Berlin, Alexanderplatz Transforming Place in a Unified Germany [Hardcover]

A benchmark study in the changing field of urban anthropology,Berlin, Alexanderplatzis an ethnographic examination of the rapid transformation of the unified Berlin. Through a captivating account of the controversy around this symbolic public square in East Berlin, the book raises acute questions about expertise, citizenship, government and belonging. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the city administration bureaus, developers offices, citizen groups and in Alexanderplatz itself, the author advances a richly innovative analysis of the multiplicity of place. She reveals how Alexanderplatz is assembled through the encounters between planners, citizen activists, social workers, artists and ordinary Berliners, in processes of popular participation and personal narratives, in plans, timetables, documents and files, and in the distribution of pipes, tram tracks and street lights. Alexanderplatz emerges as a socialist spatial exemplar, a future under construction, an object of grievance, and a vision of robust public space. This book is both a critical contribution to the anthropology of contemporary modernity and a radical intervention in current cross-disciplinary debates on the city.

Weszkalnys undertakes a fascinating exploration of the planning process, the intellectual debate and political contest over reconstruction, and the multiple roles of citizenship in the reunified city.? ??H-Net Reviews

This volume contributes significantly to the now well established body of literature analyzing urban places, and it does so by viewing a specific plaza ethnographically& Weszakalnys study of a plaza demonstrates the rich potential insights from a careful, nuanced examination of urban institutions, political symbolism, residents, state functionaries, and the places in which they dwell.? ??PoLAR

[This] is a thought provoking analysis of the squares multifaceted meanings l“õ