About the Book
The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and the City provides a comprehensive study of current and future urban issues on a global and local scale. Premised on an ‘engaged’ approach to urban anthropology, the volume adopts a thematic approach that covers a wide range of modern urban issues, with a particular focus on those of high public interest. Topics covered include security, displacement, social justice, privatisation, sustainability, and preservation. Offering valuable insight into how anthropologists investigate, make sense of, and then address a variety of urban issues, each chapter covers key theoretical and methodological concerns alongside rich ethnographic case study material. The volume is an essential reference for students and researchers in urban anthropology, as well as of interest for those in related disciplines, such as urban studies, sociology, and geography.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Engaging the City and the Future Setha Low Part I: Precarity 1. Precarious Detachment: Youth Modes of Operating in Hyderabad and Jakata AdbouMaliq Simone 2. Precarious Labor, Inequality and Public Space: Trash Collectors and Ambulant Vendors in Buenos Aires, Argentina Mariano Perelman 3. Homelessness and the City Tom Hall 4. Disproportionate Barriers and Challenges: Urban Minority Male Life Cycles in Philadelphia Bill McKinney Part II: Displacement and Mobility 5. Displaced, Misplaced, Re-placed: In Search of an Understanding of 'Race' and Urbanity - Evidence from Cape Town Annika Teppo 6. Affect, Race and Generative Fieldsites in Urban Anthropology Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas and Ulla Berg 7. (Im)mobilizing Bangkok: Toward an Ethnography of Urban Circulation Claudio Sopranzetti 8. Moving through the Contested City: Automobility and Civic Culture in Beirut, Lebanon Kristin Monroe Part III: Security and Insecurity 9. Security and Technology Carolina Frossard and Rivke Jaffe 10. Airports, from Vital Systems to Nervous Systems Mark Maguire and Réka Pétercsák 11. Security and Insecurity in Fragile Urban Fabrics: A Suburb in Norway Thomas Hylland Eriksen 12. Making Sense of the New Europe: National Anxieties and Everyday Life in Amsterdam Anouk de Koning Part IV: Environment and Sustainability 13. Environmental Gentrification: Sustainability and the Just City Melissa Checker 14. Incremental Gentrification: Upgrading and Predicaments of Making (Indian) Cities Slum Free Ursula Rao 15. Tackling Pollution with Care: Everyday Politics and Citizen Engagement in Auckland, New Zealand Eveline Dürr and Jeannine-Madeleine Fischer 16. Engaging with Sustainable Urban Mobilities in Western Europe: Urban Utopias Seen Through Cycling in Copenhagen Malene Freudendal-Pedersen Part V: Citizenship, Rights, and Social Justice 17. Racialized Citizenship in the Modern American City, Ethnographically Considered John Jackson 18. A Right to the City? Housing Rights and Liberal Property Regimes in Santiago, Chile Edward Murphy 19. Neighbourhood Grassroots Organizations and Rights to the City in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil Maria Gabriela Hita and John Gledhill 20. Marxist Urbanism Meets the Spector of Communism: Anthropological Engagements with Master-Planned Projects and Mass Dispossession in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam Erik Harms Part VI: Built Environment and Spatial Governance 21. Beyond Neoliberalism: The High Line and Urban Governance Julian Brash 22. The Semiotics of Urbanness: Lifestyle Centers and the Commodified City Gabriella Modan 23. Governing Through Garbage: Waste Infrastructure Breakdown and Gendered Apathy in Vietnam Christina Schwenkel 24. African Materiality: The Sociospatial Analysis of Urban Housing Deborah Pellow 25. The Past and the Future of Ritualized Sociality in Open Urban Spaces: The Corso in Southeastern Europe Vesna Vucinic Neskovic Part VII: Financialization and Privatization 26. Financialization and Shifting Urban Growth Regimes in Hong Kong and China Alan Smart 27. Guilty Subjects: New Geographies of Blame in the Aftermath of the U.S. Housing Market Collapse Jeff Maskovsky 28. 21st Century City Form in Asia: The Private City Tom Looser Part VIII: Heritage Preservation and Cultural Expression 29. Ethics and Profits: Economic Development, Hospitality and the Preservation of Urban Heritage Michael Herzfeld 30. Gender, Art and the Reshaping of the Urban in Amman, Jordan Aseel Sawalha 31. Dancing, Design Methods and the Politics of Space in Kampala: An Accidental Ethnography Elizabeth Chin 32. Lisbon is Black: An Argument of Presence Derek Pardue 33. Brazilian Popular Music and the City Ruben Oliven
About the Author :
Setha Low is Professor of Anthropology, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Geography), Environmental Psychology, and Women’s Studies at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA. Her most recent books are Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place (2017), and Spaces of Security: Ethnographies of Securityscapes, Surveillance and Control (2019), edited with M. Maguire. She is former President of the American Anthropological Association and served as Deputy Chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations.
Review :
'This provocative collection truly engages anthropology with pressing questions we face as scholars, students and citizens. Bringing together well-established scholars and new voices worldwide, it combines sensitive ethnographies and thoughtful analyses of belonging, rights and transformative actions that speak to all of us who live and work in global cities.'
Gary McDonogh, Bryn Mawr College, USA
'A bold and spirited collection that addresses ever more pressing concerns about urban inequalities, precarity, mobility, governance, sustainability and heritage with a deep commitment to public engagement and activism. This is an anthropology that leaps off the protected library shelf and takes part in the cut and thrust of urban living as it unfolds.'
Emma Tarlo, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
'This thought-provoking, creative, and insightful handbook underscores cultural anthropology’s continued relevance to urban studies, and is a call to action for social justice in the city—truly inspiring work and a must-read for those who are fascinated by urban lives the inner workings of cities.'
Suzanne Scheld, California State University, Northridge, USA, and SUNTA President-Elect
'A compelling, extensive, and powerful collection of insightful anthropological works that examine the pervasive neoliberal transformations of urban life across the globe, from Asia and Africa, to Europe and the Americas. [...] Not an ordinary volume on urban studies, but a timely and thought-provoking book that propels urban anthropology into the post-neoliberal era.'
Swee-Lin Ho, National University of Singapore
"Through rich ethnographic case studies from around the world, the volume offers a comprehensive overview of contemporary urban problems and provides creative solutions for grappling with them."
Samir Shal
