ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the general portrait of the practice of urban image construction and discusses its growing role in contemporary urban policy. It examines the transformative effects of mega-events on the urban landscape of their host cities and discusses how these events contribute to the coalescence of neoliberal policies in the service of capital. The book focuses on the conceived image of the city as a cognitive product, made of mental, abstract and discursive representations. It outlines the city's physical landscape, both natural and man-made, which is subjected to a transformation process in order to conform, as much as possible, to the picture-perfect vision imagined by city marketers. The book also focuses on social image construction and is concerned with the conscious and planned management of human activity and the control, regulation and normalization of the city's social environment.
