Review article
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.24.3.02
Between Utopia and Non Place – Contemporary Suburban Space
Sara Ursić
orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-4383
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
Space on the urban edge as well as settlements that are part
of that space are considered to be specific contemporary
socio-spatial laboratories. Edge settlements, towns or
villages, are affected by the central city which penetrates into
its surroundings in multiple ways, some of which are visible,
spatial transformations, but many are manifested at symbolic
level and therefore represent a set of relationships that
define space. The definition of suburbanization and all other
related processes is based on the analysis of the key
concepts such as urbanization, space and place and the
consequences for the urban and suburban everyday life that
emerge from the reconceptualization of those concepts.
Starting from the presumption that we are all witnessing
planetary suburbanism, this paper analyzes the process of
suburbanization and focuses on contemporary spatial trends
in edge settlements. Suburbanization processes are studied
from a sociological perspective, which implies the expansion
of the urban way of life and departure from strict definitions
of cities and their surroundings by stressing the permeability
of the urban boundaries in contemporary spatial
classification. In this paper, the author attempts to explain the
main agents of suburbanization and its socio-spatial results
by rethinking the process of suburbanization through process
dynamics, spatial and social dynamics as well as through
research of the conceptual and semantic richness that has
emerged in recent decades.
Keywords
suburbanization; suburbs; edge space; non place; city
Hrčak ID:
149873
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2015.
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