This book looks at the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the virtual. Rob Shields shows how the construction of virtual worlds has a long history. He examines the many forms of faith and hysteria that have surrounded computer technologies in recent years. Moving beyond the technologies themselves he shows how the virtual plays a role in our daily lives at every level. The virtual is also an essential concept needed to manage innovation and risk. It is real but not actual, ideal but not abstract. The virtual, he argues, has become one of the key organizing principles of contemporary society in the public realms of politics, business and consumption as well as in our private lives.

In contemporary shopping sites new modes of subjectivity, inter-personal relationships and models of social totality are being "tried on", "taken off" and "displayed" in much the same way that one might shop for clothes. These are not the modernist spaces of goal-directed individuals and utopian projects. Rather it is a space of carnivalesque inversions of the present order of things. The multiple masks of the postmodern person "who wears many hats" in different groups and surroundings form a veritable "dramatis personae". In such masks of the individual and the social world may be found a new spatialization and new intuitive perceptions of time and space. This representation of contemporary social life grows out of the work of Henri Lefebvre, Michel Maffesoli, Walter Benjamin and Mikhail Bakhtin. It is an attempt to take seriously the idea that we live in a postmodern consumer culture and to follow through the implications and possibilities of this idea. Cases are drawn from Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Singapore to illustrate the new intersections between people, mass culture and consumption.

A vital book for understanding the nature of the city and urban life Henri Lefebvre is famous for pioneering the study of space and modernity and a towering figure in sociology, geography and urban studies Came to us with the Transaction acquisition but effectively unavailble and unpromoted for many years Includes a new Foreword by Rob Shields and Claire Revol

A vital book for understanding the nature of the city and urban life Henri Lefebvre is famous for pioneering the study of space and modernity and a towering figure in sociology, geography and urban studies Came to us with the Transaction acquisition but effectively unavailble and unpromoted for many years Includes a new Foreword by Rob Shields and Claire Revol

What does Lyotard's thought offer contemporary theory? By focusing on key concepts and themes from his later texts, such as affect, aesthetics, Andre Malraux, St Paul, nihilism, infancy, space and writing, Rereading Jean-FranAois Lyotard: Essays on His Later Works explores the impact and relevance of Lyotard's largely undiscussed late philosophical works for contemporary theoretical debates. In his works produced from 1990 until his death in 1998, Lyotard addresses a number of themes that both revisit and move beyond those from his earlier work. These include: art and aesthetics; affect; ethics and politics; modernity and the subject. Despite designating these texts as part of a 'late period', the chapters do not exclude a wider engagement with Lyotard's thought and often seek to engage in connections, resonances and developments across his many texts. Each chapter within this book places Lyotard as a figure with much to offer current theoretical debates, reasserts Lyotard as an important thinker for developments in social thought, and draws out the many links between his philosophical work and broader social questions. This is the first work in English to focus on Lyotard's later writings and will therefore be a key text to all scholars of his ideas.

In the past decade construction and engineering have changed dramatically, with an explosion of innovative new approaches to construction and new methodologies. By bringing together economic, social and construction/engineering management perspectives, this book offers a unique and comprehensive survey of these approaches and techniques. It presents a history of studies in innovation in construction and engineering, and then presents the most recent models of innovation brokering and risk-management, based on complex project-based industries. Innovation is defined and competing theories are discussed in the light of operational issues. The book covers all aspects, including the importance of construction and engineering 'cultures' in the trades for successful project innovation. It also discusses the role of government and policy makers, the implications of rapid change for the building trades and skilled labour, and the difficulty of measuring innovation quantitatively.

The debate on modernity and postmodernity has awakened interest in the importance of the spatial for cultural formations. But what of those spaces that exist as much in the imagination as in physical reality? This book attempts to develop an alternative geography and sociology of space by examining `places on the margin'.

Space and spatial practice has emerged as one of the key themes in the literature on modernity and postmodernity. Yet few attempts have been made to survey the theoretical terrain of space and modernity. Fewer still have endeavoured to apply this material in the form of concrete analysis. "Places on the Margin" attempts to correct the balance in three ways. First, it demonstrates the mutual relevance of sociology and geography. Second, it outlines a social theory of spatiality which focuses on the role of the spatial in making up culture. Third, it offers four detailed and penetrating case studies of the role of space in supporting social activities: Brighton and its place image of the dirty weekend and the beach riots of Mods and Rockers in the 1960s; the cultural meaning of Niagara Falls; "the north-south divide" in Britain and its role in national myths of British identity; and the Canadian spatialization of the far North as the "true north strong and free" - a zone of purity and otherness where the distinctions upon which civilization is based break down.

In the past decade, construction and engineering have changed dramatically, with an explosion of innovative new approaches to construction and new methodologies. By bringing together economic, social and construction/engineering management perspectives, this book offers a unique and comprehensive survey of these approaches and techniques. It presents a history of studies in innovation in construction and engineering, and then presents the most recent models of innovation brokering and risk-management, based on complex project-based industries. Innovation is defined and competing theories are discussed in the light of operational issues. The book covers all aspects, including the importance of construction and engineering 'cultures' in the trades for successful project innovation. It also discusses the role of government and policy makers, the implications of rapid change for the building trades and skilled labour, and the difficulty of measuring innovation quantitatively.

