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A critical geography of school choice illuminates how parental school choice reproduces unequal urban conditions. This paper contributes to this scholarship by arguing that the reproduction of urban spaces is reinforced by the ways the dominant urban imaginary shapes how youths imagine and organise their school options. I draw from the fields of critical geography, school choice, and sociology of moral panic to theorise how children's geographies are informed by the dominant urban imaginary and reconstituted reiteratively by moral anxiety. Through this lens, I analyse ethnographic data collected on school choice policy, along with interviews with 59 youth (ages 11–19) in Vancouver, Canada. My analysis demonstrates that the dominant forms of classed stigmatisation of marginalised urban schools are important to young people's rejection of those schools. My analysis also shows that moral panic and rising fears of violence underwrite the spatial patterns of youth participation in school choice.

I am explicating the neologism critical genetics as a site of curricular engagement for urban science students, acknowledging that schools and school systems are hierarchical structures that reflect a community’s social norms and practices. This critical and standards-based critical genetics curriculum interrogates and disrupts the deficit narratives for inner-city minority youth while helping students manifest skills that are crucial for college-bound science learners. I also explicate the curricular choices made in an attempt to help students participate in developing authentic counternarratives so that they could resist the racial determinism embedded in dominant narratives of school success.

The electric streetcar was a significant marker of modernity in Latin America, but its symbolic power rested as much in its ability to establish a presence in urban popular culture as it did in its contribution to technological change. By using the concept of the “urban imaginary” we can reveal the multifaceted and shifting role of the streetcar as a symbol of progress and a site of danger, destruction, and death in the public mind. In newspapers, comics, songs, poems, stories, and movies, the masses imagined the streetcar as central to the daily life of the city and used it to make meaning out of the chaos of the rapidly evolving modern city. Themes explored include the ordering of bodies, labor conflict, violence, the spectacle city, and the afterlife of the streetcar.

How do culture and sexuality jointly affect residential decision-making in the city? Sociologists have developed an extensive set of propositions about urban development and frameworks about sexual identities, but research seldom connects these scholarly streams. This chapter uses the queer-friendly residential logics of heterosexuals – why straight people say they want to live in a gay neighborhood – to theorize the city as a dense network of meanings in which residents negotiate their imaginations and material efforts at placemaking. A cultural sociology of the gayborhood emerges from this discussion, and it emphasizes the autonomy of culture in explanations of urban change, the relationship between culture and sexual inequality, and a practice of measurement that specifies the observable analytic units of culture.

The question that stands at the heart of this chapter is how the postmodern city is changing under the impact of globalization and new information and communication technologies. More specifically, the author asks how the postmodern city changes our ways of knowing and experiencing the world and ourselves as postmodern urban subjects and citizens of postmodernity. The chapter provides a discussion of the grid as both a central aspect of modern urban imaginaries and material urban spaces as well as considers the role of the grid at the interface between the city and cyberspace. In doing so, the author explores the grid as part of twentieth-century literary and artistic modernism and its replacement by the postmodern imaginary, with a particular focus on the relation between cityscapes and cyberspace.

‘Architectural Ghosts’ proposes architecture as a series of eleven speculative cities that function as characters engaged in a theatrical masque set in contemporary Rome, Italy. The project challenges traditional methods of architectural preservation and memory by presenting a new way to imagine history at the intersection of narrative and architecture. ‘Architectural Ghosts’ seeks to qualify experiences of architecture, performance and the social imaginary as catalyzed by the urban environment.

