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Zukin, Sharon. Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Arguing that landscape is the major cultural product of our time, sociologist Sharon Zukin applies the concept "creative destruction" to five different types of contemporary landscapes present in a global, deindustrialized, postindustrial, service economy. Case studies of a company town (Weirton), an industrial city (Detroit), an affluent corporate suburbs (Westchester County), theme parks (Disney), and gentrified downtowns (New York, Chicago, Boston), illustrate the author's main concern: the extent to which market culture affects sense of place. Zukin contends that abstract forces stemming from the market economy detach people from social institutions and overpower their attachment to place, especially in the shift to a consumer economy. The result is that cultures of places are forced to conform to private, market values rather than to public vernacular ones. Among other consequences, architecture becomes less distinctive, taking on a market-oriented franchise look. Places, Zukin argues, become "nonplaces" in global markets. Although most of her evidence is drawn from events faced by actual workers and community members, as for example, when steel workers were confronted by a possible shut down, other sources describing the human impact of such decisions include contemporary novels. The attention offered cultural texts--including paintings--exemplifies Zukin's awareness of the presence of a variety of landscapes in any setting and the dynamic relationship that exists between them. In the end Zukin calls for the return of moral and public values to processes of decision-making that impact decisions about place. A complex work, Landscapes of Power ably illustrates how large-scale forces impact individual lives and communities in very concrete and often intimate ways. [B. Johansen]