How do cities change? Writers, artists, urban planners and sociologists explain this

How does the city change with modernization? An analysis of metropolises in transformation (in particular London, Paris and New York), through the “eyes” not only of urban planners and sociologists, but also of writers, painters, musicians and photographers. This is the insight offered by Giandomenico Amendola in his “Looks on the modern city. Narrations and representations by urban planners, sociologists, writers and artists” (Edizioni Dedalo; New library series Dedalo), a volume that will be presented and told at the Museo Novecento on November 22 at 6pm by Sergio Givone, Francesco Gurrieri, and by the artistic director Sergio Risaliti, in dialogue with the author.

Amendola’s essay deals with the theme of cities profoundly transformed by the modernization process in an interdisciplinary way. The great changes due to the industrial revolution and the rise of the bourgeoisie not only affect the physical form and social organization of cities, but also the conscience and experience of individuals. The culture and the ways in which the city is seen and represented have changed, the gazes have changed. The great transformation – still in progress – is narrated and represented by poets, novelists, painters, photographers and musicians who, unlike urban planners and sociologists, see the city from below, with the eye of everyday life, grasping its variety and richness sometimes better of the experts. The volume therefore analyzes, in addition to the works of urban planners and sociologists, those of writers and artists, showing how they manage not only to represent the “new city”, but also to offer “new eyes” to read and face the complex world of the metropolis.