Knowing the City

Abstract

What does it mean to know a city? Considering and synthesising two options—namely, that knowing a city is comparable to knowing a person and that a city is a process rather than a thing—this article explores how we can reasonably maintain to know a city. Taking cues from the everyday sense of understanding the question and using the example of the flâneur, walking is explored as a prime option to get to know the city by means of immersion. Participatory and procedural knowledge are identified as central to knowing a city in the relevant way, and will illuminate unexplored paths to understanding the question of what a city is and does.