Metropolitics - Metropolitics

From the Field

Vancouverism: hybridisation and spread of an urban model

Nicolas Douay & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 June 2015

The transformation that downtown Vancouver has undergone – which has since become a reference, known as...

From the Field

Taking Research to the Streets

Jonathan R. Wynn & Richard E. Ocejo - 9 June 2015

Residents of iconic neighborhoods in New York City have grown accustomed to walking tourism in their midst—clumps of...

Reviews

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Marine Maurin & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2015

Prejudices regarding the poorest in society die hard. Does living in proximity to some of these populations help...

From the Field

Clitoral Mass: A Women-of-Color Ride Through Los Angeles

Jennifer Candipan - 2 June 2015

Every year in the summer, a group of women, women of color, and women-identified riders cycle through the city of Los...

Debates

Visual Boredom: Commodification and Exclusion in Graffiti-Less Auckland

Ronald Kramer - 26 May 2015

A common argument against neoliberalism is that it makes cities all look alike. In this piece, sociologist Ronald...

Reviews

The Dangers of Security

Médéric Martin-Mazé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 May 2015

In Against Security, Harvey Molotch highlights – through various examples, including the New York subway, airports,...

Reviews

All the Gayborhoods are White

Marcus Anthony Hunter - 19 May 2015

The urban “gayborhood,” the place where gay men and women found refuge for their sexuality from bigotry, is gradually...

Essays

Transition towns, or the desire for an urban alternative

Adrien Krauz & translated by Oliver Waine - 15 May 2015

The entry of the term “transition” into the vocabulary of public action shows that questions regarding how to build...

Essays

In Cathedrals of Craft: Workplaces for the New Elite Service, Retail, and Manual Labor Jobs

Richard E. Ocejo - 12 May 2015

As artisanal economies emerge in postindustrial cities, the symbolic language and craft culture of the industrial...

From the Field

The participatory production of temporary public spaces in times of crisis

Paula Orduña-Giró & Sébastien Jacquot & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 May 2015

Are participatory measures a viable solution when it comes to developing urban spaces in times of crisis? According...

From the Field

Social Norms and Resistance on the City Bus

Sofya Aptekar - 5 May 2015

While subways are hailed as the quintessential New York experience, with their own museum, T-shirts, and lore, the...

From the Field

Exporting French-style “sustainable cities” to Morocco

Pierre-Arnaud Barthel & translated by Oliver Waine - 1 May 2015

In Morocco, environmental urban projects are the order of the day. For these projects, French expertise is being held...

From the Field

Food Deserts and Wage Deserts: The Importance of Metaphor in Policy and Activism

Laura Wolf-Powers - 28 April 2015

So-called “food deserts,” or neighborhoods deprived of businesses that sell healthy foods, are also poor...

Debates

Occupy Mall Street?

Anthony Maniscalco - 21 April 2015

The quintessential suburb is home to the shopping mall, an indoor space of anchor departments stores, small specialty...

Essays

A Right to the City in the Global South?

Marianne Morange & Amandine Spire & translated by Oliver Waine - 17 April 2015

The idea of the right to the city has been the subject of strongly renewed interest in academic milieux, activist...

Debates

Precarity and Gentrification: A Feedback Loop

Samuel Stein - 14 April 2015

How do rent hikes and labor precarity conspire to reinforce each other against tenants and workers? Samuel Stein...

Essays

“Portlandia” in Portland: Curated Life in the Utopian City

Jeff London - 7 April 2015

From the Field

The Future of Asbury Park: Gentrification and Youth in a Coastal Community

Alicia Raia-Hawrylak - 31 March 2015

Once known as a successful beach community, with a lively boardwalk and thriving rock music scene, the city of Asbury...

Reviews

Cities transformed by hygienism: 100 years of local innovation

Sabine Barles & translated by Oliver Waine - 27 March 2015

Hygiene is a “battle”, and the “hygienist revolution” of the 19th and early 20th centuries transformed our urban...

From the Field

Arts Districts Without Artists

Meghan Ashlin Rich - 23 March 2015

Numerous studies have examined gentrification’s harmful effects for low-income residents, but few examine the...

Essays

Programming play into public space?

Sonia Curnier & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 March 2015

With the rise of the “ludic city”, the work of Roger Caillois and Marc Breviglieri allows us to question the...

From the Field

The Massive Death of China’s Urban Villages

Stefan Al - 17 March 2015

As expanding Chinese cities engulfed their hinterlands, chengzhoncun—villages within the city—became an affordable...

Debates

The Right to Public Space

Gregory Smithsimon - 10 March 2015

Many of the commonly defended human rights (freedom of expression, of assembly, of information, of movement, etc.)...

From the Field

Public authorities and Roma populations in Turin

Elisabetta Rosa & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 March 2015

For the last three decades or so, European cities have had to deal with the issue of land occupation by migrant...

From the Field

The Other Side of Austin, Texas

Caitlyn Collins & Katherine Jensen & Kristine Kilanski & Javier Auyero - 2 March 2015

Despite a booming economy, Austin, Texas, is a city where inequalities persist and grow in the shadow of neoliberal...

Reviews

Northern Mafias: the territorial spread of organised crime in Italy

Fabrizio Maccaglia & translated by Oliver Waine - 26 February 2015

The presence of Mafia organisations outside the Mezzogiorno, long downplayed by the Italian public authorities, has...

Reviews

Constructing Crises

Marla Nelson - 23 February 2015

A new book by Kevin Fox Gotham and Miriam Greenberg foregrounds the disturbing parallels between two seemingly...

Essays

Starchitects: walking the line between individuality and conformity

Géraldine Molina & translated by Oliver Waine - 19 February 2015

The stars of the worlds of architecture and urban planning are prime targets of research, with the aim of...

From the Field

Paying to Play in the Mission District

Naomi Adiv - 16 February 2015

Naomi Adiv unpacks a viral video showing an argument between longtime San Francisco residents and “dot-commers” over...

Essays

Transport as both a function and a facilitator of metropolitan development?

Aurélien Delpirou & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2015

In Paris, Lyon and Marseille, the development of public transport is a central element of the metropolitan projects...

All articles

Other resources online

Partners