Download or read book Contextualizing Urban Narratives through the Socio Spatial Dialectic written by Ankur Konar and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-26 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how urban narratives explore the complexities of city life, including the diversity of its inhabitants, the challenges of urbanization, and the impact of social and economic disparities. They may delve into such topics as crime, poverty, gentrification, and the struggle for identity and belonging in different bustling metropolis settings like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Benaras, Edinburgh and Glasgow. This monograph provides a lens through which authors and storytellers examine and reflect upon the complexities, challenges, and opportunities of urban life. It seeks to reiterate how the discourse of urban narratives refers to the specific language, themes, and ideas that are commonly found in stories set in urban environments, and encompasses the ways in which urban spaces are portrayed, the issues and conflicts that arise within these settings, and the social, cultural, and political commentary that is often embedded in these narratives.
Download or read book Toward Diversity and Emancipation written by Marcel Thoene and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the pivotal role which space and spatiality assume in plot and narrative discourse of contemporary U.S.-American literary narratives. Embarking from a new, spatialized approach to cultural history and particularly narrative theory that might also prove useful for neighboring philologies, Marcel Thoene hypothesizes that the canon of novels selected represents a dialectic of simultaneous affirmation and subversion of the American space myth. This results in an integrative and emancipatory function of space reflecting the current dynamic toward a more transcultural, diverse and conflictive post-national U.S.-American society.
Download or read book Consuming Media written by Johan Fornäs and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-26 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by Walter Benjamin's classical Arcades Project, Consuming Media is a pioneering exploration of the interface between communication, shopping and everyday life. Based on a six-year study by over a dozen scholars on a specific site, it analyses the links between power, media and consumption in contemporary urban culture.Illustrated with rich ethnographic detail, Consuming Media scrutinises four main media circuits - print media, media images, sound and motion, and hardware machines - to assess how media texts and technologies are selected, purchased and used.Exploring the relations between different media, the nature of cultural citizenship and the power relations of public space, Consuming Media presents an ethnography of globalisation and develops a new approach to understanding media consumption.
Download or read book Being American on the Edge written by J. Goddard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-08-06 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This manuscript focuses on the development of hybrid city-country (penurban) landscapes around large urban areas which mesh stylized countryside with functional links to the cities. These landscapes are central to American mindsets as they combine the dreams, expectations, and experiences of the nation in expressive cultural landscapes. An interpretive-analytical methodology is used in this single-authored, multidisciplinary work which draws on insights from history, American Studies, social sciences, urban studies, and environmental studies, and cultural studies in order to portray lifestyle and settlement phenomena overlooked by single disciplinary fields. Telling the story of how penurban landscapes emerged, the work blends original research with a re-reading of existing work to understand developing lifestyle and settlement patterns. The book aims at readers in history, urban studies, environmental studies, consumerism and American Studies.
Download or read book Literature and the Peripheral City written by Jason Finch and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-05-27 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities have always been defined by their centrality. But literature demonstrates that their diverse peripheries define them, too: from suburbs to slums, rubbish dumps to nightclubs and entire failed cities. The contributors to this collection explore literary urban peripheries through readings of literature from four continents and numerous cities.
Download or read book Urban Space in Contemporary Egyptian Literature written by M. Naaman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of how the space of the downtown served dual purposes as both a symbol of colonial influence and capital in Egypt, as well as a staging ground for the demonstrations of the Egyptian nationalist movement.
Download or read book Perspectives on Public Space in Rome from Antiquity to the Present Day written by Jan Gadeyne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides readers interested in urban history with a collection of essays on the evolution of public space in that paradigmatic western city which is Rome. Scholars specialized in different historical periods contributed chapters, in order to find common themes which weave their way through one of the most complex urban histories of western civilization. Divided into five chronological sections (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern and Contemporary) the volume opens with the issue of how public space was defined in classical Roman law and how ancient city managers organized the maintenance of these spaces, before moving on to explore how this legacy was redefined and reinterpreted during the Middle Ages. The third group of essays examines how the imposition of papal order on feuding families during the Renaissance helped introduce a new urban plan which could satisfy both functional and symbolic needs. The fourth section shows how modern Rome continued to express strong interest in the control and management of public space, the definition of which was necessarily selective in this vastly extensive city. The collection ends with an essay on the contemporary debate for revitalizing Rome's eastern periphery. Through this long-term chronological approach the volume offers a truly unique insight into the urban development of one of Europe’s most important cities, and concludes with a discuss of the challenges public space faces today after having served for so many centuries as a driving force in urban history.
