Contemporary City – serie

Considering Asian cities ranging from Taipei, Hong Kong and Bangkok to Hanoi, Nanjing and Seoul, this collection discusses the socio-political processes of how neoliberalization entwines with local political economies and legacies of ‘developmental’ or ‘socialist’ statism to produce urban contestations centered on housing.

This book argues the crucial role of culture and cultural policies in defining the notion of urban citizenship in Barcelona since 1979.

With the rise of wealth inequalities, our cities are changing dramatically. This collection critically engages with and advances existing debates on the super-rich and their roles in these transformations.  An interdisciplinary range of contributions from international experts including sociologists, geographers, historians, discourse analysts, and urban studies specialists reveal crucial aspects of the real estate investment practices of the super-rich, their social spaces in the city as well as the distinct influence of the super-rich on the transformation of four key cities: London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. By drawing together diverse disciplines, perspectives, and experiences across different geographical contexts, this book offers a fresh, comparative, and nuanced take on the super-rich and the 1% city, as well as a solid, empirically and theoretically grounded basis to think about future research questions and policy implications.

?This book seeks to understand the urban transformation of Amsterdam over a 40-year period. In addition to charting social and economic changes associated with gentrification, it analyses the electoral dynamics and middle-class politics that have underpinned Amsterdam’s change to a middle-class city.

This book argues the crucial role of culture and cultural policies in defining the notion of urban citizenship in Barcelona since 1979.

With the rise of wealth inequalities, our cities are changing dramatically. This collection critically engages with and advances existing debates on the super-rich and their roles in these transformations.  An interdisciplinary range of contributions from international experts including sociologists, geographers, historians, discourse analysts, and urban studies specialists reveal crucial aspects of the real estate investment practices of the super-rich, their social spaces in the city as well as the distinct influence of the super-rich on the transformation of four key cities: London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. By drawing together diverse disciplines, perspectives, and experiences across different geographical contexts, this book offers a fresh, comparative, and nuanced take on the super-rich and the 1% city, as well as a solid, empirically and theoretically grounded basis to think about future research questions and policy implications.

This volume sheds light on the development of squatting practices and movements in nine European cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Brighton) by examining the numbers, variations and significant contexts in their life course.

This volume sheds light on the development of squatting practices and movements in nine European cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, Rotterdam and Brighton) by examining the numbers, variations and significant contexts in their life course.

Focusing on Mostar, a city in Bosnia Herzegovina that became the epitome of ethnic divisions during the Yugoslav wars, this cutting edge book considers processes of violent partitioning in cities.

The book explains not only why families choose to stay in the inner city and how they use the city in their everyday lives, but also how families change the landscape of contemporary cities, and how the family is, and has been, perceived in urban planning and policy-making.

Power, Glamour and Angst is about the social and cultural life of three Australian neighbourhoods – Toorak (Melbourne), Mosman (Sydney) and Cottesloe (Perth) - which are home to some of the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful citizens.

This edited volume advances our understanding of urban activism beyond the social movement theorization dominated by thesis of political opportunity structure and resource mobilization, as well as by research based on experience from the global north. Covering a diversity of urban actions from a broad range of countries in both hemispheres as well as the global north and global south, this unique collection notably focuses on non-institutionalised or localised urban actions that have the potential to bring about radical structural transformation of the urban system and also addresses actions in authoritarian regimes that are too sensitive to call themselves “movement”. It addresses localized issues cut off from international movements such as collective consumption issues, like clean water, basic shelter, actions against displacement or proper venues for street vendors, and argues that the integration of the actions in cities in the global south with the specificity of their local social and political environment is as pivotal as their connection with global movement networks or international NGOs. A key read for researchers and policy makers cutting across the fields of urban sociology, political science, public policy, geography, regional studies and housing studies, this text provides an interdisciplinary and international perspective on 21st century urban activism in the global north and south.

Focusing on Mostar, a city in Bosnia Herzegovina that became the epitome of ethnic divisions during the Yugoslav wars, this cutting edge book considers processes of violent partitioning in cities.

The book explains not only why families choose to stay in the inner city and how they use the city in their everyday lives, but also how families change the landscape of contemporary cities, and how the family is, and has been, perceived in urban planning and policy-making.

Power, Glamour and Angst is about the social and cultural life of three Australian neighbourhoods – Toorak (Melbourne), Mosman (Sydney) and Cottesloe (Perth) - which are home to some of the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful citizens.

This edited volume advances our understanding of urban activism beyond the social movement theorization dominated by thesis of political opportunity structure and resource mobilization, as well as by research based on experience from the global north. Covering a diversity of urban actions from a broad range of countries in both hemispheres as well as the global north and global south, this unique collection notably focuses on non-institutionalised or localised urban actions that have the potential to bring about radical structural transformation of the urban system and also addresses actions in authoritarian regimes that are too sensitive to call themselves “movement”. It addresses localized issues cut off from international movements such as collective consumption issues, like clean water, basic shelter, actions against displacement or proper venues for street vendors, and argues that the integration of the actions in cities in the global south with the specificity of their local social and political environment is as pivotal as their connection with global movement networks or international NGOs. A key read for researchers and policy makers cutting across the fields of urban sociology, political science, public policy, geography, regional studies and housing studies, this text provides an interdisciplinary and international perspective on 21st century urban activism in the global north and south.

The book addresses the rapid shifts which have taken place within cartography, and argues that no amount of technological sophistication will lead to neutral representations, and that as such critical cartography provides a solid foundation for questioning the power of maps.

The book addresses the rapid shifts which have taken place within cartography, and argues that no amount of technological sophistication will lead to neutral representations, and that as such critical cartography provides a solid foundation for questioning the power of maps.

This Book examines an interplay between discourses on the city that stress theneed for rational-functional order and art’s imaginative deviations from the topdownstructures of urban life. Moving between theory and praxis, the booksituates the city as both a concept and physical construct through which lives andpossibilities are shaped or defined. In response, certain modalities of art createspontaneous, non-rational and playful interludes that risk escape from the urbanapparatus and a hyper-valorisation of rational order. A three-part framework isused to discuss this push-pull dynamic and to assess the strategies of shock,performative embodiment and intervention that emerged in post-war artmovements and in contemporary performance and participatory art practices.The book examines how the disturbances introduced by artists throw the cityconstruct into sharp relief, making it visible and activating momentary encounters where new modes of expression can emerge.This Book offers a new approach to interdisciplinary studies of art and urbanity.The book aims to delineate how the city—as concept and construct—is madevisible through artistic practice and in turn challenged or interrogated. Students,researchers and professionals with an interest in the interaction between art andurban studies will discover a new perspective on how urban conditions and issueshave been addressed through artistic practice. The book contributes to anevolving discourse in the urban humanities through an exposition of the city’sdefault construct that is made visible or reimagined through visual art in publicspaces.