Urban spaces became battlefields, signifiers have been invaded, new structures have been established: Netculture replaced counterculture in most parts and also focused on the everchanging environments of the modern city. Important questions have been brought up to date and reasked, taking current positions and discourses into account. The major question still remains, namely how to create culturally based resistance under the influence of capitalistic pressure and conservative politics. This collection of essays and contributions attempts to address this question and its implications for...

What aesthetic structures, representational codes, and conventions are at play in transitory Egypt? Which are broken? How is democracy envisioned? How did January 25 change the relationship between citizens, public space, and visual expression? What politics are at play when history manifests as image?

Cairo: Images of Transition offers a broad range of artistic and academic works that examine the relationship between aesthetics and politics in the wake of the Egyptian revolution of January 25, 2011. With an emphasis on the political processes of 2011-2012, we trace the shifting...

The Berlin Reader is an essential resource for anyone interested in urban development in one of the most interesting and important metropolises in Europe. It provides scholars, students, journalists, and visitors with a survey of essential discussions on the changes Berlin has experienced since the fall of the wall. It addresses inner city renewal, housing and the local economy, and gentrification and other urban conflicts. The anthology breaks new ground by offering non-German speakers insight into reunification's controversial debates and by addressing the mixed results of Berlin's...

This volume investigates the "cool city" phenomenon with an empirical focus on Istanbul. It approaches "cool Istanbul" not only as a consumable brand but also as a socially produced and politically performed phenomenon. The essays in the volume draw attention to the significance of thinking production, consumption, and performance of cities in relation to their imagination and trigger critical questions beyond disciplinary academic boundaries.

Media and public discourses often consider Vienna as a cultural city. This study of Vienna's recent planning practice and discourses shows how this perception is skilfully shaped by political constructions of cultural imaginaries in and of the city. The book unveils how simplistic cognitive interpretations of culture not only define an unquestioned, reductionist idea of the city's cultural character - it also explains how they influence the recent urban development practice in one of Europe's globalizing cities.