City Imaging: Regeneration, Renewal and Decay

This book examines the paradoxes, challenges, potential and problems of urban living. It understands cities as they are, rather than as they may be marketed or branded. All cities have much in common, yet the differences are important. They form the basis of both imaginative policy development and productive experiences of urban life.

The phrase 'city imaging' is often used in public discourse, but rarely defined. It refers to the ways that particular cities are branded and marketed. It is based on the assumption that urban representations can be transformed to develop tourism and attract businesses and in-demand workers to one city in preference to another. However, such a strategy is imprecise. History, subjectivity, bias and prejudice are difficult to temper to the needs of either economic development or social justice.

The taste, smell, sounds and architecture of a place all combine to construct the image of a city. For researchers, policy makers, activists and citizens, the challenge is to use or transform this image. The objective of this book is to help the reader define, understand and apply this process.

After a war on terror, a credit crunch and a recession, cities still do matter. Even as the de-territorialization of the worldwide web enables the free flow of money, music and ideas across national borders, cities remain important. City Imaging: Regeneration, Renewal, Decay surveys the iconography of urbanity and explores what happens when branding is emphasized over living.

Inhalt

Introduction: Sliced Cities: Tara Brabazon.- Section One - Disconnection: 1: Glasgow the brand: Whose story is it anyway?: Mhairi Lennon.- 2: My state had a mining boom and all I got was this lousy train-line: Leanne McRae.- 3: Swan Valley Sideways: Economic development through taste and tourism in Western Australia: Tara Brabazon.- 4: The Atrium: a convergence of education, leisure and consumption: Danny Hagan.- 5: Culture of car parks or car parking cultures?: Zuzana Blazeckova.- 6: Sticky Brighton: Dog Excrement in Brighton and Hove public areas: Ana Kvalheim.- 7: Hacking the City: Disability and access in cities made of software: David Cake and Mike Kent.- 8: Security and the City: The CHOGM Lockdown: Leanne McRae.- 9: Luanda: Running on the wrong track towards global acceptance: Boniswa Vaz Contreires.- Fado: Faracy Grouse.- Section Two - Intervention: 10: When Bohemia becomes a business: City Lights, Columbus Avenue and the future of San Francisco: Tara Brabazon.- 11: Working the crowds: street performances in public spaces: Andrew Carlin.- 12: Third tier rave towns: The orbit in Morley: Nick Dunn.- 13: Beats by the Bay: Sixties San Francisco music and the development of a Contemporary Tourism Industry: Nadine Caouette.- 14: Brighton Sound? Cities, music and distinctiveness: Abigail Edwards.- 15: Makkah Al-Mukaaramah: A Second Tier City for Religious Tourism: Saeed Al Amoudy.- 16: Unseen Napa: QR codes as virtual portals: Mick Winter.- 17: Osaka in and out of the Nation: Neoliberal Spatial Gestures for the Globally Competitive City-Region: Joel Matthews.- 18: Brand Wellington: When city imaging is GLAM'ed: Tara Brabazon.- Conclusion: Imaging injustice: Tara Brabazon.