Space, the City and Social Theory
Space, the City and Social Theory

Author: Fran Tonkiss

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780745628264

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Space, the City and Social Theory offers a clear and critical account of key approaches to cities and urban space within social theory and analysis. It explores the relation of the social and the spatial in the context of critical urban themes: community and anonymity; social difference and spatial divisions; politics and public space; gentrification and urban renewal; gender and sexuality; subjectivity and space; experience and everyday practice in the city. The text adopts an international and interdisciplinary approach, drawing on a range of debates on cities and urban life. It brings together classic perspectives in urban sociology and social theory with the analysis of contemporary urban problems and issues. Rather than viewing the urban simply as a backdrop for more general social processes, the discussion looks at how social and spatial relations shape different versions of the city: as a place of social interaction and of solitude; as a site of difference and segregation; as a space of politics and power; as a landscape of economic and cultural distinction; as a realm of everyday experience and freedom. Similarly, it examines how core social categories - such as class, culture, gender, sexuality and community - are shaped and reproduced in urban contexts. Linking debates in urban studies to wider concerns within social theory and analysis, this accessible text will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students in urban sociology, social and cultural geography, urban and cultural studies.

Space, the City and Social Theory
Space, the City and Social Theory

Author: Fran Tonkiss

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0745628257

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Taking a thematic approach, this book covers the main aspects of modern urban life taught on undergraduate courses. The key approaches to the city within contemporary social theory are assessed. Tonkiss adopts an international perspective, with examples drawn from places such as New York, Paris and Sydney.

Space and Social Theory
Space and Social Theory

Author: Andrzej J L Zieleniec

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2007-10-29

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1848606125

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The importance of the spatial dimension of the structure, organization and experience of social relations is fundamental for sociological analysis and understanding. Space and Social Theory is an essential primer on the theories of space and inherent spatiality, guiding readers through the contributions of key and influential theorists: Marx, Simmel, Lefebvre, Harvey and Foucault. Giving an essential and accessible overview of social theories of space, this books shows why it matters to understand these theorists spatially. It will be of interest to upper level students and researchers of social theory, urban sociology, urban studies, human geography, and urban politics.

Postmodern Geographies
Postmodern Geographies

Author: Edward W. Soja

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780860919360

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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.

The Sociology of Space
The Sociology of Space

Author: Martina Löw

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-09-09

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1349695688

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In this book, the author develops a relational concept of space that encompasses social structure, the material world of objects and bodies, and the symbolic dimension of the social world. Löw’s guiding principle is the assumption that space emerges in the interplay between objects, structures and actions. Based on a critical discussion of classic theories of space, Löw develops a new dynamic theory of space that accounts for the relational context in which space is constituted. This innovative view on the interdependency of material, social, and symbolic dimensions of space also permits a new perspective on architecture and urban development.

Cities by Design
Cities by Design

Author: Fran Tonkiss

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-01-21

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0745680291

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Who makes our cities, and what part do everyday users have in the design of cities? This book powerfully shows that city-making is a social process and examines the close relationship between the social and physical shaping of urban environments. With cities taking a growing share of the global population, urban forms and urban experience are crucial for understanding social injustice, economic inequality and environmental challenges. Current processes of urbanization too often contribute to intensifying these problems; cities, likewise, will be central to the solutions to such problems. Focusing on a range of cities in developed and developing contexts, Cities by Design highlights major aspects of contemporary urbanization: urban growth, density and sustainability; inequality, segregation and diversity; informality, environment and infrastructure. Offering keen insights into how the shaping of our cities is shaping our lives, Cities by Design provides a critical exploration of key issues and debates that will be invaluable to students and scholars in sociology and geography, environmental and urban studies, architecture, urban design and planning.

Cities, Space and Power
Cities, Space and Power

Author: Amira Osman

Publisher: AOSIS

Published: 2020-12-31

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 192852365X

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The scholarly purpose of this manuscript is to provide a resource for academics and researchers looking into cities, space and power in emerging economies. It also takes into consideration the relationship between emerging economies and developing contexts, as well as the lessons that may be shared between them. This book presents a unique perspective and aims to highlight issues not addressed much in writing on the built environment. Based on substantiation and references to numerous other sources and authors, alternative theoretical frameworks for the study of the built environment are developed. This is a very relevant contribution at this time, especially as cities will most probably go through transformations in the post-COVID-19 era. Our first line of defense against this public health crisis will be in areas of poverty, with people who have generally been excluded and urban practices that have been undocumented or labeled as informal. The main thesis of the manuscript is that space and power are strongly linked in cities. The research results prevalent in the book are original, and while the authors consult widely across disciplines, the themes are firmly rooted in the built environment fields – with a focus on the architectural discipline.

The Production of Space
The Production of Space

Author: Henri Lefebvre

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1992-04-08

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 9780631181774

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Henri Lefebvre has considerable claims to be the greatest living philosopher. His work spans some sixty years and includes original work on a diverse range of subjects, from dialectical materialism to architecture, urbanism and the experience of everyday life. The Production of Space is his major philosophical work and its translation has been long awaited by scholars in many different fields. The book is a search for a reconciliation between mental space (the space of the philosophers) and real space (the physical and social spheres in which we all live). In the course of his exploration, Henri Lefebvre moves from metaphysical and ideological considerations of the meaning of space to its experience in the everyday life of home and city. He seeks, in other words, to bridge the gap between the realms of theory and practice, between the mental and the social, and between philosophy and reality. In doing so, he ranges through art, literature, architecture and economics, and further provides a powerful antidote to the sterile and obfuscatory methods and theories characteristic of much recent continental philosophy. This is a work of great vision and incisiveness. It is also characterized by its author's wit and by anecdote, as well as by a deftness of style which Donald Nicholson-Smith's sensitive translation precisely captures.

Urban Social Theory
Urban Social Theory

Author: Michael Bounds

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13:

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This book provides a comprehensive coverage of urban social theory within the history of social thought. It's an accessible and comprehensive coverage of the major social theorists and schools.