Spaces of Culture

City, Nation, World

What is culture? How are we to understand the relation between social structure and culture in a world that is becoming increasingly global and which new technologies are making increasingly vital? Spaces of Culture is a critical interrogation of the key coordinates of this global and virtual world: the nation state; modernity and reflexivity; post-Fordism and the spatial logic of the informational city. This discussion extends into a complementary analysis of the public sphere, that questions the reductive representation of technology as a forma of instrumentality, demonstrating how new technologies can offer new spaces of culture. The analysis of public space is essential to an understanding of issues like global citizenship and multicultural human rights. Spaces of Culture will be required reading for students and scholars in sociology, social theory and cultural studies. It will be an essential reference in any critical discussion of the relations between globalization and technology; and culture, politics and the public sphere.