Publisher's Synopsis
Issues of urban space have come to the fore in modern urban and social history in recent years, with many questions being raised concerning the nature of its production, the construction of divisions between public and private, and the regulation of the social life of the streets particularly in relation to gender and class. - - The essays in this volume take up these issues, exploring the historical relationship between social identity and urban history in an international context. In particular, attention is focussed on the ways in which urban spaces have been shaped by conflicts over access and use, and how the identities of social groups have in turn been forged by such conflicts. - - Informed by a diverse body of recent theory, this collection provides detailed empirical instances which question as well as corroborate current thinking on urban history theories. In so doing it represents an intervention in debates about post-modernism and the city, not only critiquing the ôôôôdepthlessnessö celebrated in postmodern accounts, but also reviving a sense of the complex, conflictual nature of the urban past into present awareness.
