Editing City (section)

=== Culture and communications ===
[[File:Paris - Eiffelturm und Marsfeld2.jpg|thumb|[[Paris]] is one of the best-known cities in the world.<ref>{{cite book|first=Emma|last=Nathan|title=Cities: Eye Openers|year=2002|page=2|isbn=978-1567115963|publisher=[[Blackbirch Press]]}}</ref>]]
[[File:Nepalese Dancers at Heritage Days, Edmonton.jpg|thumb|[[Nepal]]ese dancers at [[Edmonton Heritage Festival]], in [[Alberta]], Canada, an example of the cultural diversity of a city]]
Cities are typically hubs for [[education]] and [[the arts]], supporting [[university|universities]], [[museum]]s, [[temple]]s, and other [[cultural institutions]].<ref name=Marshall14 /> They feature impressive displays of [[architecture]] ranging from small to enormous and ornate to [[Brutalist architecture|brutal]]; [[skyscraper]]s, providing thousands of offices or homes within a small footprint, and visible from miles away, have become iconic urban features.{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=84–85}} Cultural elites tend to live in cities, bound together by shared [[cultural capital]], and themselves play some role in governance.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zheng |first=Jane |date=2017-05-19 |title=Toward a new concept of the 'cultural elite state': Cultural capital and the urban sculpture planning authority in elite coalition in Shanghai |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2016.1255531 |journal=Journal of Urban Affairs|volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=506–527 |doi=10.1080/07352166.2016.1255531 |s2cid=149125180 |issn=0735-2166|url-access=subscription }}</ref> By virtue of their status as centers of culture and literacy, cities can be described as the locus of [[civilization]], [[human history]], and [[social change]].<ref>McQuillan (1937/1987), §§1.04–1.05. "Almost by definition, cities have always provided the setting for great events and have been the focal points for social change and human development. All great cultures have been city-born. World history is basically the history of city dwellers."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Redfield |first1=Robert |last2=Singer |first2=Milton B. |year=1954 |title=The Cultural Role of Cities |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1151661 |url-status=live |journal=Economic Development and Cultural Change |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=53–73 |doi=10.1086/449678 |issn=0013-0079 |jstor=1151661 |s2cid=154664764 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815091004/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1151661 |archive-date=2018-08-15|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Density makes for effective [[mass communication]] and transmission of [[news]], through [[herald]]s, printed [[proclamation]]s, [[newspaper]]s, and digital media. These communication networks, though still using cities as hubs, penetrate extensively into all populated areas. In the age of rapid communication and transportation, commentators have described urban culture as nearly ubiquitous<ref name=HugoEtAl2003 /><ref>Magnusson (2011), p. 21. "These statistics probably underestimate the degree to which the world has been urbanized, since they obscure the fact that rural areas have become so much more urban as a result of modern transportation and communication. A farmer in Europe or California who checks the markets every morning on the computer, negotiates with product brokers in distant cities, buys food at a supermarket, watches television every night, and takes vacations half a continent away is not exactly living a traditional rural life. In most respects such a farmer is an urbanite living in the countryside, albeit an urbanite who has many good reasons for perceiving himself or herself as a rural person."</ref><ref>Mumford (1961), pp. 563–567. "Many of the original functions of the city, once natural monopolies, demanding the physical presence of all participants, have now been transposed into forms capable of swift transportation, mechanical manifolding, electronic transmission, worldwide distribution."</ref> or as no longer meaningful.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Theall |first1=Donald F. |title=The virtual Marshall McLuhan |last2=Carpenter |first2=Edmund |date=2001 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-7735-2119-3 |location=Montreal}}</ref>

