective right through to the most recent theoretical developments. The authors offer a balanced account of life in cities and explore both positive and negative themes. In addition, the text takes a global approach, with examples ranging from Berlin and Chicago to Shanghai and Mumbai. The book is extensively illustrated with updated maps, charts, tables, and photographs. This new edition also includes a new section on urban planning as well as new chapters on cities as contested spaces, exploring power and politics in an urban context. It contains; information on the status of poor and marginalized groups and the impact of neoliberal policies; material on gender and sexuality; and presents a greater range of geographies with more attention to European, Latin American, and African cities. Revised and updated, Introduction to Cities provides a complete introduction to the history, evolution, and future of our modern cities.

The Cultural Meaning of Urban Space

The Cultural Meaning of Urban Space PDF Author: Gary McDonogh
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313390061
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
This book presents a cross-cultural approach to the study of urban space. Essays written by major contributors in contemporary urban studies provide a range of case studies from Asia, Latin America, North America, and Europe to address important questions about space and power, processes of change, aesthetics and attitudes toward space, and social divisions expressed through urban life. The essays fall into three interlocking sections: conceptual and linguistic approaches to urban space; visual and social examinations of world cities; and policy examinations of spatial analyses. Together with the jointly compiled bibliography, this collection of essays is designed to stimulate comparative debate and identify new areas for urban research. Essays contrast empty space in Barcelona and Savannah, explore the concept of healthy and unhealthy urban environments in the classical writings and in modern-day Vienna, and develop a model of space for Shanghai from the point of view of privacy. The subcultural ethos characterizing Tokyo and the castle as a symbol for the community in Japan are two more essay topics. The plaza in Spanish-American towns, the outdoor spaces in Italy (balcony, street, courtyard), and the school in Honduras are sites for socio-cultural analyses in three more essays. The last group of essays focus on discourses in urban planning, especially the responses of people to the growth, marketing, and decay of residential places. African-American neighborhoods and waterfront development provide examples for this section. These essays in their theoretical and geographical breadth make significant strides in defining the cultural meaning of urban space. They will be read with interest by city planners, ecologists, and other social scientists involved in finding human solutions to the metropolitan environment.

Cities and Urban Cultures

Cities and Urban Cultures PDF Author: Deborah Stevenson
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
ISBN: 0335227988
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
*What is distinctive about urban life? *What key trends have shaped the contemporary city? *How have the city and urban cultures been explained by sociology and cultural studies? This is the first book to explore cities and urban life from the perspectives of both sociology and cultural theory. Through an interdisciplinary approach and use of case material, the book demonstrates that the 'real' city of physicality and struggle and the 'imagined' city of representations are entwined in the construction of urban cultures. Starting with a comparison of the rural and the urban, the book considers ways of imagining the city and of conceptualising urban cultures. It goes on to investigate the implications of several pivotal urban and cultural trends, such as the use of the arts and local cultures in city re-imaging, and the ways in which modernism, postmodernism and globalisation have shaped the built environment and the orientation of academic enquiry. Also examined is the way in which representations of the urban landscape in film, literature, art, and popular texts, have informed dominant ideas about the way certain city spaces - including city centres, urban waterfronts, and so-called 'global cities' - should look, function and 'feel'. Designed as a text for undergraduate courses in cultural studies, sociology and wider social science, this book traces the development of urban environments from the nineteenth century to the present, and illuminates the nature of urban life.

The City as Power

The City as Power PDF Author: Alexander C. Diener
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538118270
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This interdisciplinary book considers national identity through the lens of urban spaces. By bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, The City as Power provides broad comparative perspectives about the critical importance of urban landscapes as forums for creating, maintaining, and contesting identity and belonging. Rather than serving as passive backdrops, urban spaces and places are active mediums for defining categories of inclusion—and exclusion. With an international scope and ready appeal to visual learners, the book offers a compelling survey of historical and contemporary efforts to enact state ideals, express counter-narratives, and negotiate global trends in cities. The contributors show how successive regimes reshape cityscapes to mirror their respective socio-political agendas, perspectives on history, and assumptions of power. Yet they must do so within the legal, ethnic, religious, social, economic, and cultural geographies inherited from previous regimes. Exploring the rich diversity of urban space, place, and national identity, the book compares core elements of identity projects in a range of political, cultural, and socioeconomic settings. By focusing on the built form and urban settings for social movements, protest, and even organized violence, this timely book demonstrates that cities are not simply lived in but also lived through.

