Metropolitics - Metropolitics

Essays

What we can learn from babies’ sociability

Carole Gayet-Viaud & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 October 2015

The sociability of very young children reveals a neglected dimension of relations and interactions in public, and...

Debates

The Endangered Enclave

Mike Owen Benediktsson & Brian Lamberta & Sarah Van Norden - 6 October 2015

While most gentrification studies focus on residential displacement, businesses also suffer from rising rents and a...

Debates

Disarm the Police

Gregory Smithsimon - 29 September 2015

In the current political debates about discriminatory policing, there has been a lack of serious discussion of...

Reviews

Megacities and how to govern them: rethinking urban development in terms of infrastructure networks

Éric Verdeil & translated by Oliver Waine - 25 September 2015

Are colossal megalopolises like Shanghai or Mumbai uncontrollable? This collective work shows that nothing could be...

Essays

After Fukushima: The Silence of Environmental Organizations on Nuclear Catastrophe

Michael Dreiling & Nicholas Lougee & Tomoyasu Nakamura - 22 September 2015

The nuclear catastrophe at the Fukushima plants in Japan in 2011 raised global awareness of the massive dangers...

From the Field

Visual Sociology: Re-Imaging Marseille’s Housing Projects

William Kornblum - 10 July 2015

New York sociologist William Kornblum has brought back pictures of the Marseille Northern Housing Projects—the...

Debates

Hardening Racial Lines in Public Space

Naomi Adiv - 7 July 2015

On Friday, June 5, Black teenagers in McKinney, Texas, were violently subdued by a police officer following a...

Reviews

Jerusalem: divisive urban planning at the heart of the Holy City

Vincent Lemire & translated by Oliver Waine - 19 June 2015

How is the Israeli–Palestinian conflict reflected in the way the city of Jerusalem has been planned and developed? In...

Debates

New York’s de Blasio bargains with FIRE

Tom Waters - 16 June 2015

Frantic deal-making over an obscure but costly New York City real-estate tax incentive (421‑a) provides a window into...

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...

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