The Detective of Modernity

Exploring his unique and interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, this book emphasises David Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis.

This book explores the thought of - and is dedicated to - David Frisby, one of the leading sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Presenting original examinations of his unique social theory and underlining his interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, it emphasises Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis as society. With contributions from sociologists, cultural theorists, historians of the city, urban geographers and designers, and architectural historians and theorists, The Detective of Modernity constitutes a wide-ranging engagement with Frisby's profound legacy in social and cultural theory.

Autorentext

Georgia Giannakopoulou is Associate Lecturer in Sociology and the International Honors Program at ACG-Deree, The American College of Greece and an Aliate Researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Graeme Gilloch is Professor in Sociology at Lancaster University and the author of Walter Benjamin: Critical Constellations; Siegfried Kracauer, Our Companion in Misfortune; and Myth and Metropolis: Walter Benjamin and the City.

Zusammenfassung

This book explores the thought of and is dedicated to David Frisby, one of the leading sociologists of the late twentieth and early twenty-rst centuries. Presenting original examinations of his unique social theory and underlining his interdisciplinary approach to the critical interpretation of modern metropolitan society and culture, it emphasises Frisby's legacy in highlighting the role of the social researcher as a collector, reader, observer, detective and archivist of the phenomena and ideas that exemplify the modern metropolis as society. With contributions from sociologists, cultural theorists, historians of the city, urban geographers and designers, and architectural historians and theorists, The Detective of Modernity constitutes a wide-ranging engagement with Frisby's profound legacy in social and cultural theory.

Inhalt

Introduction; Part 1: Modernity, Metropolis and Method; 1. Critical Sociology: The Methodological Controversy; 2. Siegfried Kracauer's Metaphysics of the Passage and Methodology of Social Science; 3. The Metropolis and Emotional Life: Experience, Rifts and Knowledge; 4. The Social Experience of Urban Life: The Aesthetical Interpretation of Places and Ambiances; Part 2: Fragments and Faces; 5. The Street and the Fragment Aesthetics of Experience; Aesthetics of the Particular in David Frisby; 6. Cinematic 'Fragments of Modernity': Film and Society Revisited; 7. On the Face of Things. Béla Balázs and Siegfried Kracauer on Physiognomy and Film; Part 3: Cityscapes; *8. Fragments of Cityscapes; 9. Urban Aestheticization Processes: Cityscape, Landscape and Image; 10. Architecture and Fashion in fin-de-siécle* Vienna; Part 4: Haunts; 11. Flâneurs, Detectives and Architects; 12. Cotton and Other Threads; 13. In Search of Lost Streets; Part 5: Figures; 14. 'Hamlet wird Detektiv': Reflections on Benjamin, Kracauer and (Neo-)Noir; 15. The Collector's Touch: The Task of the Cultural Critic in the Age of Digital Media; 16. Unmasking the Flâneur