ABSTRACT
Physical changes in the urban landscape produce new constellations of public spaces that reshape the sensuous, lived experience of place. Taking as a starting point Richard Sennett’s remarks that ‘[d]iscussions of the senses lack much direct engagement in physical realities’ (1998: 19), this chapter discusses the crucial role that senses play in framing power relations in the built environment. In our everyday encounters with the city, we tend to forget that the city is a human-made product and therefore reflects and expresses the values of a society (Lefebvre 1991; Markus 1993). Urban landscapes can be understood as places in which certain preferred meanings and practices are ingrained in their physical texture in order to maintain relations of power. In other words, cities are ideological constructions. Of course individuals can either go along with, ignore, or subvert these environments. Hence the organization of urban experience can be understood as a constant negotiation between an imposed order and individual agency. It is within this space of negotiation that power is felt, ‘when someone acts in a way which they would otherwise not have done – regardless of whether or not they choose to’ (Allen 2000: 10).
