Re-thinking the post-crash city: vacant space, temporary use and new urban imaginaries?

Abstract

Cities are at the forefront of some of the most profound social and environmental changes taking place globally. As centres of technological and economic development, hubs for international migrants and refugees, key focal points in geopolitical disputes and the home of growing proportions of the world’s population, cities are increasingly spaces where the stabilities and instabilities of the contemporary world are at their most intense. Yet, cities are also important actors, sustaining the mobility of people and ideas, and enabling inhabitants to make sense of, respond to, and imagine change within particular institutional and ideological frameworks. Imaginaries of the city, defined by the interactions between different social groups and sets of laws, values, institutions and symbols (Sartre, 1940) abound and this special issue tracks how these are evolving in the context of Dublin, Ireland in the period since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).