Metropolitics - Metropolitics

From the Field

The Flea Market of Marseille

Michèle Jolé & William Kornblum - 17 May 2016

Marseille’s flea market (“marché aux puces”) lies at the heart of a vast urban renewal project that could end up...

Debates

Technocratic Values and Uneven Development in the “Smart City”

Taylor Shelton & Jennifer Clark - 10 May 2016

In the US, the idea of “smart cities” is coming to dominate federal government involvement in, and funding for, urban...

From the Field

“Harriet Jacobs didn’t learn to read and write so that she could get an A”

C. Ray Borck - 3 May 2016

Confronted by school systems that persistently reproduce race- and class-based educational inequality, how can...

Debates

More Affordable Transit Fares

Alexis Perrotta - 26 April 2016

Low-income urban residents often struggle to afford transit fares. Seattle recently established half-fares for poor...

From the Field

Looking Inward, Across the Border

Harel Shapira - 19 April 2016

In the constellation of anti-immigrant politics in the United States, groups like the Minutemen, civilians who patrol...

Reviews

The Intimate Politics of Public Housing’s Demise

Dory Thrasher - 12 April 2016

Many ethnographies have documented the physical and institutional fragility of America’s public housing. Writing in a...

From the Field

Where Did the Bees Go? New York City Beekeeping Amid Ecological Crises

Mary Kosut & Lisa Jean Moore - 5 April 2016

The decline and extinction of bees and other pollinators threatens the global food supply. Residents in cities like...

From the Field

Childhood Spent Waiting at the Gate

Adeline Perrot & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 April 2016

The recent opening of a holding area for “unaccompanied foreign minors” at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport reflects a...

Reviews

Neighborhood Change and the Right to the City

Adam Tanaka - 29 March 2016

New York City’s Stuyvesant Town is the largest housing development in Manhattan, and also one of the most...

Essays

In Havana, Tourism Development Before the US Tsunami

Lily M. Hoffman - 22 March 2016

The easing of Cuban–US relations will likely bring a new wave of tourists to Cuba. Although the Cuban government...

Debates

Streetcars Named Desire

Luc Gwiazdzinski & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 March 2016

Luc Gwiazdzinski provides an original and critical analysis of the changes affecting today’s cities and contemporary...

Reviews

Dawn of the Indebted: Zombie Neoliberalism Hits the Big Screen

Desiree Fields & Tom Gillespie - 8 March 2016

As the tremors of the 2008 crumbling US housing market were felt around the world, even the most astute couldn’t have...

From the Field

“Enfantillages”: photographing children (and their parents) in public space

Fabien Desage & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 March 2016

Why are children photogenic? Political sociologist Fabien Desage reflects upon his practices as a photographer and...

Debates

Impossible Compliance: Policing as Violent Struggle over Bodies and Urban Space

Michelle Billies - 1 March 2016

The absence of charges brought in the case of a police murder of a Black lesbian in front of the homeless shelter...

From the Field

The complex representations of working-class residential towers

Rachid Kaddour & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 February 2016

Rachid Kaddour’s analysis of the trajectory of perceptions of the Plein‑Ciel tower in Saint‑Étienne in south-eastern...

From the Field

A Geography of Revolt in Alexandria, Egypt’s Second Capital

Youssef El Chazli - 23 February 2016

How does the layout of a city affect how protest unfolds? How does urban space constrain and enable the choices...

From the Field

The Hollowing-Out of New York City’s Industrial Zones

Tarry Hum - 16 February 2016

At a November 2015 press conference, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to take action to ensure that firms in the...

Essays

Urban renewal and the “defensible space” model: the growing impact of security issues on the way our cities develop

Camille Gosselin & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2016

In transforming the urban planning and architecture of social-housing estates, urban-renewal policies are not just...

Essays

Immigrant Growth Machines: Metropolitan Reinvention in Los Angeles

Melody Chiong & Jan Lin - 9 February 2016

Building on Logan and Molotch’s highly influential concept of the urban “growth machine,” Jan Lin and Melody Chiong...

From the Field

How Children Cope When Home is a Hotel

Erwan Le Méner & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 5 February 2016

Emergency housing in social hotels is affecting a growing number of families in the Paris region. How does this...

Essays

When Cities Fail, Babies Die

Monica J. Casper - 2 February 2016

Detroit, Michigan is often identified as the worst city in the United States, with excessive poverty, racism, and...

Essays

Democratic public spaces in the face of terrorism

Carole Gayet-Viaud & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 January 2016

The collective harm inflicted by the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday 13 November 2015 results in part from the...

Essays

Parallel Lives? Elena Ferrante’s Naples and My West New Rochelle

Bella Mirabella - 26 January 2016

Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed Neapolitan novels, which trace the lives of two girls born in a working class district in...

Reviews

“Grands Ensembles”: Retracing a History of Rejection

Stéphane Füzesséry & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 January 2016

From its very beginnings, the urban model of the “grand ensemble” – the large-scale high-rise housing estate – has...

From the Field

The Boys of Sarajevo’s War Tunnel

Luka Lucić - 12 January 2016

What are the impacts of war upon young people’s psychological development? Research with young men who survived...

Debates

Reskilling Urban Manufacturing: Workforce Solutions from the Inside Out

Nichola Lowe - 15 December 2015

In the United States, a four-year college education has gradually come to be assumed as a prerequisite for entry into...

From the Field

Beyond the stadium: how “ultra” supporters fit into the urban space

Bérangère Ginhoux & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 December 2015

Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in Saint-Étienne, in south-eastern France, Bérangère Ginhoux shows how the...

Debates

Understanding São Paulo’s Bicycle Wars

Derek Pardue - 8 December 2015

In São Paulo, Brazil, bike lanes are a new phenomenon in a city historically dominated by automobiles. In the context...

From the Field

Social Diversity in Gentrified Neighborhoods: Child’s Play?

Jean-Yves Authier & Sonia Lehman-Frisch & translated by Christina Mitrakos - 4 December 2015

How do children develop relationships? Do they meet children from socio-economic backgrounds other than their own?...

Reviews

Beyond “planetary urbanization”: recasting contemporary urban research

Matthieu Giroud (†) & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 November 2015

We were profoundly shocked to learn of the death of Matthieu Giroud, a victim of the attacks of 13 November in Paris....

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