The theme of this investigation explores rememoration/commemoration and urban imaginary . This study is grounded on the theoretical domains of History and Anthropology and the dislocation of the notion of commemoration to the discourse analysis operation. Therefore, the two notions are defined separately. The rememoration, on the one hand, as a discourse of, which operates as inter-discourse and the operation of the pre-constructed, le gitimates and supports the commemoration. On the other hand, the commemoration as a discourse about is related to the present time. The rememoration/commemoration together constitute the intra-discourse the line of the subject s discourse as an effect of the interdiscourse about itself. The rememoration vertical axle has two operations: as memory and as founding text. We divided the discursive corpus based on memory place, notion developed by Nora (1984) and which in the discursive order is constituted, according to Courtine (2006), as a file system, a net of formulations from which return statements that update the speeches and knowledge of a discursive formation. The rememoration/commemoration is a place of memory of this discourse and is structured in four instances, represented by the urban institutions: the Érico Verissimo Foundation, which organizes the discursive memory and, determines what has to be observed and what has to be erased; the UNICRUZ (Foundation of Cruz Alta University); the municipal government, and the media. The urban imaginary refers to Cruz Alta, city located in the inland of Rio Grande do Sul state, which is represented in the inner and outer boundaries as Érico Verissimo s land . The writer is the object of rememoration/commemoration and constitutes himself as the object to (cause of willingness) and the object of willingness (the object of this willingness) and he materializes himself in the line of the discourse by the willingness subject perspective. Two questions support our reflection: the first one is How the object of rememoration/commemoration is constituted in urban space? And the second one: which memory s domains operate in this discourse? Our aim is to know how the discourse of rememoration/commemoration as discursive practice of an urban imaginary constitution is represented and institutionalized. The corpus of this file comprehends the period from 1969 to 2006. There from we set apart texts samples of discourse from the instances of delimitated place of memory. We analyzed a complex corpus, which is constituted of varied discursive materialities: documentaries (two), billboards, signs and advertisement, which are materialized in the line of discourse by verbal and non-verbal statements. The analyses show, briefly, the effort of the urban institutions of Cruz Alta in providing visibility to object of rememoration/commemoration: Érico Verissimo. O tema desta investigação é rememoração/comemoração e imaginário urbano . Buscamos sustentação nos domínios teóricos da História e da Antropologia e deslocamos a noção de comemoração para o funcionamento na análise discursiva. Refletimos acerca da rememoração e da comemoração, definindo as duas noções separadamente. A rememoração, de um lado, como o discurso de, que funciona como interdiscurso e que pelo funcionamento do pré-construído, legitima e sustenta a comemoração. E de outro, a comemoração como o discurso sobre a atualidade. A rememoração/comemoração, juntas, constituem o intradiscurso fio do discurso do sujeito - como efeito do interdiscurso sobre si mesmo. A rememoração eixo vertical tem dois funcionamentos: como memória e como texto fundante. Dividimos o corpus discursivo a partir dos procedimentos de fazer crer , de De Certeau (1994) e do lugar de memória, noção desenvolvida por Nora (1984) e que na ordem do discurso se constitui, de acordo com Courtine (2006), como um sistema de arquivo, uma rede de formulações a partir da qual retornam enunciados que atualizam os dizeres e saberes de uma FD. A rememoração/comemoração é o lugar de memória desse discurso e estrutura-se por quatro instituições da cidade: a Fundação Érico Verissimo, que organiza a memória discursiva e determina o que deve ser visibilizado e o que deve ser apagado; a Unicruz (Fundação Universidade de Cruz Alta); o Poder Público Municipal e a Mídia. O imaginário urbano de que tratamos é Cruz Alta, cidade do interior do Rio Grande do Sul, que se representa para dentro e para fora de seus limites como a terra de Érico Verissimo . O escritor é o objeto de rememoração/comemoração e se constitui como o objeto a (causa do desejo) e o objeto do desejo (o objeto desejado) e se materializa no fio do discurso pela perspectiva do sujeito desejante. Duas questões sustentam nossa reflexão: a primeira é Como o objeto de rememoração/comemoração se constitui no espaço urbano? E a segunda: Que domínios de memória funcionam nesse discurso? O corpus de arquivo abrange um espaço temporal que vai de 1969 a 2006. Dele recortamos textos exemplares do discurso a partir de lugares, que se constituem a partir do museu. Delimitamos quatro lugares: O museu, a Unicruz, o Poder Público Municipal e a Mídia. Trabalhamos com um corpus complexo, que se constitui de diferentes materialidades discursivas: documentário (dois), outdoors, placas e peças publicitárias que se materializam no fio do discurso por enunciados verbais e não-verbais. As análises apontaram o esforço de instituições urbanas de Cruz Alta em dar visibilidade ao objeto de rememoração/comemoração: Érico Verissimo.

Contemporary global challenges to the distribution and organization of mobilities require new ways of envisioning and imagining to bring forward the discussion about new policies. This paper explores the imaginary visioning by using earlier utopian thoughts and visions as ‘prisms' for the contemporary mobility debate in order to get closer to new imaginaries of technologies, complex systems and cultural change. The paper set out to identify key thoughts of utopian and critical urbanism (Harvey, Lefebvre, Friedman, Sandercock) and bridges those to contemporary critical scenario thinking (Dennis & Urry). However, in order to stimulate the imagination and visioning we want to engage with the earlier examples of what may be termed ‘techno utopian urbanism' of Archigram, Buckminster Fuller, and Cedric Price as well as the critical utopian practices of the ‘situationist' movement (and reaching further back to touch upon the legacy of Marinetti/Futurism and Le Corbusier). These ideas and visions, which at their time was considered extreme and far-fetched, are used as ‘prisms' for setting up the imaginary visioning of contemporary and future challenges to mobility within and between cities. The paper opens this up by presenting a few contemporary urban projects from the architectural company BIG. Representing the ‘wild contemporary' projects coming out of BIG are interesting examples of ‘utopian pragmatism' resisting seeing for example ‘sustainability' as loss of opportunities or lack of enjoyment. The paper thus aims to stimulate the envisioning of new cultures of mobilities, identities and engagements with the socio-technical systems of contemporary urbanism by searching backwards to the 1960's utopian urbanism and linking these to an example of the ‘wild contemporary'.

International audience

This paper explores how Computer Generated Images have enabled the visualisation and negotiation of a new urban imaginary, in the production of a large-scale urban development project in Doha, Qatar. CGIs were central not only to the marketing but also the design of Msheireb Downtown. Our study of their production and circulation across a transnational architectural and construction team reveals how their digital characteristics allowed for the development of a negotiated, hybrid urban imaginary, within the context of a re-imaging and re-positioning of cities in a shifting global order. We suggest that CGIs enabled the co-production of a postcolonial urban aesthetic, disrupting the historical orientalist gaze on the Gulf region, in three ways. Firstly, they circulate through a global network of actors negotiating diverse forms of knowledge from different contexts; secondly, they are composed from a mix of inter-referenced cultural sources and indicators visualising hybrid identities; and thirdly, they evoke a particular urban atmosphere which is both place- and culture-specific, and cosmopolitan. The study emphasises the importance of research into the technical and aesthetic production processes which generate new urban spaces in the context of global market-led growth; and, by considering the circulation of CGIs between sites, contributes to the development of ‘a more properly postcolonial studies’ (Robinson 2011: 17). The project was funded by a grant from the UK Economic and Social Research Council RES-062-23-3305.

