ABSTRACT

Bringing together leading urban scholars, this book discusses the linkages between the economic, social and psychological factors of the urban environment. It focuses on the growth of private urbanity that has led to a 'spectactularization' of the city, the most extreme component of attention being the fascination which is aroused by attractions and state-managed events. The complex characteristics of this fascination are examined under the dimensions of aesthetics, emotions, lived experiences and power structures and governance. The interdisciplinary nature of this collection has wide international appeal and will be of interest to academics of social and cultural geography and cultural and media studies.

chapter 1|14 pages

Cities and Fascination: Beyond the Surplus of Meaning

ByHeiko Schmid, Wolf-Dietrich Sahr, John Urry

part |2 pages

Part I: Revealing Fascination: Theoretical Horizons

chapter 2|16 pages

The Urban Question after Modernity

ByMichael Dear

chapter 3|16 pages

The City is Back (in Our Minds)

ByJacques Lévy

chapter 5|18 pages

Aesthetics and Design: Perceptions in the Postmodern Periphery

ByLudger Basten

part |2 pages

Part II: Focusing Fascination: Crossing Theoretical and Empirical Perpectives

part |2 pages

Part IV: Consequences of Fascination: New Horizons

chapter 12|16 pages

Excess, Fascination and Climates

ByJohn Urry