Happy city to you too

Abstract

Aimed at theorizing about the contemporaneity of cities and focusing on them from the perspective of coexistence — and places for coexistence — among citizens, this article addresses idiosyncrasies that exemplarily represent contemporary built environments, e.g., the attractiveness of cities and their provision of happiness, the ever-increasing polysemy intermingling that which is public with that which is non-public in contemporary urban space, and the urban structuration composed of fragmentary heterotopies encompassing a multitude of actors. From the appraisal of these characteristics, their combination, and especially the concerns engendered among urban researchers, this article addresses the role of interpersonal relationships in the context of the city and their outcomes as generators of places of urbanity.