Cities Interrupted - by Shirley Jordan & Christoph Lindner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Cities Interrupted explores the potential of visual culture - in the form of photography, film, performance, architecture, urban design, and mixed media - to strategically interrupt processes of globalization in contemporary urban spaces.

Looking at cities such as Amsterdam, Beijing, Doha, London, New York, and Paris, the book brings together original essays to reveal how the concept of 'interruption' in global cities enables new understanding of the forms of space, experience, and community that are emerging in today's rapidly transforming urban environments.

The idea of 'interruption' addressed in this book refers to deliberate interventions in the spaces and communities of contemporary cities - interventions that seek to disrupt or destabilize the experience of everyday urban life through creative practice. Interruption is used as an analytic and conceptual tool to challenge - and explore alternatives to - the narratives of speed, hyper-mobility, rapid growth, and incessant exchange and flow that have dominated critical thinking on global cities.

Bringing art and creative practice into the centre of discussions about the future of cities, alongside discussions of development, design, justice, health, sustainability, technology, and citizenship, this book is essential reading for anyone working at the intersections of a range of urban, cultural and visual fields, including urban studies, urban design and architecture, visual studies, cultural studies, media studies, art history, and social and cultural geography.

Review Quotes

"Cities Interrupted brings together researchers in architecture, geography, urban planning, photography and art to explore ... the subtle ways in which interruption repeatedly calls attention to the public/private dichotomy of city life." --Environment and Urbanization

"A stellar cast of writers from across disciplines explore the moments when our speeded-up world is slowed or stopped. A fascinating and important collection of sharp, smart and engaging essays on urban interruptions in global cities from Amsterdam to Beijing, London to New York. Take some time. Read it." --Professor Tim Cresswell, Associate Director for Public Humanities at Northeastern University, USA

"Cities Interrupted brings together some of the best thinking about contemporary urbansim available. Each essay is a gem, but as an ensemble they make a cutting-edge critical intervention into urban theory. This is a book that will repay multiple readings over time." --Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies at The New School, USA

About the Author

Shirley Jordan is Professor of French Literature and Visual Culture at Queen Mary University of London, UK.

Christoph Lindner is Professor of Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.