Performance and the Contemporary City

Cities with their rising populations and complex configurations have become key symbols of a fast-changing modernity. This timely collection gathers together various urban writings from a range of relevant disciplines including architecture geography sociology visual art ethnography and psychoanalysis. Its focus however is performance. Underscoring the importance of the field it shows how performance functions as a dynamic interdisciplinary mechanism which is central not only to understanding the multiplicity of urban living but also to the way the identities of cities are shaped.Gathering together key writings on the city and performance by authors ranging from Walter Benjamin to Tim Etchells to Carl Lavery the reader can be navigated in any number of ways. Supported by extensive introductory material it will be essential and evocative reading for anyone interested in making connections between performance and urban life.