Urban Rhythms : Mobilities, Space and Interaction in the Contemporary City

This insightful collection of papers on the contemporary cityscape explores the rhythms of urban flows, temporalities and interactions. It interprets the city as a complex whole, interwoven with networks and constant movement, and offers case studies of global metropolises from Manchester to Rio de Janeiro, Cardiff to Jakarta.

• Wide-ranging interdisciplinary analysis
• Combines urban theory with informed empirical research
• Includes studies of cities across the urbanizing world, from Rio de Janeiro to Jakarta
• A profound and engaging commentary on the constantly evolving rhythms of the city

Robin Smith teaches sociology and qualitative methodology at Cardiff University. His existing research has been broadly focused upon the interaction order of everyday urban public space. He is, in particular, interested in the street-level accomplishment and politics of encounter, mobility and territory. 

Kevin Hetherington is Professor of Geography at the Open University where he is currently Dean and Director of Studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences. He previously held a Chair in Cultural Sociology at Lancaster University and has worked across the boundary of both disciplines for most of his career. He currently researches on issues of museums, heritage and urban regeneration and social and spatial theory.  His seven books include The Badlands of Modernity (1997), Capitalism’s Eye (2007), and (with Anne Cronin) Consuming the Entrepreneurial City (2008). He is currently writing a book on museums. He is a member of several editorial boards including a recent re-appointment to the board of The Sociological Review having been previously involved from 1994-2003.  He was a founding co-editor of the journal Museum and Society (co editor from 2003-09) and currently co-edits the book series Culture, Economy and the Social for Routledge.