Brasília - Capital Federal do Brasil - fez-se símbolo da modernização nacional alavancada nas décadas de 1950-1960; exprimiu uma catarse civilizadora através de sua morfologia urbanística arrojada e da demanda impositiva de integração territorial do país. Os veículos para concretização desse ideário (de progresso) foram a tecnoburocracia civil e militar, a classe política e as classes associadas. Porém, o imaginário fundador expresso pela nova cidade logo se viu defrontado por uma massa populacional não desejada em busca, também ela, das benesses do moderno e do civilizador. Gestou-se uma metrópole contraditória e fracionada na qual, a par de áreas afluentes e de alta renda, eclodiram territórios dos mais vulneráveis do país, no tocante à vida material-econômica. Este artigo investiga situações territoriais vulneráveis metropolitanas frente à valoração permanente do Plano Piloto de Brasília. Metodologicamente, são cruzados dados oficiais relativos à vulnerabilidade socioeconômica no Distrito Federal com o imaginário urbano apreendido dos testemunhos daqueles que experimentam, concretamente, o intenso cotidiano da metrópole: os residentes de três das mais vulneráveis Regiões Administrativas ou cidades satélites do DF (Varjão, Estrutural e Samambaia). ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Brasília – the Federal Capital of Brazil – was made a symbol of the national modernization pushed up in the 50‟s and 60‟s; expressed a civilizing catharsis through its dashing urban morphology and the compulsory demand of territorial integration for the country. The means for achieving this progress ideal were military and civil techno-bureaucracy, politicians and associated classes. However, the founding imaginary expressed by the new city was confronted by an undesired mass of people searching for the same benefits from the modern and the civilizing. It was created a contradictory and fragmented metropolis where in the midst of affluent areas erupted territories of the most vulnerable economical situation. This article investigates metropolitan vulnerable territorial situations vis a vis the permanent appreciation of Plano Piloto de Brasília. Methodologically the official data related to socio-economical vulnerability in Distrito Federal is crossed with the urban imaginary expressed by the testimonies from the ones who actually experience the intense day-by-day in the metropolis: the residents of the three most vulnerable Regiões Administrativas or satellite cities in DF (Varjão, Estrutural e Samambaia).

This article documents the recent production of City of Dreams, a theatre-installation work created in a transnational collaboration between UK and Vancouver artists, and which premiered at the 2011 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver. I draw on interviews conducted with cast members to assess the possibilities for constructing a poetic cartography of the city. I also consider the dilemmas and opportunities of representing public-private memory, and the uneasy ambiguity with which the project attempted to forge identification with a shared urban imaginary.

El enfoque de nuestra tesis se basa en comparar y determinar la percepción o imaginarios de la población de la ciudad de Bogotá en respuesta a las políticas públicas asumidas por los gobiernos distritales del ex alcalde Antanas Mockus (1995-1998) y Samuel Moreno (2008-2011). Este trabajo se desarrolló en tres momentos comparativos. 1. El análisis de las propuestas basado con base en el plan de desarrollo de cada una de las alcaldías a tratar. 2. La respuesta o acciones asumidas en cada alcaldía. 3. La percepción o Imaginarios Urbanos una vez finaliza el periodo de administración. Este trabajo investigativo se realizó en función de los conceptos políticos y sociales como ciudad, imaginarios urbanos, políticas Públicas, plan de desarrollo etc y así mismo se plantearon las respectivas conclusiones una vez comparadas las dos administraciones. la información necesaria para tal fin fue obtenida de fuentes primarias como la Secretaría Distrital de Planeación, la Contraloría de Bogotá, el Banco Interamericano, la organización "Bogotá Cómo Vamos" y autores destacados en el estudio tanto de la gestión asumida en cada administración como de los conceptos aquí tratados. The approach of our thesis is based on comparing and determining or imagined perception of the Bogota population in response to public policies undertaken by the district governments of former Mayor Antanas Mockus (1995-1998) and Samuel Moreno (2008- 2011). This monograph was developed in three comparative moments. 1. The analysis of the proposals based on the basis of the development plan of each of the municipalities to deal with. 2. The reply or actions taken in each municipality. 3. Urban Imaginary perception or after the administration period ends. This research work was conducted on the basis of political and social concepts such as: city, urban imaginary, public policy, development plan etc. and likewise the respective conclusions were raised once compared two administrations. the information necessary for this purpose was obtained from primary sources such as the District Planning Department, the Comptroller of Bogota, the IDB, the organization "Bogotá Cómo Vamos" and authors featured in the study of both management assumed in each administration and the concepts discussed here. Pregrado

