West Hollywood as Symbol: The Significance of Place in the Construction of a Gay Identity

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Forest
Keyword(s):  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Moral Virtues ◽  
West Hollywood ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Aesthetic Sensibility ◽  
The City

The 1984 municipal incorporation of West Hollywood, California offers an opportunity to explore two related themes: (1) the role of place in the creation of identity generally, and (2) the role of place in the creation of sexual identity in particular. Work on the second subject has largely concentrated on the political economy of gay territories, although there has been an ongoing concern with the symbolic importance of these places. Although these studies have provided valuable insights on these themes, they do not reflect the renewed concern in humanistic geography with the normative importance of place, and the study of morally valued ways of life. These latter topics provide alternative avenues into questions of identity. In the coverage of the incorporation campaign, the gay press presented an idealized image of the city. In defining a new gay identity, the gay press utilized the holistic quality of place to weave together the ‘natural’ and cultural elements of West Hollywood. This idealized ‘gay city’ united the place's real and imagined physical attributes with social and personal characteristics of gay men. More simply, the qualities of the city itself expressed intellectual and moral virtues, such that characterizations of the city became part of a narrative defining the meaning of ‘gay’. This new gay male identity included seven elements: creativity, aesthetic sensibility, an orientation toward entertainment or consumption, progressiveness, responsibility, maturity, and centrality. The effort to create an identity centered on West Hollywood was relatively conservative in the sense that it was not a fundamental challenge to existing social and political systems. Rather, it reflected a strategy based on an ethnicity model, seeking to ‘demarginalize’ gays and to bring them closer to the symbolic ‘center’ of US society.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the Role of Lifestyle in Urban Tourism Sustainable Development (Case Study: Esfahan City)

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 209
Author(s):  
Arghavan Momtazpour ◽  
Masoud Taghvaei ◽  
Neda Rahmani
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Statistical Population ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
The City

Since urban space is one of the important places that tourism takes place, in order to create stability in tourism, the interaction between tourism planning and urban sustainable development should be investigated with regard to cultural elements. Lifestyle is derived from culture as a social phenomenon and affects it and is a reflection of human thoughts in relation with behavior, ethics and culture. Therefore, this aim of this research is to investigate the role of lifestyle in urban tourism sustainable development in Esfahan city, the third most populous city in Iran. This research’s goal is Practical and developmental and about the origin and method, it is descriptive, analytical and casual that has been done in a field research method. The statistical populations of this research are: tourism custodians, tourism experts, national tourists who have travelled to Esfahan city and local residents of all 15 municipal districts of the city. Simple random sampling method was utilized and 838 questionnaires were gathered from 4 statistical populations. In order to analyze the data, factor analysis test was utilized by smart PLS software. The results show that there are meaningful connections among the variables “lifestyle”, “sustainable development” and “urban tourism”. The most frequent factor that was selected by respondents for the concept of lifestyle in the statistical population was sociocultural factor (such as: visiting relatives and friends and attending soirees, traditional foods and drinks festivals, the desirability of Esfahan city in order to spend leisure time, the willingness toward group entertainment). For the concept “urban tourism”, all the populations chose urban texture significantly (such as: revival of workshops for producing traditional clothes, hand-made attractions, systematizing historical areas, developing sidewalk routes, constructing modern entertaining centers and systematizing landscapes and providing equipment for parks). About the sustainable development and its multi-dimensional nature, however, different factors were selected by respondents which in order of importance and frequency are economic, environmental, urban management, sociocultural, urban texture and political factors. Among the recommendations, a few can be stated: arranging cultural plans with a focus on soiree and elders’ reunions, holding traditional and religious festivals in different parts of the city, improving the condition of the existing theme parks and diversifying leisure and entertainment facilities of Esfahan city and pitching in municipal management and being parallel with plans of different organization in city. Especially by mayoralty as a trustee for city and cultural heritage could be mentioned as a tourism trustee.