Today, a city's promotion of its cultural activities dovetails with [[place branding]] and [[city marketing]], [[public diplomacy]] techniques used to inform development strategy; attract businesses, investors, residents, and tourists; and create [[collective identity|shared identity]] and [[sense of place]] within the metropolitan area.<ref>Ashworth, Kavaratzis, & Warnaby, "The Need to Rethink Place Branding"; in Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth (2015), p. 15.</ref><ref name=Wachsmuth2014 /><ref>Adriana Campelo, "Rethinking Sense of Place: Sense of One and Sense of Many"; in Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth (2015).</ref><ref name=KerrOliver2015>Greg Kerr & Jessica Oliver, "Rethinking Place Identities", in Kavaratzis, Warnaby, & Ashworth (2015).</ref> Physical inscriptions, [[Historical marker|plaques]], and [[monument]]s on display physically transmit a historical context for urban places.{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | p=186–189}} Some cities, such as [[Jerusalem]], [[Mecca]], and [[Rome]] have indelible religious status and for hundreds of years have attracted [[pilgrim]]s. Patriotic tourists visit [[Agra]] to see the [[Taj Mahal]], or [[New York City]] to visit the [[World Trade Center (2001–present)|World Trade Center]]. [[Elvis]] lovers visit [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] to pay their respects at [[Graceland]].{{sfn | Latham | McCormack | McNamara | McNeill | 2009 | pp=41, 189–192}} Place brands (which include place satisfaction and place loyalty) have great economic value (comparable to the value of commodity [[brand]]s) because of their influence on the [[decision-making]] process of people thinking about doing business in—"purchasing" (the brand of)—a city.<ref name=KerrOliver2015 />

[[Bread and circuses]] among other forms of cultural appeal, attract and entertain [[commoner|the masses]].<ref name=MoholyNagy1968p136>Moholy-Nagy (1968), pp. 136–137. "Why do anonymous people—the poor, the underprivileged, the unconnected—frequently prefer life under miserable conditions in tenements to the healthy order and tranquility of small towns or the sanitary subdivisions of semirural developments? The imperial planners and architects knew the answer, which is as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago. Big cities were created as power images of a competitive society, conscious of its achievement potential. Those who came to live in them did so in order to participate and compete on any attainable level. Their aim was to share in public life, and they were willing to pay for this share with personal discomfort. 'Bread and games' was a cry for opportunity and entertainment still ranking foremost among urban objectives."</ref><ref>Fred Coalter, "[http://storre.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/1742 The FIFA World Cup and Social Cohesion: Bread and Circuses or Bread and Butter?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010005333/http://storre.stir.ac.uk/handle/1893/1742 |date=10 October 2017 }}"; International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education ''Bulletin'' [http://www.icsspe.org/content/no-53-cd-rom 53] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706111108/http://www.icsspe.org/content/no-53-cd-rom |date=6 July 2017 }}, May 2008 (Feature: Feature: "Mega Sport Events in Developing Countries").</ref> Sports also play a major role in city branding and local [[Identity (social science)|identity]] formation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schimmel |first=Kimberly S. |year=2015 |title=Assessing the sociology of sport: On sport and the city |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1012690214539484 |journal=International Review for the Sociology of Sport|volume=50 |issue=4–5 |pages=591–595 |doi=10.1177/1012690214539484 |s2cid=142777232 |issn=1012-6902|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Cities go to considerable lengths in competing to host the [[Olympic Games]], which bring global attention and tourism.<ref name=Ward2008>Stephen V. Ward, "Promoting the Olympic City"; in John R. Gold & Margaret M. Gold, eds., ''Olympic Cities: City Agendas, Planning and the World's Games'', 1896–2016; London & New York: Routledge (Taylor & Francis), 2008/2011; {{ISBN|978-0-203-84074-0}}. "All this media exposure, provided it is reasonably positive, influences many tourist decisions at the time of the Games. This tourism impact will focus on, but extend beyond, the city to the country and the wider global region. More importantly, there is also huge long term potential for both tourism and investment (Kasimati, 2003). <br> No other city marketing opportunity achieves this global exposure. At the same time, provided it is carefully managed at the local level, it also gives a tremendous opportunity to heighten and mobilize the commitment of citizens to their own city. The competitive nature of sport and its unrivalled capacity to be enjoyed as a mass cultural activity gives it many advantages from the marketing point of view (S.V. Ward, 1998, pp. 231–232). In a more subtle way it also becomes a metaphor for the notion of cities having to compete in a global marketplace, a way of reconciling citizens and local institutions to the wider economic realities of the world."</ref> Paris, a city known for its cultural history, was the site of the most recent Olympics in the summer of 2024.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-01-25 |title=Olympics: Paris rushing to complete construction work by 2024. |work=Real Estate Monitor Worldwide |publisher=SyndiGate Media Inc. |url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A734480538/ITOF?u=anon~a4ae51c2&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=73cfb234 |via=Gale General OneFile}}</ref>