ABSTRACT
Streets, as Jane Jacobs reminds us, have always held a particular fascination for those
interested in the city. Streets are the terrain of social encounters and political protest,
sites of domination and resistance, places of pleasure and anxiety. Located at the
intersection of several academic disciplines, the street is also the focus of many theor-
etical debates about the city concerning modern and, more recently, postmodern
urbanism. For modernists the street is a space 'from which to get from A to B, rather
than a place to live in', displacing the street 'from lifeworld to system', (Lash and
Friedmann, 1992: 10); for postmodernists, the street is a place designed to foster
and complement new urban lifestyles, reclaiming the street from system to lifeworld.
Exploring these and many other readings of the street, this volume subjects the street
to sustained critical scrutiny. An international, cross-disciplinary set of essays, it
