ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book analyses the mechanisms used in the artificial construction, projection and manipulation of the image of the city and to reveal the main motives behind this 'economy of appearances'. It explores the role of the mega-event spectacle as a powerful instrument of deception and disguise in the accelerated transformation of the urban environment. The book suggests that controlling the image of the city is a way for economically and politically powerful elites to control society, to reshape it according to their own devices and to serve their own interests. It explores the highly divisive and exclusionary character of many state-led urban image-construction interventions, which often seek to exclude elements of society that are deemed irrelevant to the new economy.
