1st Edition

Sport, Leisure and Culture in the Postmodern City

Edited By Stephen Wagg, Peter Bramham Copyright 2009
    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    232 Pages
    by Routledge

    The widespread concept of the 'postmodern city' is frequently linked to the decline of traditional manufacturing industries and a corresponding wane of white working-class culture. In place of these appear flexible working practices, a diversified workforce, and a greater emphasis on consumption, leisure, and tourism. Illustrated by an interdisciplinary study of Leeds, a typical postmodern city, this volume examines how such cities have reinvented themselves - commercially, politically and spatially - over the past two decades. The work addresses issues like cultural policy, city-centre development, sport, leisure and identity, and explores different urban processes in relation to changing configuration of class, gender and ethnicity in the postmodern city.

    List of Contributors; Chapter 1 Introduction, Peter Bramham, Stephen Wagg; Chapter 2 Leeds — Becoming the Postmodern City, Peter Bramham, John Spink; Chapter 3 Cranes Over the City: The Centre of Leeds, 1980–2008, Janet Douglas; Chapter 4 Mission or Pragmatism? Cultural Policy in Leeds Since 2000, Jonathan Long, Ian Strange; Chapter 5 The History Boy: Made in Leeds, Peter Bramham; Chapter 6 Leeds and the Topographies of Race: In Six Scenes, Ben Carrington; Chapter 7 Nowt for Being Second: Leeds, Leeds United and the Ghost of Don Revie, Stephen Wagg; Chapter 8 Dreams of Parkside and Barley Mow, Karl Spracklen; Chapter 9 “Off with their Headscarves, on with their Football Kits?”: Unveiling Myths and Exploring the Identities of British-Muslim Female Footballers, Aarti Ratna; Chapter 10 Barcelona of the North? Reflections on Postmodern Leeds, Stephen Wagg, Peter Bramham;

    Biography

    Dr Peter Bramham is Reader in Leisure Studies and Professor Stephen Wagg is Reader in Sport and Society at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

    'A detailed and perceptive dissection of the postmodern transformation of the English city of Leeds, this book offers some fascinating insights into the complex processes of contemporary urban change and how its impacts are experienced by people who live in post-industrial cities. An authoritative, assured and highly readable account.' Stephen Williams, Staffordshire University, UK ’This text would be an interesting read for anyone who has interests in urban development and the cultural changes that may come along with it. Political aspirations and economic imperatives, intertwined with physical space and local/migrant cultures and races, show how Leeds provides a good example of an industrial city reinvented into a postmodern space.’ Annals of Leisure Research 'Sport, Leisure and Culture in the Postmodern City is an engaging account and affords a detailed analysis of the key historical, sociological and economic drivers that have and look to continue to shape Leeds as a city.' Australian Planner