Cities and Fascination

Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of Contributors xiii
1 Cities and Fascination: Beyond the Surplus of Meaning 1
Heiko Schmid, Wolf-Dietrich Sahr, John Urry
Part I: Revealing Fascination: Theoretical Horizons
2 T he Urban Question after Modernity 17
Michael Dear
3 T he City is Back (in Our Minds) 33
Jacques Lévy
4 E motions in an Urban Environment: Embellishing the Cities from the
Perspective of the Humanities 49
Jürgen Hasse
5 A esthetics and Design: Perceptions in the Postmodern Periphery 75
Ludger Basten
Part II: Focusing Fascination: Crossing Theoretical and
Empirical Perpectives
6 ‘The Most Dangerous Knack’: Fetish and Fascination in the Built
Environment 95
Neil Smith
7 T he Urban Staging of Politics: Life Worlds, Aesthetics, and Planning
– and an Example from Brazil 107
Wolf-Dietrich Sahr
Part III: Implementing Fascination: Case Studies
8 From Dreamland to Wasteland: The Discursive Structuring of Cities 129
Ulrike Gerhard, Ingo H. Warnke

9 Re-designing the Metropolis: Purpose and Perception of the Ruhr District
as European Capital of Culture 2010 147
Achim Prossek
10 S trategic Staging of Urbanity: Urban Images in Films and Film Images in
Hamburg’s City Marketing 169
Sybille Bauriedl, Anke Strüver
11 ‘Neoliberalism with Chinese Characteristics’: Consumer Pedagogy in
Macao 187
Tim Simpson
PART IV: Consequences of Fascination: New Horizons
12 E xcess, Fascination and Climates 209
John Urry
Index 225