Some cities have grown into mega cities and some into uncontrolled sprawl; others have seen their centres decline with populations moving to the suburbs. In such times, questions of the public realm and public space in cities warrant even greater attention than they have previously received.
Investigating ordinary spaces in the city where power operates more subtly and differences are negotiated, Sophie Watson uses a number of different ethnographies of public spaces, materializing some of the theories of the urban public realm to see how difference is played out and negotiated in the...

Some cities have grown into mega cities and some into uncontrolled sprawl; others have seen their centres decline with populations moving to the suburbs. In such times, questions of the public realm and public space in cities warrant even greater attention than they have previously received.
Investigating ordinary spaces in the city where power operates more subtly and differences are negotiated, Sophie Watson uses a number of different ethnographies of public spaces, materializing some of the theories of the urban public realm to see how difference is played out and negotiated in the...

Exploring the connections between globalization and urbanization, this notable book places particular emphasis on understanding the economic function of global cities, the political process of globalizing cities, and the cultural significance of cosmopolitan cities.

The book explores the meaning of the globalizing project in cities:

• the maintaining, securing and increasing of urban economic competitiveness in a global world
• the reimagining of the city
• the rewriting of the city for both internal and external audiences
• the construction of new...