Reification and Representation: Architecture in the Politico-Media-Complex

Reification and Representation: Architecture in the Politico-Media-Complex

By Graham Cairns

The book investigates how images of architecture are used in UK and US election campaigns as advertising backdrops, sets for photo shoots, metaphors in policy arguments, and how this has silently, but fundamentally, influenced built form through the ages.

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Book Information

Publisher: Routledge
Publish Date: 08/23/2018
Pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9781138927414
ISBN-10: 1138927414
Language: English

Full Description

The relationship between politics and the public relations industry is controversial and, at times, polemic. However, one component of this relationship that has yet to be investigated is the role of architecture. Arguing for a fundamental reconfiguration of our understanding of 'political architecture', this book suggests it is not only a question of constructed buildings, but equally a case of mediated imagery.  

Considered through examples of architecture as a backdrop for photo shoots by politicians in the democracies of the United States and the United Kingdom, this book suggests these images give us both a better understanding of recent developments in the Western political economy and the architectural and urban developments of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries.

Using case studies of Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, David Cameron, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, this book represents a ground-breaking triangular analysis that will be essential reading for scholars in architecture, politics, media and communication studies.

About the Author

Graham Cairns is the author and editor of multiple books and articles on architecture as both a form of visual culture and a socio-political construct.

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