Download or read book Housing Inequality in Chinese Cities written by Youqin Huang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-03-05 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, Chinese cities have experienced profound social, economic and spatial transformations. In particular, Chinese cities have witnessed the largest housing boom in history and unprecedented housing privatization. China now is a country of homeowners, with more than 70 per cent of urban residents owning homes, higher than many developed countries. This book shows how China’s spectacular housing success is not shared by all social groups, with rapidly rising housing inequality, and residential segregation increasingly prevalent in previously homogeneous Chinese cities. It focuses on the two extremes of the residential landscape, and reveals the stark contrast between low-income households who live in shacks in so-called ‘urban villages’ and the nouveaux riches who live in exclusive gated villa communities. Over four parts, the contributors look at the degree to which inequality affects Chinese cities, and the extent of residential differentiation; housing for the urban poor, and in particular, housing for migrants from rural China; housing for the rapidly expanding Chinese middle class and the new rich; and finally, governance in residential neighbourhoods. Housing Inequality in Chinese Cities presents theoretically informed and empirically grounded research into the polarized residential landscape in Chinese cities, and as such will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese studies, urban geography, urban sociology, and urban studies.
Download or read book Narrative Identity and Academic Community in Higher Education written by Brian Attebery and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grounded in narrative theory, this book offers a case study of a liberal arts college’s use of narrative to help build identity, community, and collaboration within the college faculty across a range of disciplines, including history, psychology, sociology, theatre and dance, literature, anthropology, and communication. Exploring issues of methodology and their practical application, this narrative project speaks to the construction of identity for the liberal arts in today’s higher education climate. Narrative, Identity, and Academic Community focuses on the ways a cross-disciplinary emphasis on narrative can impact institutions in North America and contribute to the discussion of strategies to foster bottom-up, faculty-driven collaboration and innovation.
Download or read book Urban and Regional Development Trajectories in Contemporary Capitalism written by Flavia Martinelli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book re-evaluates a rich scientific heritage of space- and history-sensitive development theories and produces an integrated methodology for the comparative analysis of urban and regional trajectories within a globalized world. The main argument put forward is that current mainstream analyses of urban and regional development have forgotten this rich heritage and fail to address the connections between different dimensions of development, the role of history and the importance of place and scale relations. The proposed methodology integrates elements from different theories – radical economic geography, regulation approach, cultural political economy, old and new institutionalism – that all share a strong concern with time and space dynamics. They are recombined into an interdisciplinary (meta)theoretical framework, capable of articulating the overall problem of socio-economic development and providing methodological anchors for comparative case-study analysis, while recognizing context specificities. The analytical methodology focuses on key dynamics and relations, such as strategic agency and collective action, institutions and structures, culture and discourse, as well as the tension between path-dependency and path-shaping. The methodology is then applied to eight urban and regional cases, mostly from Western Europe, but also from the United States and China. The case studies confirm the relevance of time- and space-sensitive analysis, not only for understanding development trajectories, but also for policy making. They ultimately highlight that, while post-war institutions were able to address systemic contradictions and foster a relatively inclusive development model, the neoliberal turn has led to reductionist policies that not only have resulted in an increase in social and spatial inequalities, but have also undermined growth and democracy.
Download or read book Archaeology of Households Kinship and Social Change written by Lacey B. Carpenter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology of Households, Kinship, and Social Change offers new perspectives on the processes of social change from the standpoint of household archaeology. This volume develops new theoretical and methodological approaches to the archaeology of households pursuing three critical themes: household diversity in human residential communities with and without archaeologically identifiable houses, interactions within and between households that explicitly considers impacts of kin and non-kin relationships, and lastly change as a process that involves the choices made by members of households in the context of larger societal constraints. Encompassing these themes, authors explore the role of social ties and their material manifestations (within the house, dwelling, or other constructed space), how the household relates to other social units, how households consolidate power and control over resources, and how these changes manifest at multiple scales. The case studies presented in this volume have broader implications for understanding the drivers of change, the ways households create the contexts for change, and how households serve as spaces for invention, reaction, and/or resistance. Understanding the nature of relationships within households is necessary for a more complete understanding of communities and regions as these ties are vital to explaining how and why societies change. Taking a comparative outlook, with case studies from around the world, this volume will inform students and professionals researching household archaeology and be of interest to other disciplines concerned with the relationship between social networks and societal change.
