FUNCTIONALIST AND SYMBOLIC INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CITY

Abstract

At first, the theory of cities was functionalist: it insisted on the city’s role as a central place; then, it claimed that cities were commuters on communication nets and this gave way to cultural approaches. Such approaches emphasize the city’s symbolic dimension, the one responsible for uniting all those who live in it; they also stress the creativity which occurs in cities and show that the forms of communication developing there are urbanity generators. Cities have always been multicultural, a feature which has been potentialized by globalization. In a world where competition among places is very much alive, culture becomes one of the key arguments of urban marketing.