Cities and Metaphors

Beyond Imaginaries of Islamic Urban Space
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-0-415-72822-5
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 204 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 476 g

Reihe: Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design

Introducing a new concept of urban space, Cities and Metaphors encourages a theoretical realignment of how the city is experienced, thought and discussed.

In the context of ‘Islamic city’ studies, relying on reasoning and rational thinking has reduced descriptive, vivid features of the urban space into a generic scientific framework. Phenomenological characteristics have consequently been ignored rather than integrated into theoretical components. The book argues that this results from a lack of appropriate conceptual vocabulary in our global body of scholarly literature. It challenges existing theories, introduces and applies the concept of Hezar-tu (‘a thousand insides’) to rethink the spaces in historic cores of Fez, Isfahan and Tunis. This tool constructs a staging post towards a different articulation of urban space based on spatial, physical, virtual, symbolic and social edges and thresholds; nodes of sociospatial relationships; zones of containment; state of intermediacy; and, thus, a logic of ambiguity rather than determinacy. Presenting alternative narrations of paths through sequential discovery of spaces, this book brings the sensual features of urban space into the focus.

The book finally shows that concepts derived from local contexts enable us to tailor our methods and theoretical structures to the idiosyncrasies of each city while retaining the global commonalities of all. Hence, in broader terms, it contributes to a growing awareness that urban studies should be more inclusive by bringing the diverse global contexts of cities into the body of our urban knowledge.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Falahat, Somaiyeh

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Regional- & Raumplanung Stadtplanung, Kommunale Planung
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Städtebau, Stadtplanung (Architektur)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: Diversifying global urban vocabulary 1. The idea of the ‘Islamic City’ 2. City as labyrinth 3. Hezar-tu as an urban concept 4. City as Hezar-tu: Fez, Isfahan and Tunis Epilogue

Über Autor(innen)

Somaiyeh Falahat is a Feodor-Lynen Research Fellow in the Department of Geography and a Research Associate at Trinity Hall College, University of Cambridge, UK.