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Despite strong forces toward globalization, much of late 20th century urbanism demonstrates a movement toward cultural differentiation. Such factors as ethnicity and religious and cultural heritages have led to the concept of hybridity as a shaper of identity. Challenging the common assumption that hybrid peoples create hybrid places and hybrid places house hybrid people, this book suggests that hybrid environments do not always accommodate pluralistic tendencies or multicultural practices. In contrast to the standard position that hybrid space results from the merger of two cultures, the book introduces the concept of a third place and argues for a more sophisticated understanding of the principal.
In contributed chapters, the book provides case studies of the third place, enabling a comparative and transnational examination of the complexity of hybridity. The book is divided into two parts. Part one deals with pre-20th century examples of places that capture the intersection of modernity and hybridity. Part two considers equivalent sites in the late 20th century, demonstrating how hybridity has been a central feature of globalization.
List of contents
Preface
Hybrid Culture/Hybrid Urbanism: Pandora's Box of the "Third Place" by Nezar Alsayyad
Identity and Tradition in Premodern UrbanismCross-Cultural Currents: Swahili Urbanism in the Late Middle Ages by Thomas R. Gensheimer
Orchestrating Difference, Performing identity: Urban Space and Public Rituals in Nineteenth-Century Izmir by Sibel Zandi-Sayek
California Chinatowns: Built Environments Expressing the Hybrid Culture of Chinese Americans by Christopher L. Yip
A Colonial Portrait of Jerusalem: British Architecture in Mandate-Era Palestine by Ron Fuchs and Gilbert Herbert
Modernity, Globalization and Urban Form
Stages of Globalization in the African Context: Mombasa by Ali A. Mazrui
Rethinking Heritage Politics in a Global Context: A View from Istanbul by Ayfer Bartu
Learning From Chinatown: The Search for a Modern Chinese Architectural Identity, 1911-1998 by Anne-Marie Broudehoux
Building Culture in Divided Berlin: Globalization and the Cold War by Greg Castillo
Porous Boundaries: Fence Patterns and Mexican-American Identity in San Antonio, Texas by Robert Mugerauer
The Reverse Side of the World: Identity, Space, and Power by Ananya Roy
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
NEZAR ALSAYYAD is Professor of Architecture and Planning and Chair of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California-Berkeley. He has been director of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments and chief editor of its journal,
Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review since 1988. His published books include
Cities and Caliphs (Greenwood, 1991) and
Forms of Dominance (1993).
