Practices in the arts have changed radically over the past two decades, as have the social and economic contexts in which the arts are produced. This book asks how arts education - particularly in the visual arts - has changed to meet new needs or shape new futures for its production and reception.

Using a range of critical perspectives, Miles examines the practice of art for urban public spaces, and questions the effectiveness of public art in achieving more convivial urban environments.

Cities and Cultures is a critical account of the relations between contemporary cities and the cultures they produce and which in turn shape them. The book questions received ideas of what constitutes a city's culture through case studies in which different kinds of culture - the arts, cultural institutions and heritage, distinctive ways of life - are seen to be differently used in or affected by the development of particular cities. The book does not mask the complexity of this, but explains it in ways accessible for undergraduates.

The book begins with...

When capitalism is clearly catastrophically out of control and its excesses cannot be sustained socially or ecologically, the ideas of Herbert Marcuse become as relevant as they were in the 1960s. This is the first English introduction to Marcuse to be published for decades, and deals specifically with his aesthetic theories and their relation to a critical theory of society.
Although Marcuse is best known as a critic of consumer society, epitomised in the classic "One-Dimensional Man," Malcolm Miles provides an insight into how Marcuse's aesthetic theories evolved within his broader...