Urban Communication Production, Text, Context

by Gibson, Timothy A.; Lowes, Mark; Andrew, Caroline; Bayat, Asef; Gotham, Kevin Fox; Hannigan, John; Haubert, Jeannie; Higgins, Carey L.; Kincaid, Andrew; Mosco, Vincent; Sussman, Gerald; Tranter, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780742540620
• ISBN10: 0742540626
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-05
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

City leaders now confront a global competition for economic investment, and urban elites are casting about for strategies that promise to secure a share of this future of global economic growth. However, many of these strategies are largely symbolic in nature. City leaders, for example, compete for the Olympics so they can broadcast spectacular urban vistas to global television audiences. Officials pour public funds into tourist amenities to cultivate an image of vitality and renewal. But how are the local politics of urban redevelopment intertwined with the global politics of circulating vital urban images? Urban Communication brings together scholars from communication, cultural studies, and urban sociology to explore the symbolic dimensions of contemporary city-building, drawing on case studies from around the world.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction: The City as Production, Text, Context	1	(24)
Timothy A. Gibson and Mark Lowes
Part I The City in Production
1 Neoliberal Revitalization: Prison Building, Casinos, and Tourism in Louisiana	25	(16)
Kevin Fox Gotham and Jeannie Haubert
2 Internet Politics the Singapore Way	41	(20)
Gerald Sussman
3 A Neo-Bohemian Rhapsody: Cultural Vibrancy and Controlled Edge as Urban Development Tools in the "New Creative Economy"	61	(22)
John Hannigan
4 City Living, D.C. Style: The Political-Economic Limits of Urban Branding Campaigns	83	(28)
Timothy A. Gibson
Part II The City as Text
5 "They Stand for All the Things I Hate": Georgian Architecture and Cultural Memory in Contemporary Dublin	111	(16)
Andrew Kincaid
6 Trying to Be World-Class: Ottawa and the Presentation of Self	127	(14)
Caroline Andrew
7 Plugola: News for Profit, Entertainment, and Network Consolidation	141	(24)
Carey L. Higgins and Gerald Sussman
Part III The City in Context
8 Communicating Urban Values Through Megasport Events: The Case of Australia's "High Performance" Cities	165	(12)
Paul Tranter and Mark Lowes
9 From "Dangerous Classes" to "Quiet Rebels": Politics of the Urban Subaltern in the Global South	177
Asef Bayat
10 The Empire at Ground Zero
Vincent Mosco	199	(18)
Bibliography	217	(18)
Index	235	(4)
About the Contributors	239