Grad kao tekst
City as Text

Author(s): Srđan Radović
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences
Published by: Biblioteka XX vek
Summary/Abstract: The time has long passed since we could say about anthropologists that they are “well known to be agoraphobic and antiurban by definition,” considering that a broad set of circumstances have brought researchers closer to the “other” and “exotic” in their own surroundings, frequently in urban surroundings. The city and urban culture have by now become traditional terrains of anthropology and ethnology, as well as an object of research in other disciplines. The city has become over time a site of general interest, a theme of both academic and public discussion, and questions related to the urban are considered and analysed from the most diverse perspectives. This interest in the problematics of the city is entirely predictable if one takes into account what appears to be the irreversible course of advancing urbanisation and the ever-increasing success and visibility of urban environments. In this light it is understandable that one might say, “if it is true that we are part of a civilisation that is irredeemable urban … then it is natutal that there should appear a growth in interest for something that we might call destiny .” Or, as a well-known Yugoslav architect observed, “the fact that since time immemorial, the idea of the city has been surrounded by a rich halo of picturesque images, tells us that humans have always been obsessed with the search for the meaning of the city; that could also be taken to mean that humans early on sensed its central importance.”

• Details
• Contents