The Sociology of Architecture: Constructing Identities - Softcover

Jones, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1846310776 ISBN 13: 9781846310775

Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 2011

Synopsis

States have long been active in commissioning architecture, which affords one way to embed political projects within socially meaningful cultural forms. Such state-led architecture is often designed not only to house the activities of government, but also to reflect political-economic shifts and to chime with a variety of 'internal' and 'external' publics as part of wider discourses of belonging. From the vantage point of sociology, this context necessitates critical engagement with the role of leading architects' designs and discourses relative to politicized identity projects. Focusing on the mobilization of architecture in periods of social change, The Sociology of Architecture uses critical sociological frameworks to assess the distinctive force added to political projects by architects and their work. Through engagement with a range of illustrative examples from contested contemporary and historical architectural projects, Paul Jones analyses some of the ways in which architects have sought to

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Jones is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool.

Review:

“Architecture is not a common focus of sociologists, and it is partly for this reason that this book is so interesting....reveals the ways in which architectural styles and the profession itself symbolize expressions of social power and collective identity.” (Choice)

About this edition

• Publisher: Liverpool University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1846310776
• ISBN 13: 9781846310775
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 195