Cultures Of London

The importance of science and technology and future of education and research are just some of the subjects discussed here.

From its origin as the Roman city of Londinium through to its latest incarnation as a super-diverse World City in the twenty-first century, London's history and culture has been shaped by migration. This book expresses and celebrates the plurality of the capital's cultures and affirms the importance of migration in the making of the modern city through thirty-three short essays written by academics, artists, broadcasters and curators. Subjects range from the mediaeval to the contemporary: buildings and institutions, individuals and communities, objects, visual art, street performances and literary texts. Some contributors focus on famous people and places, like Shakespeare and St Paul's, while others explore less well-known subjects, like the Free German League of Culture (1939-46) or Ignatius Sancho, the eighteenth-century musician, grocer and man-of-letters. It is not only London's cultures which are diverse, migration is also plural. This book engages with the very many human migrations from across the globe and within the British Isles that have taken place over the last two-thousand years, as well as with the movements of plants, animals, and ideologies from other countries and continents, and the movement of natural resources and manmade toxins into and through the city. Composed of a vivid collection of snapshots, the volume offers a kaleidoscopic vision of the city and provides new insights into the successive migrant communities that have come to London and made it their own.

Richard Tames describes how London has been chronicled, described, celebrated, named, and mapped over the twenty centuries of its existence to become a city treasured even by those who have never set foot in it as a byword for innovation and diversity. This book has been written for those who, knowing London, know that it is too vast, too complex, too elusive ever to be fully known but yet would like to know it better still.

This book is a history of London from 1550 and 1750, the period of its rise to world-wide prominence. Incorporating recent work in urban history, accounts by contemporary Londoners and tourists, and fictional works featuring the city, it examines how London came to dominate the economic, political, social and cultural life of the British Isles as never before nor since.

Fans are one of the most widely-studied groups of media consumers. Emphasising the contradictions of fandom, Matthew Hills discusses how media fans have been conceptualised in cultural theory.

From the catwalk to the shopping mall, from the big screen to the art museum, fashion plays an increasingly central role in contemporary culture. Fashion Cultures investigates why we are so fascinated by fashion and the associated spheres of photography, magazines and television, and shopping. Fashion Cultures: * re-addresses the fashionable image, considering the work of designers from Paul Smith to Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan * investigates the radicalism of fashion photography, from William Klein to Corinne Day * considers fashion for the 'unfashionable body' (the old and the big), football and fashion, and geographies of style * explores the relationship between fashion and the moving image in discussions of female cinema icons - from Grace Kelly to Gwyneth Paltrow - and iconic male images - from Cary Grant to Malcolm X and Mr Darcy - that have redefined notions of masculinity and cool * makes a significant intervention into contemporary gender politics and theory, exploring themes such as spectacle, masquerade, and the struggle between fashion and feminism.

Praise for the First Edition: `I can′t think of a book in media studies that handles so well the diversity of perspectives and issues that Stevenson addresses. Whether reconstructing Marxism or deconstructing postmodernism, tackling the pleasures of soap opera or the repetitive structures of daily news presentation, Stevenson is always clear and insightful′ - Sociology The Second Edition of this book provides a comprehensive overview of the ways in which social theory has attempted to theorize the importance of the media in contemporary society. Now fully revised to take account of the recent theoretical developments associated with `new media′ and `information society′, as well as the audience and the public sphere, Understanding Media Cultures: - Critically examines the key social theories of mass communication - Highlights the work of individual theorists including Fiske, Williams, Hall, Habermas, Jameson, McLuhan and Baudrillard. - Covers the important traditions of media analysis from feminism, cultural studies and audience research. - Now includes a discussion of recent perspectives developed by Castells, Haraway, Virilio and Schiller. - Provides a glossary of key terms in media and social theory. Retaining all the strengths of the previous edition, Understanding Media Cultures offers a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the field. It will be essential reading for students of social theory, media and cultural studies.

Ten essays by British, US, and Canadian academics explore popular books, films, and television shows for clues to the meanings of youth representation in American culture. Drawing on a framework of ideas from cultural and social theory, they consider themes such as race, class, gender, power, and sexuality as well as the ideological nature of youth and its centrality to American popular culture. Originally published in 2000 as The Radiant Hour: Versions of Youth in American Culture (U. of Exeter Press). Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).