Introduction to the book review special issue: insight into the contemporary cities: narratives and images of five European cities

摘要

According to the United Nations, by 2008, more than half of the world's population lived in cities and by 2030, 5 billion of the projected world population of 8 billion will be city dwellers (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Population Division 2012). From an historical perspective, cities are where economic, social and cultural innovations take place: densely populated cities produced new forms of social relations based upon the specialization of industries, the rise of new divisions of labour and the creation of a competitive economic environment that spurred industrial innovation and cultural creativity. Significant economic changes reflect their effects on urban culture and society and make necessary to rethink and to re-examine the way of conceptualizing and describing the urban reality. These reasons point out the curiosity to look at the contemporary narratives about the cities.