Exercising Power in the City

2020 ◽  
pp. 398-464
Author(s):  
Veronica West-Harling
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
Patron Saint ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Sense Of Identity ◽  
The City

This chapter shows the exercising of power in action in the public space. It looks at who ‘owns’ this, the Christianization of it in Rome, and the increasing role of the papacy in appropriating and in running it, revalorizing it as part of Rome’s Christian past and present, expressed through pilgrimage. This appropriation is contested by the secular aristocracy, which in turn appropriates the public space and rewrites the topography of the city in the tenth century. The use of the public space as an area of either social cohesion or conflict is studied, through the ceremonies, elections, oaths, processions, assemblies, justice and defence meetings; but also riots, conspiracies, and contested elections. This space of cohesion or conflict is fundamental to the creation of the unity and sense of identity of the city, especially around the patron saint or, sometimes, around or indeed against an imperial ruler

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE COMPONENT IN THE CREATION OF «HUMAN SCALE» URBAN ENVIRONMENT

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 284-288
Author(s):  
Irina Lukina ◽  
Angelina Selivanova ◽  
B. Temirsultanova
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
Main Criterion ◽  
Visual Contact ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Human Scale ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Systematic Understanding ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

Excessive increase in the size of the main urban development objects on the one hand, and the creation of abstract volumes of the urban environment that do not have any familiar details comparable to the size of a person on the other hand, creates an architecture completely divorced from people and hostile to them. Therefore, there was a need to justify the use of landscape components to create a medium-scale human environment. The natural environment is that component of the spatial planning structure of the city, which, if properly placed, will absorb the negative psychological effect of the perception of huge undifferentiated abstract arrays of buildings in a re-compacted urban environment. The main criterion for the psychological comfort of a city dweller is the visual contact of a person in the house with the street, the ability to see the details and, most importantly, understand what they are in relation to the person. Along with small architectural forms, such elements will be trees, shrubs, benches, information boards, which have constant and understandable ergonomic dimensions. This is what is always referred to in the term anthropocentrism in architecture. The article proposes to clarify the concept of “human scale” on the basis of a systematic understanding of scale in architecture, and then this category of scale is considered not as a compositional means of aesthetic expressiveness of the urban environment, but as a factor in biological safety and physical survival of a person in conditions of total urbanization.

scholarly journals From the accidental to articulated smart city: The creation and work of ‘Smart Dublin’

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Coletta ◽  
Liam Heaphy ◽  
Rob Kitchin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

While there is a relatively extensive literature concerning the nature of smart cities in general, the roles of corporate actors in their production, and the development and deployment of specific smart city technologies, to date there have been relatively few studies that have examined the situated practices as to how the smart city as a whole unfolds in specific places. In this paper, we chart the smart city ecosystem in Dublin, Ireland, and examine how the four city authorities have actively collaborated to progressively frame and mobilise an articulated vision of Dublin as a smart city. In particular, we focus on the work of ‘Smart Dublin’, a shared unit established to coordinate, manage and promote Dublin’s smart city initiatives. We argue that Smart Dublin has on the one hand sought to corral smart city initiatives within a common framework, and on the other has acted to boost the city-region’s smart city activities, especially with respect to economic development. Our analysis highlights the value of undertaking a holistic mapping of a smart city in formation, and the role of political and administrative geographies and specialist smart city units in shaping that formation.

The Gaulish past of Milan and the French invasion of Italy1

2018 ◽  
pp. 102-120
Author(s):  
Oren Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Foundation Myth ◽  
Italian City ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Italian Wars ◽  
The City ◽  
Source Materials

The foundation myths of late medieval cities and states were never simply about origins: they were above all about destiny. In the fifteenth century, the combination of humanist methods and models, newly available source materials, and changing domestic and international political circumstances provided the impetus for the continued development of these myths as well as the creation of new ones. Yet even in Italy, not all eyes looked to Rome. The Carolingian foundation myth of Florence, in which Charlemagne’s supposed rebuilding of the city was used to explain the pro-French orientation of the commune and its Guelph elite, is perhaps the most well-known of these myths, but also an example of an Italian city defining itself in relation to a foreign power. This essay focuses on another element of Quattrocento myth-making culture: the treatment of northern Italy’s Gaulish past in the writings of some of the region’s humanists (e.g. (Antonio Cornazzano and Alberto Cattaneo), and the role of these writings in Franco-Milanese relations before and during the outbreak of the Italian Wars and the French domination of Milan.

