Zones of tradition - places of identity : cities and their heritage / Gerhard Vinken.

Includes bibliographical references.

SETTING THE FRAMEWORK : The Heritage of Cities: An introduction -- The Crises of the Modern City: Place and trajectorial space -- The Distinctiveness of Cities: Heritage as a mode of reproduction -- The Spaces of the Monument: Exposing - framing - zoning -- ZONING THE CITY. HERITAGE AND MODERNITY : Tashkent / Uzbekistan: Conflicting relations. Mahalla, Soviet modernism, global city -- Basel / Switzerland: The Heimat Zone. Planning the 'historic' town -- New York / USA: Zoning in America. Beauty, history and real estate -- D�usseldorf / Germany: Size matters. Modern megastructures as heritage -- DOING TRADITION. HERITAGE POLITICS AND IDENTITY-BUILDING : Cologne / Germany: Islands of tradition. Heritage politics from the Nazi Era to Postwar Reconstruction -- Berlin / Germany: Monumental revision. A capital between ruin and restoration -- Palermo / Italy: A dark legacy. Surviving through remembering -- Frankfurt / Germany: Clone city. An insatiable thirst for authenticity -- RECLAIMING HERITAGE. CONFLICT, CONTESTATION, CANONIZATION : Palermo / Italy: Appropriations. The canonization of the city in early travel literature -- New York / USA: Sharing heritage? Heinrich Heine in the Bronx -- Salvador da Bahia / Brazil: Whose heritage? Globalization and local practices in the Pelourinho District -- New Orleans / USA: Contested heritage. African-American culture in a southern city.

"What is the heritage of our cities? Which are the monuments, places, and spaces in which it accumulates, and by which practices is it formed, handed down, appropriated? Gerhard Vinken takes the readers to twelve cities on three continents and analyses the diverse and contradictory heritage formations that have had a lasting impact on urban life. The vitality of urban heritage, as these vivid and in-depth case studies show, lies in the dynamic and often conflictual processes of social appropriation and interpretation. Covering a diverse range of themes, the book familiarizes the reader with important questions and theories in urban research and heritage studies."--Publisher description.