Authenticity and Urbanism: A Critical Inquiry

This book investigates authenticity, an important but controversial cultural concept, and its relevance for urban socio-spatial processes. Defining authenticity as an evaluative relationship with an origin, it unpacks a range of origins from a critical, non-essentialist perspective: self, author, substance, event, time, place and society.

Authenticity is a key concept in contemporary culture. It was selected as the word of the year 2023 by Merriam-Webster, it is significant for UNESCO in des...