This chapter is a part of the general exposition of the main ideas discussed in the book. Reviewing the early scholarship, it traces the gradual but steady shift of focus from the spatial to the psycho-social to contextualise the conjuncture of imagination and the city towards an understanding of the city as an affective force. Focusing on de Certeau’s take on the lived city and Appadurai’s enunciation of imagination as a social practice, the discussion in this chapter situates the main proposition of the book in the socio-cultural turn of city writings.