Imaginative critique of the contemporary city

Abstract

In this article we introduce the contributions of different authors to a critique of contemporary urban phenomena. We begin pinpointing both the relevance and the epistemic limits of the city in the frame of the social sciences. We then develop a series of arguments that stress the main limitations of the dominant trend in environmental psychology dedicated to the study of urban phenomena. Consequently, we advocate an interdisciplinary, critique, reflexive and comprehensive approach to the study of the city. Finally, we synthesise the texts composing the monograph. The aim is to provide some materials for an epistemological, theoretical and methodological critique of urban environmental psychology, on the one hand, and to promote the imagination as a powerful and thorough instrument of knowledge, on the other hand.