Networked Urbanism: Social Capital and the City

摘要

Networked Urbanism offers an important critique of the idea of social capital by viewing it through the lens of urban geography and network theory. This tripartite engagement of ideas begins to produce an account of urban social life that feels real in contrast to much theoretically driven work that seems to smooth away the texture of urban social life. It is neither snide nor celebratory in tone and conveys an 'eyes wide open' attitude to actually existing social ties as well as social isolation. Most importantly, but in a piecemeal fashion, it lays the ground work for a more fruitful understanding of how changes in the flow of capital, the material infrastructure of urban life, and the functioning of public and private institutions relate to the simultaneous construction of social capital and urban space.