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Identity of Cities and City of Identities pp 15–83Cite as

Identity and the City

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Abstract

It is always difficult to explore, navigate through, and experience cities that lack identity or are identity-less. Some cities have little to offer in terms of their uniqueness, and some offer more in various ways. This argument is brought into discussion in later parts of this chapter. Before doing so, we delve into the relationship between identity and the city by first defining the concept of urban identity.

The identity of place is not a simple tag that can be summarised and presented in a brief factual description. Nor can it be argued that there is a real or true identity of a place that relates to existential insideness…[however]…the identity of place takes many forms, but it is always the very basis of our experience of this place as opposed to any other.

—Edward Relph, Place and Placelessness, 1976, p. 62

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Acknowledgements

Parts of the chapter are published by the author, in a paper titled: “Urban Identity as a Global Phenomenon: Hybridity and Contextualization of Urban Identities in the Social Environment”. We would like to thank the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment and acknowledge the original source of publication available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10911359.2014.966222.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture and Built Environment, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

    Ali Cheshmehzangi

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  1. Ali Cheshmehzangi
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Correspondence to Ali Cheshmehzangi .

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Cheshmehzangi, A. (2020). Identity and the City. In: Identity of Cities and City of Identities. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3963-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3963-3_2

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