Buffalo; in New York state; is ineffable: a typical city in transition between its past and future. It is a classic example of one of many shrinking cities in North America and elsewhere which once prospered because of heavy industrialization; but which now have to deal with various degrees of urban decay. Bringing together a range of scholars from the humanities; the social sciences; art and architecture; this volume looks at both the literal city image and urban representation generated by photographs; video; historical and contemporary narratives; and grass-root initiatives. It investigates the notion of agency of media in the city and; in return; what the cityrsquo;s agency is. This agency matters particularly as it is both transforming - shrinking; fading; being redefined - and being shaped through its visual and spatial mediation. While illustrated by Buffalo in particular; the book examines a broader phenomenon: the identity of those cities that were built and blossomed during the late 19th and early 20th century and are now in different stages of decline and disintegration. However; while such cities are all confronted with complex issues of economic instability; social and racial segregation; urban sprawl and shrinking processes both in the inner city and more and more in their ex-urban belts; they are too often described through dramatically simplifying visual and linguistic tropes. In Buffalo such tropes refer dialectically either to the cityrsquo;s past glory or its presumed current cultural; political and economical stasis and decline. This book takes such tired; and familiar tropes and questions them.
#1093272 in eBooks 2016-12-08 2016-12-08File Name: B01MSWXH6M
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