Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World

Sharon Zukin

Published by University of California Press 1991

Landscapes of Power

From Detroit to Disney World

Sharon Zukin
Edited by: Sharon Zukin

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520913899

Overview
Contents

About this book

The momentous changes which are transforming American life call for a new exploration of the economic and cultural landscape. In this book Sharon Zukin links our ever-expanding need to consume with two fundamental shifts: places of production have given way to spaces for services and paperwork, and the competitive edge has moved from industrial to cultural capital. From the steel mills of the Rust Belt, to the sterile malls of suburbia, to the gentrified urban centers of our largest cities, the "creative destruction" of our economy--a process by which a way of life is both lost and gained--results in a dramatically different landscape of economic power. Sharon Zukin probes the depth and diversity of this restructuring in a series of portraits of changed or changing American places. Beginning at River Rouge, Henry Ford's industrial complex in Dearborn, Michigan, and ending at Disney World, Zukin demonstrates how powerful interests shape the spaces we inhabit. Among the landscapes she examines are steeltowns in West Virginia and Michigan, affluent corporate suburbs in Westchester County, gentrified areas of lower Manhattan, and theme parks in Florida and California. In each of these case studies, new strategies of investment and employment are filtered through existing institutions, experience in both production and consumption, and represented in material products, aesthetic forms, and new perceptions of space and time. The current transformation differs from those of the past in that individuals and institutions now have far greater power to alter the course of change, making the creative destruction of landscape the most important cultural product of our time. Zukin's eclectic inquiry into the parameters of social action and the emergence of new cultural forms defines the interdisciplinary frontier where sociology, geography, economics, and urban and cultural studies meet.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Introduction
1 Market, Place, and Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 "Creative Destruction": The Inner Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
3 The Urban Landscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Five Twentieth-Century Landscapes
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
4 Steel town: Power and Autonomy in Weirton, West Virginia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
5 Motown's Steeltown: The Power of Productive Labor in Detroit Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
6 The Mill and the Mall: Power and Homogeneity in Westchester County Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
7 Gentrification, Cuisine, and the Critical Infrastructure: Power and Centrality Downtown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
8 Disney World: The Power of Facade / The Facade of Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Conclusion
9 Moral Landscapes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 338
Keywords: Urban; Sociology; Social Science

eBook

Published: August 31, 1991
ISBN: 9780520913899

Paperback

Planned Publication: August 31, 1991
ISBN: 9780520082885