Metropolitics

Shrinking Cities

2017-03-27T05:05:00Z

Brexit in the United Kingdom, the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the rise of extreme-right populist parties in France or more recently in Germany: these recent events have the common feature of being widely portrayed as the political consequences of the decline of old industrialized regions in Western countries. The question of the emergence of a “two-tier society”—characterized on the one hand by a tendency to concentrate the hopes of national economic prosperity in large

- Series

Taking Research to the Streets

Jonathan R. Wynn & Richard E. Ocejo — 2015-06-09T05:00:00Z

Residents of iconic neighborhoods in New York City have grown accustomed to walking tourism in their midst—clumps of curious observers and amateur historians following a knowledgeable guide who points to signs of the past in the contemporary landscape. This multimedia article follows sociologists Jonathan Wynn and Richard Ocejo on a tour whose subject is both the East Village neighborhood and the phenomenon of the walking tour itself. We follow the guides from Astor Place to the Bowery, via

- From the Field / gentrification, United States, New York, night, tourism, walking tour guides, bars, East Village, nightlife, walking

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

Richard E. Ocejo — 2015-05-12T05:00:00Z

As artisanal economies emerge in postindustrial cities, the symbolic language and craft culture of the industrial city remain strikingly apparent; a prime example of this is the growth, in gentrifying neighborhoods, of high-end bars, barbershops and butcher shops that draw on the romantic imagery of their traditional working-class counterparts. Richard E. Ocejo's exploration of New York City's Chelsea Market highlights the intersection of three 21st‑century urban transformations: shifts in the

- Essays / United States, work, food, retail, New York, food culture, craft work, postindustrialism, cultural omnivores, service sector, artisans, new economy, Featured

The Abattoir's Call: At the Margins of New York City's Foodie Movement

Richard E. Ocejo — 2014-11-17T05:50:00Z

Food-conscious urban consumers often ask their butcher where their meat comes from. But how many wonder about the form of death the animals were put through? Richard Ocejo gives a rare glance at a link in the food chain that remains an unglamorous mystery.
Open kitchens in trendy restaurants, countless chef, cooking, and food-related television shows, artisanal food carts, and whole animal butcher shops. As food culture has grown, how food gets made has become more glamorous. Knowing about

- From the Field / United States, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, New York, distance, food culture, craft, death, meat

The Triumph of Density and the Agony of Sprawl

Richard E. Ocejo — 2011-11-23T06:00:00Z

The city is more and more often hailed as the paradigmatic form of a new sustainable development, both economic and environmental. Glaeser's book is another significant contribution to this popular awakening. Without contesting the point, Richard Ocejo shows how the arguments put forward in the book may reflect only a partial view of the city, one that misses out on its most important asset: people's actual practices and experiences.
Racial inequality, the regulation of public space, crime

- Reviews / city, sustainable development, urban sprawl, urban development, density