Goede wijn behoeft toch krans: Sociologie en literatuur over herinnering en stads volk

Samenvatting

Personal favorites in the field of urban sociology are reviewed, focusing on the influence of modern Western urban life on urbanites' memories. William I. Thomas's work, notably (with Florian Znaniecki) The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918-1920), is deemed most noteworthy in the field, both for its historical value and its detailed descriptions of daily life. Siegfried Kracauer's work, eg, Die Angestellten: Aus dem neuesten Deutschland ([The Salaried Masses: Duty and Distraction in Weimar Germany, 1930), is recommended, noting how it describes the exoticism of ordinary life in a way that is relevant for modern readers in Berlin and other cities alike. Pierre Plateau's Stadsgevoel. Het geheugen van de stenen ([Sense of City. The Stones' Memory] 1999), a more literary-oriented book about Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium, is also deemed an excellent example of interesting urban sociology. Notes on these authors' lives are included. 13 References. S. Paul