The Contested Metropolis: Six Cities at the Beginning of the 21st Century.

Ber­lin, Brussels, Flo­rence, Lon­don, Toron­to and Zurich: Six lar­ge and not-so-lar­ge wealt­hy wes­tern metro­po­li­ses, all reflec­ting a high-pro­fi­le image of suc­cess in glo­bal finan­ce, com­mer­ce and tou­rism. What lies behind this metro­po­li­tan ste­reo­ty­pe? Who is chal­len­ging the appar­ent­ly uni­ver­sal main­stream of glo­bal urba­ni­ty and pro­spe­ri­ty? Who are the actors, how are they net­work­ed and what are their pro­jects for a dif­fe­rent urban future? This book offers a num­ber of ans­wers, some unex­pec­ted, none obvious, pro­ving that the­re is a real chan­ce to trans­form metro­po­li­tan spaces in accordance with the real needs of the peo­p­le living there.

Main parts of the book:
Achie­va­ble Uto­pi­as
Ber­lin: From metro­po­LUST to metro­po­LOST
Brussels/Bruxelles: Tale of a Frag­men­ted City
Firen­ze: Insur­gent City
Lon­don: Un-Con­tes­ted Capi­tal?
Toron­to: Out­side the Gla­mour Zones
Zürich: From Para­noia City to Ego City
After­word: An Alter­na­ti­ve Urban World is Possible

Edi­ted by INURA, Raf­fae­le Palosicia

Basel: Birkhäuser, 2004
Softcover
23,5x28cm
303 pages
ISBN: 3–7643–0086–8

Open Access