Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cities are full of symbols that bear the meanings that together cons titute urban culture. These interdisciplinary case studies, from Yogyak arta to Leiden and from Buenos Aires to New York, employ urban symbolis m theory and a focus on such symbols as the city's layout, statues, str eet names and popular culture. This book examines design proposals that show symbolic handling of the 9/11 attack on New York, the disaster sy mbolism of the ship washed ashore by the tsunami in Banda Aceh, and the design of the symbol of the city of Cape Town derived from a remnant o f Dutch colonial architecture, or the mass pilgrimage to Elvis's Gracel and in Memphis. 'Cities Full of Symbols' develops urban symbolic ecolog y and hypercity approaches into a new perspective on social cohesion. A pproaches of architects, anthropologists, sociologists, social geograph ers and historians converge to make this a book for anyone interested i n urban life, policymaking and city branding.--Cover.