Book Review: Real Cities by Steve Pile: London : Sage, 2005, 216 pp, £21.99 paperback ISBN 076197042

Real Cities explores the phantasmagorias of cities, specifically dreams, magic, vampires and ghosts. The rationale for focusing on the dream-like and ghost-like experiences of cities is partly due to their relative neglect within the urban literature. As Donald has long argued, "the discourses, symbols, metaphors and fantasies through which we ascribe meaning to the city . . . (are) as important a topic for the social sciences as the material determinants of the physical environment. (1992)".

In order to explore the ‘structures of feeling’ of cities – arguably ‘real cities’– it is necessary to engage with emotional and even unconscious urban worlds.