Re-imagining Spaces and Places: Interdisciplinary Essays on the Relationship Between Identity, Space, and Place

Description

While 'space' and 'place' appear as key concepts in the study of culture, their complexity and mutability require ever-new frameworks when approaching them critically. Including chapters by authors from different fields, career stages, and geopolitical backgrounds, the contributors in this edited collection scrutinize the changing dynamics of space and place in relation to current political, social, and environmental urgencies across the globe. With chapters investigating both real and imaginary spaces and places, the diversified discussions included in this collection provide a cohesive study for disclosing latent understandings of multiple phenomena characterizing the world in which we live. From the protests in Egyptian and Turkish squares, to the power-related narratives embedded in institutional buildings, from the development of the commercial arena in Victorian and Edwardian London, to the effects of current environmental concerns on the evaluation of urban and rural locations, the volume ultimately serves as a progressive connection of fields, minds, and outlooks through an innovative, pluralistic vision. This interdisciplinary focus not only emphasizes the centrality of spaces and places when disentangling the complexities comprising our past and present, but also suggests a more pluralistic approach for exploring fundamental concepts in future spaces and places studies. Table of Contents About the Contributors Preface Acknowledgments Introduction • Stefano Rozzoni, Beitske Boonstra and Teresa Cutler-Broyles 1 How Public Participation Can Lead to the Placemaking of Space and Resilience of Place • Nakul Nitin Gote and Wolfgang Wende 2 Al-Tahrir Square, Cairo during 2011, from Undefined Space to Interactive Place • Khaled I. Nabil 3 Imprisonment of Public Space • Esra Akbalık 4 Kuwait National Assembly Building: The Holy Assembly • Anas Alomaim and Dana Alhasan 5 Place before Form, People before Profit: Reclaiming Venues of Art and Culture in the Midst of Tourism-Centred Reimaging of Cities • Sami Chohan 6 Power, Cosmopolitanism, and Socio-Spatial Division in the Commercial Arena in Victorian and Edwardian London • Elisabete Mendes Silva 7 “A Place Perfectly Accordant with Man’s Nature”: Violent Spaces in the Fiction of Thomas Hardy • Olivia Krauze 8 Rising Cittagna(s): A Dialogue between Literature and Urbanism in Contemporary (Post-)Pastoral Cityscapes • Stefano Rozzoni 9 Rewilding My Garden and Community Activities • Angela Specht Conclusion • Stefano Rozzoni, Beitske Boonstra and Teresa Cutler-Broyles Index