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SECTION:
Culture in the Outskirts of the Cities
Chair of the section/Suggestions, Abstracts, Papers to:
Axel Borsdorf / Email: Vera Mayer (Innsbruck/Vienna)
ABSTRACT: For decades the growth of cities has no longer taken place in the centers but in the outlying areas. In the framework of this process it is no longer the case today, as at the beginning of the so-called "suburbanization," that only the dwelling function is being shifted from the inner to the outer part of the city. Today the centripetal movement encompasses also the secondary sector, and particularly the highly ranked third and fourth ranked business sectors. Shopping centers (malls), office buildings and industrial parks arise "on the green meadow," and many people living in these outlying communities of large cities visit the downtown centers only rarely. They work, take care of their needs for living, are educated and find relaxation all within the fringe zones, the "fat belt" of the cities.
For a long time now it has no longer been possible to designate these zones as "suburban." They are no longer supplemental areas of the inner cities, standing in close, functional interconnection with them. To describe the new quality of the outlying areas, terms like "intermediary city" (Sieverts) or "postsuburbia" (Priens) have been coined, but they do not do proper justice semantically to the phenomenon.
How does culture look in these outlying areas? As long as the fringes of the city had only a suburban quality, the inhabitants of the "suburbs" had to rely on the city centers for culture. To be sure, the suburban residential areas developed a "subculture," which frequently was sustained by the non-mobile youth, for whom the city center lay out of reach and thus was unable to provide them with activities.
Have the outlying areas, which today are functionally much more independent, also been able to develop culturally in addition to their economic qualities? Which elements of spatial, social, cultural, political or economic reality of the border zones provide a sense of identity or meaning for the inhabitants? The answer to these questions is not only of academic interest, but also touches on very related questions such as the quality of life and living, the security for endangered social groups, building planning, redevelopment and many others.
This section will examine the following questions:
Inter or transdisciplinarity , transnationality and the formulation of new theories and methods are basic preconditions for the research approach to this theme.
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