According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association there are ∼75 million dogs living as companion animals in the country and ∼39% of all households include a dog. Because a significant population of dogs live in urban areas, there has been a growing interest in improving where and how dogs can inhabit city spaces. One result of this interest has been the rise of dog parks or off-leash dog areas – often inside of, or attached to, public parks. These dog parks, however, are not without controversy. At the heart of the controversy are two interrelated questions: (1) where and how do the needs of other species become incorporated into urban spaces? and (2) what is the place of dogs in the conceptual identity of urban residents? To answer these questions we used Kansas City, Missouri, as a case study because it is an urban area of ∼100,000 dogs (∼400,000 humans), one established dog park, and a recent political battle over establishing a second. We combine theoretical grounding in animal and urban geographies with data from a news media analysis, a small-scale resident survey, a content analysis of public comments, and interviews to demonstrate that as the urban human–dog relationship changes in the private space of the home it is driving new urban identities and new configurations of public spaces.

Throughout the centuries Beirut has had an endless capacity for reinvention and transformation, a consequence of migration, conquest, trade, and internal conflict. the last three decades have witnessed the city center's violent self–destruction, its commercial resurrection, and most recently its national contestation, as oppositional political forces have sought to mobilize mass demonstrations and occupy strategic space. While research has been directed to the transformative processes and the principal actors involved, little attention has been given to how the next generation of Lebanese are negotiating Beirut's rehabilitation. This article seeks to address this lacuna, by exploring how postwar youth remember, imagine, and spatially encounter their city. How does Beirut's rebuilt urban landscape, with its remnants of war, sites of displacement, and transformed environs, affect and inform identity, social interaction, and perceptions of the past? Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's analysis of the social construction of space (perceived, conceived, and lived) and probing the inherent tensions within postwar youths’ encounters with history, memory, and heritage, the article presents a dynamic and complex urban imaginary of Beirut. An examination of key urban sites (Solidère's Down Town) and significant temporal moments (Independence Intifada) reveals three recurring tensions evident in Lebanese youth's engagement with their city: dislocation and liberation, spectacle and participant, pluralism and fracture. This article seeks to encourage wider discussion on the nature of postwar recovery and the construction of rehabilitated public space, amidst the backdrop of global consumerism and heritage campaigns.

This article is part of an ongoing photographic project exploring the presence of street trees in London (the London Plane) in order to extend our understanding of representations of the urban environment, public space and the nature of contemporary urban experience.

‘Writing, Migration, Place’, the subtitle of this editorial, was also the subtitle of the international conference, ‘Glocal Imaginaries’, from which the present special issue derives. Extending acr...

by Jo-Anne Dillabough and Jacqueline Kennelly, London, Routledge, 2010, vii + 239 pp., £100 (hardback), £27.99 (paperback), £26.99 (eBook), ISBN 10: 0-415-99557-4 (hardback), ISBN 10: 0-415-99558-2...

The 2003 film Lost in Translation has attracted both acclaim and critique concerning its representation of the urban imaginary of Tokyo. Examining both the film representation and the critical responses to the imaginary, this paper discusses how they illuminate some of the emerging issues that Tokyo and Japan face in the era of globalization, such as the loss of the idiosyncratic status of non‐Western modernity that Japan has long enjoyed; post‐(self)Orientalist cultural othering; and the transnational alliance of media and cultural industries in a global cultural economy of branding the nation through media and consumer cultures, all at the expense of the issue of intensifying migration and multicultural situations in the urban space. It will be suggested that both the film and Japanese critiques of the film are lost in the actuality of Tokyo (indeed, of Japan) and its populace, which is being radically transformed by intensifying transnational flows of people, capital, and media imagery.

This essay frames the cultural and social aspects of Antonio Capuano's film, Sacred Silence (1996) in the tradition of neorealism and of cinema as a representation of reality and, furthermore, analyzes them by drawing also on Walter Benjamin's work on the city of Naples and on the theme of the flâneur.