Augustine: De Civitate Dei The City of God Books XI and XII

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Latin Text ◽  
City Of God ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
The World ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City ◽  
The Universe

In books I–V of De Civitate Dei, St. Augustine rejects the claim that worship of the pagan gods had brought success in this life, and in books VI–X, the prospect of a happy afterlife. In books XI–XII, Augustine turns from attack to defence, for at this point he initiates his apology for the Christian faith. Books XI and XII document the initial phase of the rise of the two cities, the city of God and the city of this world, beginning with the Creation of the world and the human race. In Book XI, Augustine rejects the theories of Aristotle, Plato and the Epicureans on the creation of the universe and addresses the creation of angels, Satan, the role of the holy Trinity and the importance of numerology in the Genesis account. In Book XII, Augustine is chiefly concerned with refuting standard objections to the Christian tradition, returning to discussion of the Creation, including his calculation, based on the scriptures, that the world was created less than 6,000 years ago. This book is the only edition in English to provide not only a text but also a detailed commentary on one of the most influential documents in the history of western Christianity. It presents Latin text, with facing-page English translation, introduction, notes and commentary.

Prosody of humor in Sex and the City

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo Urios-Aparisi ◽  
Manuela Maria Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Sex And The City ◽  
Communicative Strategies ◽  
Cognitive Benefits ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City

This article investigates the role of prosody in conversational humor in the HBO series Sex and the City (SATC) in an exploratory study. Specifically, we examine how pitch and pauses are part of the prosodic bundle that can be used to mark an utterance as humoristic. We find that the use of prosodic resources participates not only in the marking but also the creation of humor. In this regard, we view pitch variation and pauses as having communicative strategies and cognitive benefits. They are part of the performance of humor and participate in the characterization of the personage. The authors suggest the existence of a repertoire of prosodic devices associated to humor and to a particular discourse.

scholarly journals Samara merchants and commercial education in the early XX century

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-200
Author(s):  
Elena Ivanovna Sumburova
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Special Role ◽  
Education Development ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The City

The paper examines a process of commercial education development in Samara on the basis of archival materials and published sources of educational institutions and public institutions. The study revealed the motives that determined the main directions and results of Samara commercial and industrial circles activities aimed at providing staff to urban enterprises at the beginning of XX century. The author highlights a special role of Samara entrepreneur organizations, and first of all, the society of clerks and the Exchange society in the creation of a commercial school and a trading school. The author emphasizes that the established lower and secondary commercial educational institutions met the needs of the local business community. It is noted that the commercial school was focused mainly on the training of students for admission to universities (mostly technical), while trade schools and commercial courses provided the city with the necessary specialists majoring in Economics. As a result, the author comes to the conclusion that the local institutional conditions for higher economic school establishment in Samara in the early XX century was not developed, the rate of commercial education development depended on the economic development of the region.

scholarly journals Creating the Belgrade waterfront identity through a prism of architecture and urban planning competitions

Spatium ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 74-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslava Petrovic-Balubdzic
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Future Planning ◽  
European Cities ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City ◽  
Over Time

The architecture and urban planning competitions are a form of architectural activity that bring creative ideas important for parts of cities or territories, and they can precede the creation of future planning documentation. At the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century, the competitions were occasionally used for solving the most important problems in urban structure of cities. In this respect, Belgrade joined many important European cities. The great urban planning competitions influenced the urban planning solutions and the creation of the waterfront identity. This paper analyses three examples of great public urban planning competitions that were organized at the time of important turning point in the development of waterfronts of the rivers Sava and Danube. This research opens up the question of a specific role of competitions that marked the theoretical and practical problems of their time. Investigating the views of the city, authentic ambiences and recognizable images of the city, the participants provided numerous answers that have influenced the existing identity of the Belgrade waterfront area over time.

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