Cities and Fascination

Professor Heiko Schmid, University of Heidelberg, Germany, Professor Wolf-Dietrich Sahr, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brasil and Professor John Urry, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, UK

'This book opens up an important dialogue between poststructuralist, Marxist, and phenomenological perspectives on cities as sites of spectacle. The chapters present groundbreaking reflections on the contradictions and aspirations of an "excessive capitalism".' Ilse Helbrecht, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany 'Cities are sites of everyday social and economic life but they also reflect the play of imagination, desire, and semiological excess. In the 21st century, the theatrical is coming to overshadow the merely functional in our experience of the urban. Cities and Fascination offers a number of original and provocative investigations of this phenomenon.' Allen J. Scott, University of California, Los Angeles, USA 'A cutting-edge journey across the frontiers of urban theory, Cities and Fascination excavates the ways in which contemporary cities sear their way into our minds, captivate our hearts and dominate our imaginations. Crossing disciplinary boundaries and continents with equal ease, this brilliant collection explores the results of such fascination for politics, architecture, philosophy and the ways in which we inhabit our rapidly urbanizing world.' Stephen Graham, Newcastle University, UK 'The value of Cities and Fascination for this reviewer arises from its sophisticated explication of the subjective aspects to urban experience - be they emotion, affect, meaning or atmospheres - interpreted through Böhme, Schmitz and Sloterdijk but also as seen in actual practice.' Australian Planner

• Chapter 1 Cities and Fascination: Beyond the Surplus of Meaning, Heiko Schmid, Wolf-Dietrich Sahr, John Urry; Part I Revealing Fascination: Theoretical Horizons; Chapter 2 The Urban Question after Modernity, Michael Dear; Chapter 3 The City is Back (in Our Minds), Jacques Lévy; Chapter 4 Emotions in an Urban Environment: Embellishing the Cities from the Perspective of the Humanities, Jürgen Hasse; Chapter 5 Aesthetics and Design: Perceptions in the Postmodern Periphery, Ludger Basten; Part II Focusing Fascination: Crossing Theoretical and Empirical Perpectives; Chapter 6 'The Most Dangerous Knack': Fetish and Fascination in the Built Environment, Neil Smith; Chapter 7 The Urban Staging of Politics: Life Worlds, Aesthetics, and Planning '” and an Example from Brazil, Wolf-Dietrich Sahr; Part III Implementing Fascination: Case Studies; Chapter 8 From Dreamland to Wasteland: The Discursive Structuring of Cities, Ulrike Gerhard, Ingo H. Warnke; Chapter 9 Re-designing the Metropolis: Purpose and Perception of the Ruhr District as European Capital of Culture 2010, Achim Prossek; Chapter 10 Strategic Staging of Urbanity: Urban Images in Films and Film Images in Hamburg's City Marketing, Sybille Bauriedl, Anke Strüver; Chapter 11 'Neoliberalism with Chinese Characteristics': Consumer Pedagogy in Macao, Tim Simpson; Part IV Consequences of Fascination: New Horizons; Chapter 12 Excess, Fascination and Climates, John Urry;