Cities of the Mind

Curious about the images of the city that have been evolving in the different social sciences, we did what academics often do in such a situa­ 1 tion: we set up a seminar on "Images of the City in the Social Sciences." From the start, we counted on the help of specialists in other fields to pursue their interests. Of the persons who agreed to participate, all but two came from the United States, and their analyses, in the main, reflect the experience of Western countries and the United States. In our formal instructions to our collaborators, we took fi>r granted that a variety of images of the city could be found or inferred in their fields of expertise. We asked them to identify these images and their functions, to explain how and why they have changed over time, and to relate these images to the distinct intellectual traditions and techniques-analytical or otherwise-in their respective fields. The definition of image was left to the judgment of the participants.

I Introduction.- 1 Images, Themes, and Urbanography.- II Urban Images and Themes in Specific Fields.- 2 Geography: Descriptive, Scientific, Subjective, and Radical Images of the City.- 3 Economics: Invisible, Productive, and Problem Cities.- 4 Images of the City in Political Science: Communities, Administrative Entities, Competitive Markets, and Seats of Chaos.- 5 Anthropological Approaches to the City.- 6 Sociology-Four Images of Organized Diversity: Bazaar, Jungle, Organism, and Machine.- 7 History: Notes on Urban Images of Historians.- 8 City Planning: Images of the Ideal and the Existing City.- III Reflections on Context and the Interpretation of Urban Images.- 9 Reconsidering The Image of the City.- 10 The Puzzle of Antiurbanism in Classic American Literature.- 11 Slums and Skyscrapers: Urban Images, Symbols, and Ideology.- 12 Urban Political Images in Search of a Historical Context.- 13 The City as a Legal Concept.- 14 Cities and Countryside in Anthropology.- 15 Ex Uno Plures: A Walk through Marxist Urban Studies.- Note on Sociological Images of the City.- Notes on Contributors.