Subjectivity and the Transformation of Urban Spatial Experience

Philosophical and sociological writers who extol the role of subjectivity and its capacity to transform urban spatial experience have been largely overlooked by housing researchers. As a consequence research remains largely focused on physical and spatial renewal. While physical renewal is important, other experiences - for example the gentrification process in which middle-class households move into run down areas shunned by most inhabitants - suggest that individual subjectivity can have an important role in transforming urban spatial experience. There is a strand of literature, across a range of academic disciplines, that advances the view that an ability to live successfully in large conurbation's is partly contingent on the utilisation of our own imaginative capacity as a means of transcending what are usually seen as oppressive and hostile environments. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the inter-disciplinary literature that extols the importance of subjectivity and assess its utility for contemporary debates about housing and urban renewal. Can these texts offer new ways of conceptualising the urban environment and, more importantly, be of practical relevance for policy-making

Aesthetics · Economic geography · Epistemology · Geography · Sociology · Subjectivity · Transformation (genetics · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Philosophy · Public Spaces through Art

• Food, Senses, and Urban Transformation

  Open Access•Asiye Nisa Kartal, Hasan Basri Kartal•Journal of Contemporary Ethnography•2026

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• Rural-Urban Chinese Migration and an Architectural Investigation of the Urban Village in Shenzhen

  Yulei Wang, Gul Kacmaz Erk•The International Journal of…•2022

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• The Poetics of Cartography and Habitation

  D Rogers•Housing Theory and Society•2013

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• A Glint of Lights in the Fog

  Open Access•Dalila Colucci, P L Sacco•Journal of Planning Education and…•2021

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• Un Making Public Housing Towers

  Open Access•Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia•Home Cultures•2014

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• Emotional boundaries of public involvement in city improvement

  Open Access•Anastasiia Galaktionova•Cities•2021

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• The fool, the hero, and the sage

  Elizabeth Nixon, Elizabeth R Nixon•Consumption Markets & Culture•2020

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• Urban Sociology, Capitalism and Modernity

  Open Access•Mike Savage, Alan Warde et al.•Urban Sociology, Capitalism and…•1993

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• Geographical imaginations

  Derek Gregory•Geographical imaginations•1994

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• Housing and Social Theory

  Jim Kemeny•Housing and Social Theory•2013

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• Places on the Margin

  R Shields•Places on the Margin•2013

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• The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City

  David Ley, David H Ley•The new middle class and the…•1997

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• Everyday Life and Cultural Theory

  B Highmore•Everyday Life And Cultural Theory•2002

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• Discourse Analysis

  Annette Hastings•Housing Theory and Society•2000

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• The policy and implementation of the housing role in community care—a constructionist theoretical perspective

  Chris Allen•Housing Studies•1997

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• The social construction of housing management

  Bridget Franklin, David Clapham•Housing Studies•1997

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• Identities, Citizenship and Power in the Cities

  Open Access•Rob Imrie, Steven Pinch et al.•Urban Studies•1996

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• The Social Construction of Housing Management Research

  Open Access•David Clapham•Urban Studies•1997

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• Lowering the Drawbridge

  Open Access•Craig M Gurney•Urban Studies•1999

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• The City Unbound

  Open Access•J M Jacobs•Urban Studies•1993

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• The American City

  Gilbert James, Anselm L Strau et al.•American Sociological Review•1970

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• Simmel on culture

  Open Access•Gary D Jaworski•Journal of the History of the…•1998

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