Sensing cities : regenerating public life in Barcelona and Manchester
by Monica Montserrat Degen
- London: Routledge/ T & F, 2008.
- xiv,: 225 p.
- Routledge studies in human geography. .
Formerly CIP. Collection subset: Social Welfare Bibliography note: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Introduction: sensing cities -- Urban redevelopment, the senses and public life -- Researching the senses -- Overview of the book -- Public life in late modernity -- Space as social process -- Sensing publicness -- A new urban aesthetic -- Commercial privatisation and fortification of urban space -- Sensing the city -- Towards a "socially embedded aesthetics" -- The city of senses -- Place gestures -- Methodological discussion: rhythmanalysis -- Sensuous powers -- Flows of power -- Control through pleasure -- Domination and resistance -- Sensuous planning ideologies -- Castlefield and El Raval -- A sensuous history -- Castlefield: from industrial revolution to inner city cool -- El Raval: from "Barrio Chino" to cultural quarter -- Planning regeneration -- The spatialization of regeneration -- Formalising public life in Castlefield -- Diluting public life in El Raval -- Perceptions from "down below" -- Castlefield: exclusive public spaces -- El Raval: invisible public spaces -- Castlefield: promoting selective histories -- El Raval: disrupting social life -- Living in regenerated worlds -- Rhythms of everyday life -- Sensuous mappings -- Castlefield's "taste wars" -- El Raval's "place wars" -- Conclusion: regenerating public life? -- Bibliography.
This book identifies an important aspect in the analysis of urban change in the late twentieth century by highlighting the significance of the senses in the constitution of urban life.