Lefebvre, Love and Struggle provides the only comprehensive guide to Lefebvre's work. It is an accessible introduction to one of the most significant European thinkers of the twentieth century.
Rob Shields draws on the full range of Lefebvres writings, including many previously untranslated and unpublished works and correspondence. Topics covered include Lefebvre's early relationship with Marxism, his critique of the rise of fascism, as well as his Critique of Everyday Life and the significant work on urban space for which he is best known today.

Lefebvre, Love and Struggle provides the only comprehensive guide to Lefebvre's work. It is an accessible introduction to one of the most significant European thinkers of the twentieth century.
Rob Shields draws on the full range of Lefebvres writings, including many previously untranslated and unpublished works and correspondence. Topics covered include Lefebvre's early relationship with Marxism, his critique of the rise of fascism, as well as his Critique of Everyday Life and the significant work on urban space for which he is best known today.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"Ecologies of Affect" offers a synthetic introduction to the felt dynamics of cities and the character of places. The contributors capture the significance of affects including desire, nostalgia, memory, and hope in forming the identity and tone of places. The critical intervention this collection of essays makes is an active, consistent engagement with the virtualities that produce and refract our idealized attachments to place. Contributors show how place images, and attempts to build communities, are, rather than abstractions, fundamentally tied to and revolve around such intangibles. We understand nostalgia, desire, and hope as virtual; that is, even though they are not material, they are nevertheless real and must be accounted for. In this book, the authors take up affect, emotion, and emplacement and consider them in relation to one another and how they work to produce and are produced by certain temporal and spatial dimensions.

The aim of the book is to inspire readers to consider space and place beyond their material properties and attend to the imaginary places and ideals that underpin and produce material places and social spaces. This collection will be useful to practitioners and students seeking to understand the power of affect and the importance of virtualities within contemporary societies, where intangible goods have taken on an increasing value.

How should the metropolis be governed? What is the appropriate scale to consider and organize local governance and communities? Bringing together an interdisciplinary and international body of scholarly work, City-Regions in Prospect? explores the city-region as both an evolving concept and as a growing area of planning practice. Contributors raise critical questions about the ways in which governance reform is being reshaped and whether current trends towards rescaling and rebounding cities actually address local challenges of urbanization and globalization. These essays highlight the tensions and uncertainties between the city-region as a concept and the experiences of local communities when municipal policies are applied. Proposing a challenge to scholars and municipal leaders to account for flexibility, adaptability to local contexts, social robustness, and community engagement, City-Regions in Prospect? Captures the growing relevance and importance of cities in a rapidly urbanizing world.

The theoretical work of Gilles Deleuze has transformed cultural studies and has made a significant impact on disciplines as diverse as sociology, queer theory, feminist studies, film, music, and philosophy. Until recently his books were notorious for their density and eccentric flair. While there are a wide array of introductions that complement and clarify his work, this assemblage stands apart by shedding his concepts of jargon and stressing the crucial, radical core of his philosophical ideas. i]Demystifying Deleuze /i]is a timely and approachable primer for students, scholars and critically-minded readers.

This book offers cutting-edge thinking on contemporary urban spaces.The devastation brought upon New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee system failure has forced urban theorists to revisit the fundamental question of urban geography and planning: What is a city? Is it a place of memory embedded in architecture, a location in regional and global networks, or an arena wherein communities form and reproduce themselves?Planners, architects, policymakers, and geographers from across the political spectrum have weighed in on how best to respond to the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. The twelve contributors to ""What Is a City?"" are a diverse group from the disciplines of anthropology, architecture, geography, philosophy, planning, public policy studies, and sociology, as well as community organizing. They believe that these conversations about the fate of New Orleans are animated by assumptions and beliefs about the function of cities in general.They unpack post-Katrina discourse, examining what expert and public responses tell us about current attitudes not just toward New Orleans, but toward cities. As volume coeditor Phil Steinberg points out in his introduction, ""Even before the floodwaters had subsided...scholars and planners were beginning to reflect on Hurricane Katrina and its disastrous aftermath, and they were beginning to ask bigger questions with implications for cities as a whole.""The experience of catastrophe forces us to reconsider not only the material but the abstract and virtual qualities of cities. It requires us to revisit how we think about, plan for, and live in them.

"Rob Shields provides here an immensely sophisticated and detailed examination of the topological turn. He has been examining these issues for some decades and this book will surely become the standard work on cultural and spatial topology" - John Urry, Distinguished Professor, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University Our understanding of space is crucial to the way in which we understand major social problems and issues and the way we develop and maintain our worldviews. Building from a history of philosophical and geographical theories of space, Shields presents the importance of spatialisation and cultural topology in social theory and the possibilities that lie within these theoretical tools. Innovative and thought-provoking, this book goes beyond traditional ideas of spatiality and temporality to understand the multiplicity of spatialisations and relates them to everyday life.