Presentation Dossier: The City as a social and historical construction

Abstract

Whatever the temporal space of history we are analyzing, whether we are referring to the Greek polis, the medieval, baroque, bourgeois or globalized cities of the 21st century, the construction of the city constitutes, in essence, a dynamic process that has no end, since over time this construction is redefined and transformed - without this process implying a linear evolutionary development. It is also social insofar as it is the agents and groups that construct it and integrate it into the framework of their practices. It expresses and materializes social, economic and cultural differences, conflicts and political changes, beliefs and symbols. It is, at the same time, the product of a society and a space that enables and conditions social interaction and agents' practices. It generates imaginaries and produces meanings.