ABSTRACT
From their beginning cities have functioned as centers of technical and cultural achievement and of social differentiation, as places of diversity, change, and fluidity. Due to the process of modernization – the unparalleled expansion of cities, increased industrialization and growth of urban population that started both in Europe and in Japan during the nineteenth century – urban reality became more and more fragmented and complex. At the turn of the twentieth century the modern age was characterized by scientific progress on the one hand and by cultural pessimism on the other. Rising nationalism, fear of war, the alienating effects of industrialization and urban growth on daily life, the deepening gap between rich and poor – all these factors contributed to the perception of modern, and mainly urban, life as a condition of alienation, discontinuity, and acceleration. People recognized a deep break with the past and felt that they were living in a time of transition and crisis. Furthermore, in the age of imperialism, the capital cities became not only important sites for the representation of national identity, but also melting pots in which the individual was forced to find a new self-identity in accordance with the ideology of building a nation. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, in urban discourse as well as social and political thought, the question of the citizen and his or her relationship to the urban community and the nation gained importance. 2
