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'...this is a book with an interesting thesis, and
a welcome contribution to the literature. Pile has
opened up a productive theoretical and empirical space
for further study and exploration' - RGS-IBG Urban
Geography Research Group
What is real
about city life? Real Cities shows why it is
necessary to take seriously the more imaginary,
fantastic and emotional aspects of city life.
Drawing inspiration from the work of Walter
Benjamin, Sigmund Freud and Georg Simmel, Pile explores
the dream-like and ghost-like experiences of the city.
Such experiences are, he argues, best described as
phantasmagorias. The phantasmagorias of city life,
though commonplace, are far from self-evident and little
understood. This book is a path-breaking exploration of
urban phantasmagorias, grounded empirically in a series
of unusual and exciting case studies.
In this study,
four substantial phantasmagorias are identified: dreams,
magic, vampires and ghosts. The investigation of each
phantasmagoria is developed using a wide variety of
clear examples. Thus, voodoo in New York and New Orleans
shows how ideas about magic are forged within cities.
Meanwhile vampires reveal how specific fears about sex
and death are expressed within, and circulate between,
cities such as London and Singapore. Taken together,
such examples build a unique picture of the diverse
roles of the imaginary, fantastic and the emotional in
modern city life.
What is "real" about the city has
radical consequences for how we think about improving
city life, for all too often these are over-looked in
utopian schemes for the city. Real Cities
forcefully argues that an appreciation of urban
phantasmagorias must be central to what is considered
real about city life.
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