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- Olshammar, Gabriella, 1968
(författare)
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To dock in on the future: Dystopic science fiction scenarios and urban sustainable visions
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of urban cultural studies. - : Intellect. - 2050-9790 .- 2050-9804. ; 2:3, s. 347-356
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the future worlds of science fiction novels, societal and physical dilemmas are at least as pressing as those we encounter on Earth today. These novels show, by way of far-reaching technology and fantastic creativity, how the human race has overcome extraordinary physical, language and social challenges. Still, no matter how fictitious the portraits of extraterrestrial habitats or space travels, the narra- tives seem deeply attached to the worst imaginable breaches between affluent and poor. The images of glittering towers that stand side by side with self-made shacks are, in fact, not much different from documented inequalities and distressed living conditions on Earth. This article addresses how a handful of science fiction novels express something of importance about contemporary urban environments. The aim is to spur a consideration of urban sustainable visions, and the discussion delves into two rhetoric questions: what is so tempting about the frequently used settings, with their excessive divides between rich and poor? Further, might such dystopian and frightening fictions possibly be more effective to think about visionary plans for future cities than utopian ones?
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| 2. |
- Lund, Martin, 1984-
(författare)
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'X marks the spot' : Urban dystopia, slum voyeurism and failures of identity in District X
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Urban Cultural Studies. - : Intellect Ltd.. - 2050-9790. ; 2:1-2, s. 34-56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article studies the ‘imaginative mapping’ of a real-world neighbourhood in one comic book series: lower Manhattan’s Alphabet City in writer David Hine and artists David Yardin and Lan Medina’s District X (July 2004–January 2006). In contrast to a long-standing claim to ‘realism’ in Marvel’s use of New York City, this article argues that the real Alphabet City – at the time a contested and rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood – is nowhere to be found in District X, replaced by a voyeuristic fabrication, a sensationalistic node of concentration for middle-class fears about urban decline and blight amid prosperity and contemporary discourses about drugs, crime and homelessness that reproduces long-standing cultural representations of the neighbourhood as different and inferior. In doing so, the series polices a boundary of identity, empathy and imagination and tells readers that force in favour of clearing out radical difference in the neighbourhood and making it into a space fit for ‘normal’ people is natural, rational and logical and in the best interest even of those who might be displaced by gentrification, disproportionately incarcerated in the name of ‘law and order’, or put at risk of their lives in dangerous shelters.
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