The town hall or city hall as a place of local governance is historically related to the founding of cities in medieval Europe. As the space of representative civic authority it aimed to set the terms of public space and engagement with the citizenry. In subsequent centuries; as the idea and built form travelled beyond Europe to become an established institution across the globe; the parameters of civic representation changed and the town hall was forced to negotiate new notions of urbanism and public space. City Halls and Civic Materialism: Towards a Global History of Urban Public Space utilizes the town hall in its global historical incarnations as bases to probe these changing ideas of urban public space. The essays in this volume provide an analysis of the architecture; iconography; and spatial relations that constitute the town hall to explore its historical ability to accommodate the "public" in different political and social contexts; in Europe; Asia; Australia; Africa and the Americas; as the relation between citizens and civic authority had to be revisited with the universal franchise; under fascism; after the devastation of the world wars; decolonization; and most recently; with the neo-liberal restructuring of cities.As a global phenomenon; the town hall challenges the idea that nationalism; imperialism; democracy; the idea of citizenship – concepts that frame the relation between the individual and the body politic -- travel the globe in modular forms; or in predictable trajectories from the West to East; North to South. Collectively the essays argue that if the town hall has historically been connected with the articulation of bourgeois civil society; then the town hall as a global spatial type -- architectural space; urban monument; and space of governance -- holds a mirror to the promise and limits of civil society.
#2396093 in eBooks 2014-01-23 2014-01-23File Name: B00IWW0NAU
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Oddly fun. I do enjoy and will recommend.By (...Y...)Such an odd story of finding art in unlikely places was what grabbed my attention and make me seek out this book. Then seeing the images made me buy it. The short forward is nice and gives the book needed context; but the book is really all about the images; and they are unique to say the least.I enjoy looking through this book and wondering about the people in the drawings.If you are into strange art or issues of mental disorder you will like this book.This also makes a good conversation piece.The quality of the printing and the binding is high for a paperback. I would recommend this book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The book was really different than anything Ive read an ...By Teresa McmullenThe book was really different than anything Ive read an it really wasnt what I thought it was going to be it was a ok book0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. amazing artwork from the asylumBy Greg M.this collection of drawings is haunting. how the artist viewed men; women; animals; landscapes; architecture. many of the portraits of women; say; while having different names; share common attributes (hair parted in the middle of the head). i suspect an analysis of such features would be interesting.the collection is also interesting as a window into a geography and time of lost "Americana".the introduction was well-written and informative.
