1st Edition
Hyper City The Symbols Side of Urbanism
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.
1. Urban symbolic ecology and the hypercity: State of the art and challenges for the future 2. ‘Megaproyecto El Barranco’ in Cuenca, Ecuador: Architects and their role in local representations 3. The Italian skyline: Family towers as elements in urban symbolism 4. Looking back, forward or up? Urban symbolism and the politics of race in Jamaica’s Redemption Song 5. Power of remembrance, supremacy of oblivion: History of the ‘National Monuments’ in Ljubljana 6. Sign of the times: Symbolic change around Indonesian independence 7. Under the tablecloth: Exploring symbolism in central Cape Town 8. The contra-dance: Rapping and the art of symbolic resistance in the Parisian banlieue 9. Selling the city: Representations of a transitional urban community 10. Brussels as a symbol: Controversial images of the capital of Europe 11. The use of symbols in city marketing: The case of Delft
Biography
Peter J. M. Nas is an urban anthropologist and Professor in the Socio-cultural Aspects of the Built Environment in Indonesia at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Annemarie Samuels is an MA student in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, The Netherlands.
