Varieties of Urban Experience

Michael Ian Borer is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Furman University. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology and M.A. in Religious Studies from Boston University. He has contributed essays to City & Community, Journal of Popular Culture, Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, and Space & Culture. He is active in the academic community and a frequent presenter at scholarly conventions focused on sociology, urban studies, and cultural studies.

Cities play an important role in contemporary American culture as sites of commerce, trade, entertainment, and the arts. We can learn a lot about what Americans believe and how they act upon those beliefs by looking at the ways our cultural dramas are continually played out on the city's stage. The complexity and sheer variety of urban experiences can be overwhelming. In clear prose, the essays in this volume decipher some of these experiences and offer fresh analytical insights. Without relying on one theoretical, disciplinary, or ideological framework, the contributors collectively explore the city as an identity marker, an artist's muse, a cultural hybrid, and a place many call home. Issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and power are present in American cities and are therefore present within this collection. Most importantly, these essays acknowledge the hard work required to keep something as large and complex as a city running. The authors show how people practice culture and the ways that culture is expressed through myths, rituals, images, and places.

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Acknowledgements Chapter 3 1. Cultural Analysis and the American Urban Landscape Chapter 4 2. Religion in the City: Confronting the "Other" Every Day Chapter 5 3. Community, Commerce, and Consumption: Businesses as Civic Associations Chapter 6 4. The Occupation of New Orleans: Reactive Performance and the Creation of Place Chapter 7 5. The Chrysler Building as Sacred Space in Matthew Barney's Cremaster 3 Chapter 8 6. Artland and Barnsdall Park: Cultural Politics, Public Art, and Competing Visions of Civic Space in 1920s Los Angeles Chapter 9 7. The Los Angeles Anti-Myth and Southern California Sense of Place: Navigating a Mediated Landscape Chapter 10 8. Between the Past and the Future: The "Present" Politics of U.S. Immigration Chapter 11 9. Italian American Urban Landscape: Images of Social and Cultural Capital Chapter 12 10. Lost in Boston Chapter 13 About the Contributors Chapter 14 Index