Cityscapes of Modernity
Critical Explorations
1. Edition November 2001
392 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
The modern metropolis has been one of the crucial sites for the
exploration of modernity since at least the mid-nineteenth century.
In this new volume, David Frisby provides an original and critical
examination of the construction and experience of metropolitan
modernity.
Drawing on a rich variety of sources, Frisby seeks to reveal
some key features of metropolitan experience in modernity. Among
the issues examined are Benjamin's account of the flâneur and
its relevance for social investigation and urban detection;
Simmel's influential essay on the metropolis; contrasting
interpretations of fin-de-siècle Berlin and Vienna by Sombart;
the work of Otto Wagner; and the response to the modern metropolis
as highlighted in German Expressionism and Weimar Berlin.
Cityscapes of Modernity will be a valuable text for
students of sociology, social theory, urban theory, cultural
studies and architectural history, as well as all those interested
in the urban culture of modernity.
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
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.