Imagining Global Amsterdam

Imagining Global Amsterdam gaat over het beeld van Amsterdam in film, literatuur, visuele kunst en in het moderne stedelijke discours, in het bijzonder in de context van de mondialisering. De essays gaan onder andere dieper in op Amsterdam als een lieu de mémoire van de vroeg-moderne wereldhandel. Wat betekent deze herinnering in de hedendaagse cultuur? Waarom verwijzen zo veel contemporaine films en romans naar dit verleden terug? Ook het (inter)nationale imago van Amsterdam als een multicultureel en ultra-tolerant ‘%x;global village’%x; komt aan bod. Waarom is dit beeld zo persistent, en hoe heeft het zich in de loop van de laatste decennia ontwikkeld? Tot slot wordt ingegaan op de vraag hoe mondialiseringsprocessen ingrijpen in de stadscultuur, zoals in het prostitutiegebied op de Wallen en via de erfgoedindustrie. Hoe manifesteert de mondialisering zich in de stad, en welke rol speelt beeldvorming daarbij? Deze bundel vormt een rijk geschakeerd onderzoek naar de relatie tussen Amsterdam, mondialisering en stedelijke beeldvorming. Marco de Waard is als docent literatuurwetenschap verbonden aan het Amsterdam University College.

Imagining Global Amsterdam brings together new essays on the image of Amsterdam as articulated in film, literature, art, and urban discourse, considered within the context of globalization and its impact on urban culture. Subjects include: Amsterdam's place in global cultural memory; expressions of global consciousness in Amsterdam in the 'Golden Age'; articulations of Amsterdam as a tolerant, multicultural, and permissive 'global village'; and globalization's impact 'on the ground' through city branding, the cultural heritage industry, and cultural production in the city. Written by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, and united by a broad humanities approach, this collection forms a multifaceted inquiry into the dynamic relationship between Amsterdam, globalization, and the urban imaginary.

Imagining Global Amsterdam brings together new essays on the image of Amsterdam as articulated in film, literature, art, and urban discourse, considered within the context of globalization and its impact on urban culture. Subjects include: Amsterdam's place in global cultural memory; expressions of global consciousness in Amsterdam in the 'Golden Age'; articulations of Amsterdam as a tolerant, multicultural, and permissive 'global village'; and globalization's impact 'on the ground' through city branding, the cultural heritage industry, and cultural production in the city. Written by an interdisciplinary team of scholars, and united by a broad humanities approach, this collection forms a multifaceted inquiry into the dynamic relationship between Amsterdam, globalization, and the urban imaginary.

Selling Sex in the City offers a worldwide analysis of prostitution since 1600. It analyses more than 20 cities with an important sex industry and compares policies and social trends, coercion and agency, but also prostitutes' working and living conditions.

An endlessly entertaining portrait of the city of Amsterdam and the ideas that make it unique, by the author of the acclaimed Island at the Center of the World Tourists know Amsterdam as a picturesque city of low-slung brick houses lining tidy canals; student travelers know it for its legal brothels and hash bars; art lovers know it for Rembrandt's glorious portraits. But the deeper history of Amsterdam, what makes it one of the most fascinating places on earth, is bound up in its unique geography-the constant battle of its citizens to keep the sea at bay and the democratic philosophy that this enduring struggle fostered. Amsterdam is the font of liberalism, in both its senses. Tolerance for free thinking and free love make it a place where, in the words of one of its mayors, "craziness is a value." But the city also fostered the deeper meaning of liberalism, one that profoundly influenced America: political and economic freedom. Amsterdam was home not only to religious dissidents and radical thinkers but to the world's first great global corporation. In this effortlessly erudite account, Russell Shorto traces the idiosyncratic evolution of Amsterdam, showing how such disparate elements as herring anatomy, naked Anabaptists parading through the streets, and an intimate gathering in a sixteenth-century wine-tasting room had a profound effect on Dutch-and world-history. Weaving in his own experiences of his adopted home, Shorto provides an ever-surprising, intellectually engaging story of Amsterdam.

Politics and Cultures of Liberation: Media, Memory, and Projections of Democracy focuses on mapping, analyzing, and evaluating memories, rituals, and artistic responses to the theme of “liberation.” How is the national framed within a dynamic system of intercultural contact zones highlighting often competing agendas of remembrance? How does the production, (re)mediation, and framing of narratives within different social, territorial, and political environments determine the cultural memory of liberation? The articles compiled in this volume seek to provide new interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives on the politics and cultures of liberation by examining commemorative practices, artistic responses, and audio-visual media that lend themselves for transnational exploration. They offer a wide range of diverse intercultural perspectives on media, memory, liberation, (self)Americanization, and conceptualizations of democracy from the war years, through the Cold War era to the 21st century.

Universities are increasingly criticised for their limited relevance to a globalized and unequal world. Drawing on research from over 27 countries, this book outlines new directions for universities and the need to rethink the education that they provide based on the experiences of schools of international development studies.

In terms of design, scale, and blending of ecologicical and aesthetic function, Amsterdam’s seventeenth-century Canal District is a European marvel. Its survival for four centuries is a testament to its ingenuity, reflected in its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2010. The Canal District today is an extraordinary example of resilient historic design and cultural heritage in a living city, but it is not without present-day challenges: in recent years, its urban ecology has become subject to severe pressures of global tourism and supergentrification. This edited volume brings together seventeen reputable scholars to debate questions about the origins, evolution, and future of the Canal District. With these differing approaches and perspectives on the Canal District the contributions render a collection where the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. The book breaks new ground in our understanding of the District’s historic design, its evolution over four hundred years, and the fundamental issues in future-facing strategies and policies. While the main focus is clearly on Amsterdam, the discussions in this collection have an important bearing on broader questions of urban historic preservation elsewhere, and on questions about enduring urban design.

This book offers a unique contemporary perspective on the interdisciplinary study of time. It will open paths for new approaches regarding narrative structure and urgency. These are themes that are becoming increasingly relevant during our times.

Passion and Control explores Dutch architectural culture of the eighteenth century, revealing the central importance of architecture to society in this period and redefining long-established paradigms of early modern architectural history. Architecture was a passion for many of the men and women in this book; wealthy patrons, burgomasters, princes and scientists were all in turn infected with architectural mania. It was a passion shared with artists, architects and builders, and a vast cast of Dutch society who contributed to a complex web of architectural discourse and who influenced building practice. The author presents a rich tapestry of sources to reconstruct the cultural context and meaning of these buildings as they were perceived by contemporaries, including representations in texts, drawings and prints, and builds on recent research by cultural historians on consumerism, material culture and luxury, print culture and the public sphere, and the history of ideas and mentalities.