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Space and Culture
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The Material and Visual Cultures of Cities

Karen Wells

Birkbeck College, University of London

The author adapts Lefebvre's (1991) triadic theorisation of the production of space to the study of objects and ways of seeing in cities. Governmental power is condensed in monuments, planning, mapping, and film; capital organises the spaces and events of the city through the circulation of commodities and the destruction and reconstruction of urban space. Local cultures of consumption on one hand and spectacular events on the other shape the lived experience of the urban. In tracing the history and networks of things and images, the article unravels the reification and fetishisation of urban life that would hide the power relations that structure everyday life within the glittering spectacle of the commodity or the smooth veneer of the monument.

Key Words: surveillance • cinema • town planning • monuments • spectacle • capital • Lefebvre

Space and Culture, Vol. 10, No. 2, 136-144 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1206331206298544
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