Download or read book Modernism written by Astradur Eysteinsson and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2007-10-04 with total page 1059 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two-volume work Modernism has been awarded the prestigious 2008 MSA Book Prize! Modernism has constituted one of the most prominent fields of literary studies for decades. While it was perhaps temporarily overshadowed by postmodernism, recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in modernism on both sides of the Atlantic. These volumes respond to a need for a collective and multifarious view of literary modernism in various genres, locations, and languages. Asking and responding to a wealth of theoretical, aesthetic, and historical questions, 65 scholars from several countries test the usefulness of the concept of modernism as they probe a variety of contexts, from individual texts to national literatures, from specific critical issues to broad cross-cultural concerns. While the chief emphasis of these volumes is on literary modernism, literature is seen as entering into diverse cultural and social contexts. These range from inter-art conjunctions to philosophical, environmental, urban, and political domains, including issues of race and space, gender and fashion, popular culture and trauma, science and exile, all of which have an urgent bearing on the poetics of modernity.
Download or read book Transdisciplinary Urbanism and Culture written by Quazi Mahtab Zaman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-07-07 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a collection of critical, multi-disciplinary essays on urban research by established and early career researchers who participated in the 9th Annual AHRA (Architectural Humanities Research Association) Research Student Symposium. The symposium was held at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment, Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen from Saturday 19th May to Sunday 20th May 2012. The authors highlight contemporary research issues in urban development in search of new and fresh approaches that reflect the changing principles and praxis of urban conditions. The common ambition is to create new lines of knowledge in urban research. Due to socio-economic, political and technological changes to urban production and patterns of consumption, and a drive for inter-, cross-, multi- and transdisciplinary practice, the essays also reflect the ideological shift currently underway in academic faculties and external research organisations.
Download or read book Animate d Architecture written by Vahid Vahdat and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2024-03-25 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At their peak, architectural marvels such as the Sagrada Família, the Tower of London, the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, and the Eiffel tower, had a combined annual visit of almost 16.4 million people. The animated icebound castle in Disney’s (2019) Frozen had 116.4 million views, from one single YouTube trailer, in less than 24 hours. The spaces of such massively consumed animation have for generations informed the architectural imagination of people across the globe and from very early in their lives. Yet, not only have the architectural disciplines remained rather absent in the design of these massively consumed spaces, architectural theory has likewise failed to articulate a framework to approach the architecture of animation. To address this void, this book offers an interdisciplinary approach to survey the role of space in animation, including in creating humorous moments in early cartoon shorts, generating action and suspense in Japanese anime, and even stimulating erotic pleasure in pornographic Hentai. Exploring the imagined architecture of animation, from early motion picture to digital animation and from computer graphics to game engines, offers an analytical frame to reconceptualize space.
Download or read book The Politics of Time and Youth in Brand India written by Jyotsna Kapur and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the heightened time-consciousness that has emerged since the 1990s in popular Indian discourses – across cinema, television, print and consumer culture – and argues that these anxieties concerning time are symptomatic of the struggle between labor and capital. Drawing on critical theory, cinema and media studies and Marxist-feminist concepts, Kapur shows how the recent political-economic shift in India toward neoliberalism has been accompanied by a new emphasis on youth and a preoccupation with change, novelty and the acceleration of time, with profound consequences for conceptions of time, youth and the relations between generations.
Download or read book Postmodern Geographies written by Edward W. Soja and published by Verso. This book was released on 1989 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by one of America's foremost geographers, Postmodern Geographies contests the tendency, still dominant in most social science, to reduce human geography to a reflective mirror, or, as Marx called it, an "unnecessary complication." Beginning with a powerful critique of historicism and its constraining effects on the geographical imagination, Edward Soja builds on the work of Foucault, Berger, Giddens, Berman, Jameson and, above all, Henri Lefebvre, to argue for a historical and geographical materialism, a radical rethinking of the dialectics of space, time and social being. Soja charts the respatialization of social theory from the still unfolding encounter between Western Marxism and modern geography, through the current debates on the emergence of a postfordist regime of "flexible accumulation." The postmodern geography of Los Angeles, exposed in a provocative pair of essays, serves as a model in his account of the contemporary struggle for control over the social production of space.
Download or read book The Exploitations of Medieval Romance written by Laura Ashe and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 2010 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As one of the most important, influential and capacious genres of the middle ages, the romance was exploited for a variety of social and cultural reasons: to celebrate and justify war and conflict, chivalric ideologies, and national, local and regional identities; to rationalize contemporary power structures, and identify the present with the legendary past; to align individual desires and aspirations with social virtues. But the romance in turn exploited available figures of value, appropriating the tropes and strategies of religious and historical writing, and cannibalizing and recreating its own materials for heightened ideological effect. The essays in this volume consider individual romances, groups of writings and the genre more widely, elucidating a variety of exploitative manoeuvres in terms of text, context, and intertext. Contributors: Neil Cartlidge, Ivana Djordjevic, Judith Weiss, Melissa Furrow, Rosalind Field, Diane Vincent, Corinne Saunders, Arlyn Diamond, Anna Caughey, Laura Ashe
