Urban symbolism expresses itself through different phenomena, such as the layout
of a city, architecture, statues, street and place names, poems, as well as rituals,
festivals and processions; another strand consists of myths, novels, films, poetry, rap,
music, songs and websites, all of which can be called symbol bearers. Many cities have
multiple symbol bearers, of which one is usually the most dominant. There are four types
of symbol bearers so far: material, discursive, iconic and behavioral (Nas, Jaffe and
Samuels, 2006). In this introduction, examples of these four types will be presented. After
describing material symbolism, which is the traditional terrain of urban symbolic ecology,
as indicated by the cases of Jakarta and Cape Town, we will present the discursive
symbolism of Tournai and Kortrijk. Discursive symbols reflect urban images and narratives.
Iconic symbolism or signifiers consist of people representing cities. These can be
either individuals or groups which are sacral or profane in nature, as can be seen in the
cases of Kevelaer and Memphis. Subsequently in the section on behavioral symbolism,
pertaining to activities such as rituals, festivals and demonstrations, Leiden and Haarlem
are illustrated. These four clusters of symbol bearers will be followed by the exploration
of emotional aspects of city symbolism within the cases of The Hague and
Colombo. After discussing these types of symbol bearers, this introduction will finish
with a short presentation of the chapters of the book.