Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

Cities and their natures are often unacknowledged but nevertheless potent characters in the telling of stories. In many cases the ideas about cities that are promulgated by architectural theorists find their way in to stories in the many diverse ways stories are made, absorbed and told. They are found in oral traditions, novels, short stories and in poetry. In many cases it is an abstract idea of urban life that is the character: but it is a diminished idea of “The City” that is referenced: the spectator of K´s ordeal (in Kafka´s “The Trial”) seen at a window and looking from a window need not be in Prague. However in many cases the city is a full character in the narrative, it is so entangled with the identity of the the other (human) protagonists that it achieves the status of a character in itself. Studying this phenomenon is a way of revealing the special character of any city under consideration and helps to find an understanding of its “Local Culture”. By virtue of the commonalities of the urban experiences across the global scale, something essential can be understood about Local Cultures and Global Places. This proposed presentation will identify and explore 3 instances of this in 3 very different cities. These cities are Glasgow , London, and Hong Kong. It will primarily focus on Glasgow, where the author has deepest knowledge and connections, but will relate these experiences directly to London, where the author has lived and worked, and to Hong Kong where the author visits regularly and teaches. It is intended that the juxtapositions and analyses of several stories and poems from each of these places will illustrate a new way of listening to stories that will reveal much of how a city infuses our identities.