ABSTRACT
This book examines the increasingly ubiquitous presence of distinct social and spatial areas - urban villages - in our cities. Created either through the enhancement of historically distinctive areas, or by developing and generating signatures for previously economically, culturally or spatially ambiguous areas, urban villages or quarters seek to appeal to the consumption practices of the emerging nouveau riche of the professional, managerial and service classes. Promotion of conspicuous consumption - art, food, music, fashion, housing and entertainment - is at the fore in these urban 'shop windows' (Hall and Hubbard, 1998: 199). Moreover, in recognition of the complex plurality of the contemporary urban villages, more prosaic 'low' street culture, working-class traditions, ethnicity, sex and sexuality are also increasingly commodified in narratives of place. In urban villages, the symbolic framing of culture becomes a powerful tool as capital and cultural symbolism intertwine; the symbolic and cultural assets of the city are vigorously promoted - but also contested - as cities are branded as attractive places to live, work and play in.
