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Cities are full of symbols that bear the meanings that together constitute urban culture. These interdisciplinary case studies, from Yogyakarta to Leiden and from Buenos Aires to New York, employ urban symbolism theory and a focus on such symbols as the city's layout, statues, street names and popular culture. This book examines design proposals that show symbolic handling of the 9/11 attack on New York, the disaster symbolism of the ship washed ashore by the tsunami in Banda Aceh, and the design of the symbol of the city of Cape Town derived from a remnant of Dutch colonial architecture, or the mass pilgrimage to Elvis's Graceland in Memphis. 'Cities Full of Symbols' develops urban symbolic ecology and hypercity approaches into a new perspective on social cohesion. Approaches of architects, anthropologists, sociologists, social geographers and historians converge to make this a book for anyone interested in urban life, policymaking and city branding.--Cover.
This volume consists of twenty articles on the symbols and images of Third World cities, such as Jakarta, Padang, Bangkok, Beijing, Baghdad, Kathmandu, Lucknow, Francistown, Vitoria and Buenos Aires. It provides fascinating new information on a neglected phenomenon in urban studies.
Reflections on architecture and the exchange of information in the spaces and places of the city, from the necessity of skyscrapers in an age of Web sites to cities as talent magnets, from architectural bling to the neo-minimalism of the new MoMA. The meaning of a message, says William Mitchell, depends on the context of its reception. "Shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater produces a dramatically different effect from barking the same word to a squad of soldiers with guns," he observes. In Placing Words, Mitchell looks at the ways in which urban spaces and places provide settings for communication and at how they conduct complex flows of information through the twenty-first century city. Cities participate in the production of meaning by providing places populated with objects for words to refer to. Inscriptions on these objects (labels, billboards, newspapers, graffiti) provide another layer of meaning. And today, the flow of digital information -- from one device to another in the urban scene -- creates a digital network that also exists in physical space. Placing Words examines this emerging system of spaces, flows, and practices in a series of short essays -- snapshots of the city in the twenty-first century. Mitchell questions the necessity of flashy downtown office towers in an age of corporate Web sites. He casts the shocked-and-awed Baghdad as a contemporary Guernica. He describes architectural makeovers throughout history, listing Le Corbusier's Fab Five Points of difference between new and old architecture, and he discusses the architecture of Manolo Blahniks. He pens an open letter to the Secretary of Defense recommending architectural features to include in torture chambers. He compares Baudelaire, the Parisian flaneur, to Spiderman, the Manhattan traceur. He describes the iPod-like galleries of the renovated MoMA and he recognizes the camera phone as the latest step in a process of image mobilization that began when artists stopped painting on walls and began making pictures on small pieces of wood, canvas, or paper. The endless flow of information, he makes clear, is not only more pervasive and efficient than ever, it is also generating new cultural complexities.
First published in 2006. Cities are sites of multiple meanings and symbols, ranging from statues and street names to festivals and architecture. Some­ times the symbolic side of urbanism is so strong that it outshines reality - then we speak of hypercity. Urban symbolic ecology and hypercity studies are relatively new fields that deal with the production, distribution and consumption of symbols and meanings in urban space, timely concerns in an era of increasing globalization and competition between mega-urban regions. This volume presents a detailed introduction to the new fields, followed by case studies of the cultural layer of symbolism in Brussels (Belgium), Cape Town (South Africa), Cuenca (Ecuador), Delft (The Netherlands), Kingston (Jamaica), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Paris (France) and cities in Italy and Indonesia. It amply demonstrates that the time has come for urban symbolic ecology and hypercity studies to be included in regular urban studies training in the fields of anthropology, sociology, social geography and architecture.
Why are cities centers of power? A sociological analysis of urban politics In this brilliant, very original survey of the politics and meanings of urban landscapes, leading sociologist Göran Therborn offers a tour of the world’s major capital cities, showing how they have been shaped by national, popular, and global forces. Their stories begin with the emergence of various kinds of nation-state, each with its own special capital city problematic. In turn, radical shifts of power have impacted on these cities’ development, in popular urban reforms or movements of protest and resistance; in the rise and fall of fascism and military dictatorships; and the coming and going of Communism. Therborn also analyzes global moments of urban formation, of historical globalized nationalism, as well as the cities of current global image capitalism and their variations of skyscraping, gating, and displays of novelty. Through a global, historical lens, and with a thematic range extending from the mutations of modernist architecture to the contemporary return of urban revolutions, Therborn questions received assumptions about the source, manifestations, and reach of urban power, combining perspectives on politics, sociology, urban planning, architecture, and urban iconography. He argues that, at a time when they seem to be moving apart, there is a strong link between the city and the nation-state, and that the current globalization of cities is largely driven by the global aspirations of politicians as well as those of national and local capital. With its unique systematic overview, from Washington, D.C. and revolutionary Paris to the flamboyant twenty- first-century capital Astana in Kazakhstan, its wealth of urban observations from all the populated continents, and its sharp and multi-faceted analyses, Cities of Power forces us to rethink our urban future, as well as our historically shaped present.
Just as maps help us find our way around unfamiliar places, keys and legends help us navigate unfamiliar maps. This helpful volume uses clear, easy-to-follow text to teach kids how to use a map’s legend or key to figure out what the symbols on it mean. It presents commonly used symbols, such as the stars showing capital cities. The book also explains how certain types of maps, such as USGS topographic maps, employ standardized sets of symbols.
The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.
"The Guide to Imagery series introduces readers to important visual vocabulary of Western art."--Back cover.
From ancient Persia to the Third Reich, imperial powers have built cities in their image, seeking to reflect their power and influence through a show of magnificence and a reflection of their values. Statues, pictures, temples, palaces—all combine to produce the necessary justification for the wielding of power while intimidating opponents. In Power in Stone, Geoffrey Parker traces the very nature of power through history by exploring the structural symbolism of these cities. Traveling from Persepolis to Constantinople, Saint Petersburg to Beijing and Delhi, Parker considers how these structures and monuments were brought together to make the most powerful statement and how that power was wielded to the greatest advantage. He examines imperial leaders, their architects, and their engineers to create a new understanding of the relationship among buildings, design, and power. He concludes with a look at the changing nature of power in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the way this is reflected symbolically in contemporary buildings and urban plans. With illuminating images, Power in Stone is a fascinating history of some of the world’s most intriguing cities, past and present.