Urban Space and Cityscapes

Urban Space and Cityscapes PDF Author: Christoph Lindner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134212429
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
From the verticals of New York, Hong Kong and Singapore to the sprawls of London, Paris and Jakarta, this interdisciplinary volume of new writing examines constructions, representations, imaginations and theorizations of 'cityscapes' in modern and contemporary culture. With specially-commissioned essays from the fields of cultural theory, architecture, film, literature, visual art and urban geography, it offers fresh insight into the increasingly complex relationship between urban space, cultural production and everyday life. This volume draws on critical urban studies and moves beyond familiar cultural representations of the city by considering urban planning and architecture. Organized under three inter-related themes - image, text and form - essay topics range from the examination of cyberpunk skylines, pagan urbanism and the cinema of urban disaster, to the analysis of iconic city landmarks such as the twin towers, the London Eye and the Judisches Museum Berlin. Covering a diverse range of cities, including Berlin, Chicago, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Paris, and Venice, this fantastic resource for students, scholars and researchers alike, works expertly at the intersections of visual, material, and literary culture.

Spatial Practices

Spatial Practices PDF Author: Melanie Dodd
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351140027
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
This book explores ‘spatial practices’, a loose and expandable set of approaches that embrace the political and the activist, the performative and the curatorial, the architectural and the urban. Acting upon and engaging with the public realm, the field of spatial practices allows people to reconnect with their own sense of agency through engagement in space and place, exploring and prototyping alternative futures in the here and now. The 24 chapters contain essays, visual essays and interviews, featuring contributions from an international set of experimental practitioners including Jeanne van Heeswijk (Netherlands), Teddy Cruz (Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, San Diego), Hector (USA), The Decorators (London) and OOZE (Netherlands). Beautifully designed with full colour illustrations, Spatial Practices advances dialogue and collaboration between academics and practitioners and is essential reading for students, researchers and professionals in architecture, urban planning and urban policy.

The Politics of Public Space, Volume 04

The Politics of Public Space, Volume 04 PDF Author: Lynda Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780648770237
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Over four years, OFFICE have curated a public lecture series titled The Politics of Public Space as part of their university teaching, inviting speakers to present in and around Melbourne-and more recently online. Holding the series outside an institution has allowed these discussions to be directed at the city's spaces and the issues at stake in their development. To preserve and disseminate these events, OFFICE have compiled this quarterly publication as a document of the ideas that inform the city. This collection of interviews and talks is the fourth and final volume in the series.While past volumes asked many questions, this collection of interviews and talks puts forward strategies for addressing some of the perceived inequities in the public domain. Nigel Bertram and Kim Dovey's texts explore forms of protest, preservation and civil disobedience within urban spaces. Protest continues to be intrinsic to public discourse and by consequence, how the city is preserved and developed. In contrast, These modes of resistance have their counterpart in discussions about policy-making and planning. For Lynda Roberts this is through revealing the political motivations behind the procurement of cultural artifacts and their deployment throughout the arts precinct. Crystal Legacy outlines ideas of agonism and consensus planning in large scale infrastructure projects. Marcus Westbury reflects on new forms of tenure in creating and running a public cultural institute and Elizabeth Taylor unpacks the political, social and commercial motivations behind car parking. What is clear is that each of these texts draws the attention of the series back to questions of how we experience cities. As we have found in past volumes, the city privileges certain demographics and bodies over others. Simona Castricum reflects on the diverse experiences of gender non-conforming, trans and gender diverse people in public space. And the final text, an interview with Sophia Pearce and Jock Gilbert, puts forward their understanding of Country, and strategies for Indigenous and non-indigenous people to work in collaboration. Unpacking concepts of Story and deep listening and how they shape their projects.

Spatial Practices

Spatial Practices PDF Author: Helen Liggett
Publisher: SAGE Publications, Incorporated
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Spatial Practices makes a timely and significant contribution to the growing literature on social/spatial theory. In it the notion of spacial practice takes on a rich and layered meaning for some of America's leading scholars as they critically link the theoretical practices of the space of their disciplines to the practical social space of everyday political and economic urban life. Original essays provide compelling insights into the space of racial politics, the unavoidability of recognizing a radical planning practice, and the imagistic face of the contemporary "figured" city. The reader will find rich conceptual tools presented in discussions that grapple with issues raised by the production of reduced public space in common interest developments and the ubiquitous mall, the ideologies of economic restructuring, the rhetorical politics of urban revitalization, and the analytic potential of the photo/text. Students and scholars interested in how spatial theory has enriched and renewed urban theory will find Spatial Practices invaluable. It will be useful in a wide range of classes across disciplines including urban studies, urban planning, architecture, political science, sociology, geography, economics, and policy studies. "This collection explores the exciting analytical edge where investigations of urban political economy converge with cultural studies. In their exploration of theory and practice as they relate to the production of space, the authors cover a dazzling range of topics. Yet despite their varying preoccupations, the essays merge into a unified inquiry that reveals the functions and meanings of contemporary spatial forms. All those who are interested in the forces shaping urban and regional development, as well as in the impact of space on social relations, must read this book.