United States

Essays

From Universal Basic Income to Guaranteed Basic Income: An Experiment for Cities on the Brink

Marc Doussard - 17 December 2024

Surprisingly, US cities have led the charge in basic-income experiments, despite the country’s aversion to social...

Debates

The Banality of Innovation: Mythic Discourse and the Long Road to Shore Power in New York City

Iain McDavid - 3 December 2024

If the New York City Economic Development Corporation is committed to the city’s “green transformation, ” then why is...

Essays

The Impact of Tort Reform Liability Shields During the Covid‑19 Pandemic: Hyper-Preemption in the States

Davia C. Downey & William M. Myers - 1 October 2024

The Covid‑19 pandemic exposed how federal and state preemption hamstrings local policymaking. Using the case of tort...

Interviews

“There Is No Excused Absence in Prison”

Tanisha Cannon & Dylan O’Donoghue - 19 July 2024

More than 150 years after the passage of the 13th Amendment, the fight to abolish forced labor in the United States...

Essays

On a Road to Nowhere? Military Urbanism and the Architecture of Segregation

Tim Cunningham - 3 May 2024

Comparing the experiences of Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the United States, Tim Cunningham shows how physical...

Essays

Breaking Down the NYPD: How Reconsidering Political District Maps Could Open New Doors to Police Accountability

Toby Irving - 16 February 2024

Efforts to stem the power of the NYPD and the violence such power facilitates require accountability to the people...

From the Field

The Black Radical Imagination in a Rural Forgotten Space

Brad Stephens & Chris Stephenson & Max O. Stephenson Jr. - 16 January 2024

How does the Black Radical imagination manifest in “forgotten places” amid shifting populations? Brad Stephens, Chris...

From the Field

We Are From Nairobi (#panthershit): Black Power Spatial Imaginaries in Silicon Valley

Kimberley S. Johnson - 17 October 2023

East Palo Alto’s Black, Latiné and Pacific Islander residents deploy #panthershit—a Black Power spatial imaginary as a...

Essays

Navigating Jefes Fantasmas in New York City’s Urban Platform Economy

Jackson Todd - 3 March 2023

How has the “platform economy” altered urban life, infrastructure, and labor? Jackson Todd examines New York City’s...

Reviews

The Black Middle Class, or the Harsh Reality of the American Dream

Sylvie Tissot & translated by Oliver Waine - 24 January 2023

The suburbs of the United States, once the epicenter of racial segregation, are now home to more African Americans...

Essays

Visualizing “Superdiversity” in New York City

H. Jacob Carlson - 8 November 2022

A new set of visualization and mapping tools focused on “superdiversity” shows the complexity and intersectionality...

Essays

New Tourism Geographies and the Politics of Tourist Taxation

Elizabeth Strom - 7 June 2022

The changing geography of urban tourism has led to new forms of political contestation. How hotel-tax revenues are...

From the Field

Starve the Beast: Community-Owned and Community-Controlled Composting as an Alternative to Incineration in Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant - 31 May 2022

Nicole Fabricant documents organizing efforts in Baltimore, led by youth of color, against a trash-to-energy...

From the Field

The Spectacle of Reuse: Recirculating Urban Salvage at Pittsburgh’s Construction Junction

Susan M. Ross - 29 April 2022

Susan M. Ross examines a building-materials reuse center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arguing that it is an...

From the Field

The Promises and Realities of Data-Driven Community Development

Austin Harrison - 22 February 2022

Tennessee nonprofit Innovate Memphis has spent nearly a decade designing the Memphis Property Hub, a public data...

Reviews

Reconsidering Wasteways from Boston to Seattle

Lisa Jean Moore - 1 February 2022

Throughout the Covid‑19 pandemic, with disposable masks and endless testing, garbage proliferates. It is extremely...

Reviews

(Re)Constructing Inequality: Community Development in Public and Private

Claire Dunning - 14 December 2021

Claire Dunning reviews Jeremy R. Levine’s new book, Constructing Community, an ethnographic study of community...

Reviews

Infrastructure Financing and the Bonds of Inequality

Rachel Weber - 19 October 2021

Rachel Weber reviews historian Destin Jenkins’ new book, The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the...

From the Field

Covid-19 Transformed New York’s Destination Food Markets

Ivana Mellers - 5 October 2021

Ivana Mellers analyzes how New York’s destination markets—key spaces of economic and social interactions—coped during...

From the Field

Between Two Crises: New York’s Artisanal Food Startup Founders

Nga Than - 28 September 2021

The Covid‑19 pandemic forced a pause to a decade of growth for New York City’s artisanal food startups. Strategies...

From the Field

Can the New Economy Survive without Coffee Shops (and Their Wi‑Fi)?

Thomas R. Chung - 21 September 2021

Thomas R. Chung argues that coffee shops play an important role in the creative and tech sectors of the...

Series

New York Dossier: The Food Industry Faces the Covid‑19 Pandemic

Sharon Zukin - 14 September 2021

Metropolitics is pleased to present the second dossier coordinated by faculty and students in the PhD program in...

Essays

Teacher Unionism and the Bargain for the Common Good

Claire Cahen - 6 July 2021

Rank-and-file teachers across the United States challenge their unions to embrace social democratic ideals, and...

Reviews

A Social Portrait of the Subprime Crisis

Camille François & translated by Oliver Waine - 14 May 2021

What have been the social and urban consequences of the subprime mortgage crisis, and what lessons can be learned...

Reviews

The Ancestors of Pandemic Pets and Vector Animals

Lisa Jean Moore - 11 May 2021

How has the place—and role—of animals in the city evolved over the last two centuries, and what bearing have these...

From the Field

Reflections on Four Years of Housing-Justice Support Work with Mapping Action Collective

Sachi Arakawa & Tim Hitchins - 13 April 2021

Mapping Action Collective, based in Portland, Oregon, leverages mapping and data to support housing-justice...

Interviews

“Every Eviction is an Act of Violence”

Tara Raghuveer & Joshua Akers - 23 March 2021

Josh Akers interviews researcher, organizer, and activist Tara Raghuveer about her work with KC Tenants in Kansas...

Interviews

Fighting for Housing Justice: An Interview with Two Youth Organizers in Curtis Bay, Baltimore

Nicole Fabricant & Carlos Sanchez & Terriq Thompson - 16 March 2021

Two Baltimore youth organizers discuss the importance of community land trusts, for housing and beyond. Series:...

From the Field

Electoral Organizing During a Pandemic: Lessons from Wisconsin

Aaron Shapiro - 12 January 2021

The global Covid‑19 pandemic has radically altered social and political practices. Aaron Shapiro reflects on the...

From the Field

Post-Election Dispatches from Luzerne County, Pennsylvania

Jamie Longazel - 22 December 2020

Jamie Longazel reflects on organizing for the 2020 general election in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. A longtime...

previous page | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | next page

Other resources online

Partners