Overview

In this brilliant, very original survey of the politics and meanings of urban landscapes, leading sociologist Goran Therborn offers a tour of the world’s major capital cities, and the forces that have shaped them. Through a global, historical lens, and with a thematic range extending from the mutations of modernist architecture to the contemporary return of urban revolutions, Therborn questions received assumptions about the source, manifestations and reach of urban power, combining perspectives on politics, sociology, urban planning, architecture, and urban iconography. With its unique systematic overview, from Washington DC and revolutionary Paris to the flamboyant twenty-first century capital of Kazakhstan, its wealth of urban observations from all the populated continents, and its sharp and multi-faceted analyses, Cities of Power forces us to rethink our urban future, as well as our historically shaped present.

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9781784785451

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Göran Therborn analyses urban life with sweeping historical and global range. As he shows in tremendous detail, urban history is baked into a place by its streets, its institutions and the cultural outlook of its inhabitants -- Max Holleran * Times Literary Supplement * Should become an early port of call for anyone looking to know more about how urban and national power functions around the world * Irish Times * One of the world's most engaging and intriguing sociologists. Cities of Power helps us understand the current tensions between states and people, capitals and peripheries, populism and elitism, nationalism and globalism -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of <i>Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States</i> Cities of Power is explicitly a riposte to the idea of the Global City, and the peculiar Monocle-magazine vision of trans-national, interconnected, intangible capitalism that it serves to alternately describe and vindicate. Few thinkers display such a genuinely global range -- Owen Hatherley * New Left Review * One more publication in a sparkling list of career accomplishments, Cities of Power might function as an important resource for many a sociology doctoral student -- Luzia Lodder * PopMatters *

The distillation of decades of scholarship in urban history and the sociology of nationalism ... Cities of Power does important work in connecting the look and feel of cities with their specific national histories. -Max Holleran, Times Literary Supplement Command of history and knowledge of the real world inform Goeran Therborn's thinking, making him one of the world's most engaging and intriguing sociologists. Cities of Power focuses our attention on the places where transforming events happen and helps us understand the current tensions between states and people, capitals and peripheries, populism and elitism, nationalism and globalism. -Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States Cities of Power ... is explicitly a riposte to the idea of the Global City, and the peculiar Monocle-magazine vision of trans-national, interconnected, intangible capitalism that it serves to alternately describe and vindicate ... Few thinkers display such a genuinely global range. -Owen Hatherley, New Left Review Therborn's description of what a global city is provokes legitimate reflection ... Cities of Power is one more publication in a sparkling list of career accomplishments and might function as an important resource for many a sociology doctoral student. -Luzia Lodder, PopMatters Praise for Goeran Therborn: Therborn is a highly conceptual thinker, allying the formal rigor of his discipline at its best with a command of a vast range of empirical data. The result is a powerful theoretical structure, supported by a fascinating body of evidence. -Nation At a time when historians and economists tend to retire behind the barricades of their increasingly specialized professions, answering the big comparative questions about the pathways into and out of modernity, the global processes of inequality and the forces of possible change have been largely left to the sociologists. In my view, Goeran Therborn, probably Sweden's most distinguished social scientist, has made more essential contributions in these fields than anyone else, by a combination of analytical lucidity, common sense and an extraordinary command of international comparative data. -Eric Hobsbawm, author of The Age of Extremes

The distillation of decades of scholarship in urban history and the sociology of nationalism ... Cities of Power does important work in connecting the look and feel of cities with their specific national histories. --Max Holleran, Times Literary Supplement Command of history and knowledge of the real world inform Goeran Therborn's thinking, making him one of the world's most engaging and intriguing sociologists. Cities of Power focuses our attention on the places where transforming events happen and helps us understand the current tensions between states and people, capitals and peripheries, populism and elitism, nationalism and globalism. --Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States Cities of Power ... is explicitly a riposte to the idea of the Global City, and the peculiar Monocle-magazine vision of trans-national, interconnected, intangible capitalism that it serves to alternately describe and vindicate ... Few thinkers display such a genuinely global range. --Owen Hatherley, New Left Review Therborn's description of what a global city is provokes legitimate reflection ... Cities of Power is one more publication in a sparkling list of career accomplishments and might function as an important resource for many a sociology doctoral student. --Luzia Lodder, PopMatters Praise for Goeran Therborn: Therborn is a highly conceptual thinker, allying the formal rigor of his discipline at its best with a command of a vast range of empirical data. The result is a powerful theoretical structure, supported by a fascinating body of evidence. --Nation At a time when historians and economists tend to retire behind the barricades of their increasingly specialized professions, answering the big comparative questions about the pathways into and out of modernity, the global processes of inequality and the forces of possible change have been largely left to the sociologists. In my view, Goeran Therborn, probably Sweden's most distinguished social scientist, has made more essential contributions in these fields than anyone else, by a combination of analytical lucidity, common sense and an extraordinary command of international comparative data. --Eric Hobsbawm, author of The Age of Extremes

Author Information

Goran Therborn is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. His works have been published in at least twenty-four languages and include Inequalities of the World and Between Sex and Power.

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