Urban Planning And Cultural Identity

This book links debates in urban planning with debates in cultural geography/studies. Using a combination of case studies - Detroit, Belfast and Berlin - and reviews of literature in cultural studies. The work illustrates the important role planners play in constructing space, in light of the continuing importance of place as constitutive element in identity formation. The case studies expose different types of struggles for place identity, and, in turn, how planners might react to different sets of circumstances. The work also compares successful planning where existing identities have been remembered and have been given space to continue with insensitive planning which eradicates existing cultural identities and does not allow 'space' for either new or previous identities to establish themselves.