Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften Communicative Cities in the 21st Century: The Urban Communication Reader III: 3

This book explores the concept of the communicative city, developed initially by participants in an international Urban Communication Foundation initiative, by bringing together scholars from across the communication arts and sciences seeking to enhance our understanding of the dynamic relationship between urban residents and their social, physical, mediated, and built environments. The chapters are arranged in categories that speak to two larger themes: first, they all speak to at least one aspect of the qualifying and/or disqualifying characteristics of a communicative city. A second, larger theme is what we might refer to as a master trope of the urban experience and, indeed, of urban communication: inside/outside. The research presented here represents social scientific and humanistic approaches to communication, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and positivist/normative and interpretive orientations, thereby providing a deeper understanding of the multi-level phenomena that unfold in urban communities. Review «This text examines the myriad ways in which 'the city is constituted through communication.' In doing so, it provides a significant and well-crafted contribution to extant work on the diverse ways in which cities, considered in part (parks, buildings, casinos), or in whole (communication audit) function communicatively. While the topics are varied, the essays reflect a common concern with specific themes (inside/outside) and offer a highly coherent set of analyses.» (Raymie McKerrow, Ohio University) «A first-rate addition not only to the growing field of urban communication. Demonstrating the maturation of the scholarship, the book takes as its central theme the 'communicative city.' The richness of this phrase is well demonstrated in the excellent essays that range from critical engagements with urban spaces, to interpretation of spatial representations, to the ways interpersonal, communal, and mediated communication make and remake the city.» (Greg Dickinson, Colorado State University) About the Author Matthew D. Matsaganis (PhD, University of Southern California) is Assistant Professor in the Communication Department at the State University of New York at Albany. He is co-author of Understanding Ethnic Media: Producers, Consumers & Societies (2011). His research has been published in numerous journals. Victoria J. Gallagher (PhD, Northwestern University) is Professor of Communication and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at North Carolina State University. Gallagher has published articles in many journals as well as in edited book collections. Susan J. Drucker (JD, St. John’s University School of Law) is Professor in the Department of Journalism/Media Studies, School of Communication, Hofstra University. She is an attorney, and treasurer of the Urban Communication Foundation. She is the author and editor of 10 books, over 100 articles and book chapters, and co-editor of two previous volumes of the Urban Communication Reader.