Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Questioning urban modernity
AU - Dibazar, Pedram
AU - Lindner, Christoph
AU - Meissner, Miriam
AU - Naeff, Judith
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - This article examines the place and significance of urban modernity as a concept in contemporary urban studies. It draws on postcolonial theory to demonstrate that the relation between the city and modernity developed within the western tradition of urban thinking has produced a geographically and historically uneven conceptualisation of urban modernity. This conceptualisation not only involves dynamics of othering, in which cities are differentiated hierarchically, but also obscures a vast array of possible understandings of contemporary urban living. The aim of this article is to question this way of thinking about urban modernity in light of globalisation and 21st-century transformations of urban space. It argues that it is crucial, now more than ever, to render the concept of urban modernity attentive to the lived experience of contemporary cities worldwide.
AB - This article examines the place and significance of urban modernity as a concept in contemporary urban studies. It draws on postcolonial theory to demonstrate that the relation between the city and modernity developed within the western tradition of urban thinking has produced a geographically and historically uneven conceptualisation of urban modernity. This conceptualisation not only involves dynamics of othering, in which cities are differentiated hierarchically, but also obscures a vast array of possible understandings of contemporary urban living. The aim of this article is to question this way of thinking about urban modernity in light of globalisation and 21st-century transformations of urban space. It argues that it is crucial, now more than ever, to render the concept of urban modernity attentive to the lived experience of contemporary cities worldwide.
KW - cities
KW - globalisation
KW - modernity
KW - postcolonial theory
KW - urban studies
U2 - 10.1177/1367549413497695
DO - 10.1177/1367549413497695
M3 - Journal article
VL - 16
SP - 643
EP - 658
JO - European Journal of Cultural Studies
JF - European Journal of Cultural Studies
SN - 1367-5494
IS - 6
ER -