Matters of Revolution: Urban Spaces and Symbolic Politics in Berlin and Warsaw After 1989

Public symbols in urban spaces have a significant impact on political revolutions. This book explores why social movements require the affirmation or destruction of material icons and public monuments, and why some symbols are more potent than others. It also examines why people exhibit nostalgic attachments to some symbols of the controversial past and vehemently oppose others. The book argues that revolutionary action needs objects and sites that concretize the transformative redrawing of symbolic boundaries between the sacred and profane, good and evil, before and after, and progressive and reactionary. Public symbols provide indispensable visibility to human values and social changes, and have their own gravity with profound cultural ramifications.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 31 March 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Symbols hold immense significance, particularly in public spaces, exerting a powerful influence on our lives. In the digital age, their relevance remains unwavering. This book delves into the profound importance of urban symbols to political revolutions, exploring the myriad reasons why social movements require the affirmation or destruction of various material icons and public monuments. It examines the varying lifecycles of different classes of symbols, why some seem more potent than others, and why individuals exhibit nostalgic attachments to some symbols of the controversial past while vehemently opposing others. The book also explores what sustains and threatens the social life of icons through comparative analyses of major iconic processes following the epochal revolutions of 1989 in Berlin and Warsaw. It argues that revolutionary action necessitates objects and sites that concretely redefine the symbolic boundaries between the sacred and profane, the good and evil, the past and the present, and the progressive and reactionary. Public symbols, embedded within urban spaces, provide invaluable visibility to human values and social changes, serving as affective topographies that externalize collective feelings. Their presence and durability hold profound meaning, and the revolutionary rituals of preservation and destruction directed at these spaces carry their own gravity with profound cultural ramifications. This volume appeals to sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, and social theorists with interests in urban studies, public heritage, material culture, political revolution, and social movements.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367705732