Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present

Ilja van Damme

ISBN 10: 1138054062 / ISBN 13: 9781138054066

Published by Taylor & Francis Okt 2017, 2017

About this Item

This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This volume critically challenges the current creative city debate from a historical perspective. In the last two decades, urban studieshas beenengulfed by a creative city narrative in which concepts like the creative economy, the creative class or creative industries proclaim the status of the city as the primary site of human creativity and innovation. So far, however, nobody has challenged the core premise underlying this narrative, asking why we automatically have to look at cities as being the agents of change and innovation. What processes have been at work historically before the predominance of cities in nurturing creativity and innovation was established In order to tackle this question, the editors of this volume have collected case studies ranging from Renaissance Firenze and sixteenth-century Antwerp to early modern Naples, Amsterdam, Bologna, Paris, to industrializing Sheffield and nineteenth-and twentieth century cities covering Scandinavian port towns, Venice, andLondon, up to the French techno-industrial city Grenoble. Jointly, these case studies show that a creative city is not an objective or ontological reality, but rather a complex and heterogenic 'assemblage,' in which material, infrastructural and spatial elements become historically entangled with power-laden discourses, narratives and imaginaries about the city and urban actor groups. 276 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9781138054066

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Cities and Creativity from the Renaissance to the Present
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Okt 2017
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138054062
• ISBN 13: 9781138054066
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 158H x 23D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 158 millimeters height by 23 millimeters depth
• Weight: 560 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This volume critically challenges the current creative city debate from a historical perspective. In the last two decades, urban studies has been engulfed by a creative city narrative in which concepts like the creative economy, the creative class or creative industries proclaim the status of the city as the primary site of human creativity and innovation. So far, however, nobody has challenged the core premise underlying this narrative, asking why we automatically have to look at cities as being the agents of change and innovation. What processes have been at work historically before the predominance of cities in nurturing creativity and innovation was established? In order to tackle this question, the editors of this volume have collected case studies ranging from Renaissance Firenze and sixteenth-century Antwerp to early modern Naples, Amsterdam, Bologna, Paris, to industrializing Sheffield and nineteenth-and twentieth century cities covering Scandinavian port towns, Venice, and London, up to the French techno-industrial city Grenoble. Jointly, these case studies show that a creative city is not an objective or ontological reality, but rather a complex and heterogenic "assemblage," in which material, infrastructural and spatial elements become historically entangled with power-laden discourses, narratives and imaginaries about the city and urban actor groups.

About the Author

Ilja Van Damme is Professor in Urban and Socio-Economic History at the University of Antwerp.

Bert De Munck is Professor at the History Department at the University of Antwerp.

Andrew Miles is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester.