Description
Book Synopsis* A sophisticated account of the work of key German thinkers, including Benjamin and Simmel, and their writings about the city. * Will have a wide--ranging approach, appealing to students and scholars of social theory but also urban studies and architecture. * Features 15 illustrations.
Trade Review"This book by David Frisby has his characteristic hallmarks: it is meticulously well researched and it makes unexpected and exciting connections between bodies of thought not commonly linked together. Indeed the playing off of social theory and architectural theory is one of its distinctive contributions. His various asides, for instance his interest in detective stories, or on expressionism, are always provocative and interesting. A book to be celebrated."
Mike Savage, University of Manchester ‘A wonderfully incisive dissection of new configurations of "cities" in the contemporary world' John Urry, Lancaster University
"The collection as a whole offers empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated contextual readings of major sociologists' reflections on urban life....In Frisby's hands, spatial dynamics become an indispensable component of sociological theory." Environment and Planning
"the collection as a whole offers empirically rich and theoriectically sophisticated contextual readings of major sociologists' reflections on urban life. In Frisby's hands, spatial dynamics become an indipensable component of sociological theory". Thomas Lekan, Department of History, University of South Carolina.
Table of ContentsIllustrations.
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
Chapter 1: The City Observed: The Flâneur in Social Theory.
Chapter 2 : The City Detected: Representations and Realities of Detection.
Chapter 3: The City Interpreted: Georg Simmel's Metropolis.
Chapter 4: The City Compared: Vienna is not Berlin.
Chapter 5: The City Designed: Otto Wagner and Vienna.
Chapter 6: The City Dissolved: Social Theory, the Metropolis and Expressionism.
Chapter 7: The City Rationalized: Martin Wagner's New Berlin.
Conclusion.
Notes.
Bibliography.
Index
