Sharon Zukin’s Naked City poses a powerful critique of the idea of “authenticity” as a defining and desirable characteristic of urban places. Focusing on the transformation of New York City neighborhoods in recent decades, Zukin argues that the desire to find an authentic urban experience has often provided a starting point for the revitalization of once-derelict parts of the city. In doing so, however, the artists, hipsters, and even community gardeners who claimed that such spaces unintentionally made the areas more hospitable to intensive capital investment, paving the way for the gentrification, commodification, and homogenization (through chain stores) of the very neighborhoods that they once sought out as unique urban places.
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Book Review – Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places
Sharon Zukin’s Naked City poses a powerful critique of the idea of “authenticity” as a defining and desirable characteristic of urban places. Focusing on the transformation of New York City neighborhoods in recent decades, Zukin argues that the desire to find an authentic urban experience has often provided a starting point for the revitalization of once-derelict parts of the city.
