Metropolitics

Episodes from the Social Life of the Delhi Metro

Sneha Mandhan — 2023-01-20T06:00:00Z

What is the impact of a new metro on a large and growing city? As new metros are cropping up across Asia, Rashmi Sadana documents the changes brought to the city of Delhi by a sprawling new transportation system. She shows that the Delhi metro is both similar to other subways of the world and unique in its inscription in a distinctive cultural landscape.
Infrastructures straddle the line between large, shiny artefacts imposed on urban landscapes marking modernity, and the backdrop for scenes

- Reviews / India, Delhi, transport, public transportation, mass transit, rapid transit, metro, subway, infrastructure, ethnography, vignettes, public space

Holding Their Own: Gilets Jaunes' Occupation of Public Space

Antoine Bernard de Raymond & Sylvain Bordiec & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-04-30T05:00:00Z

The Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement that emerged in France in the fall of 2018 was striking by dint of both its reach and its duration. An ethnographic survey conducted in southwestern France shows that this success was in part due to the organizational, symbolic and social resources offered by the occupation of traffic circles and the construction of shacks.
The Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement started with a national day of blockades and demonstrations organized on November

- From the Field / public space, gilets jaunes, mobilization, protest, social movement, occupation, periurban, France

When Revolution Reinvents Public Space in Beirut

Ines Lakrouf & translated by Oliver Waine — 2020-09-18T05:00:00Z

In the fall of 2019, peaceful protesters in Lebanon were demanding an end to corruption and calling for a movement of national unity. A young urban planner gives her account of these events, and of the ways in which the inhabitants of Beirut are reclaiming public spaces.
In Lebanon, anger has been expressed loud and clear since October 17, 2019. Beyond the anecdotal side of a mobilization triggered by the imposition of a WhatsApp tax, as reported in the media, it is against an attack on the

- Debates / Lebanon, Beirut, public space, mobilization, demonstrations, revolution

Nuits Debout Across Greater Paris: The Spread of a Political Innovation

Laurent Beauguitte & Nicolas Lambert & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-12-20T06:00:00Z

As France experiences strikes and demonstrations in protest against pension reforms, we look back to the spring of 2016 and the Nuit Debout movement that developed almost spontaneously in opposition to a proposed shake‑up of France's labor laws. Although Place de la République in Paris was the nexus of events—and virtually the sole focus of media attention—plenty was going on elsewhere in France, especially in towns and suburbs around Paris, where local offshoots sought to redefine citizen

- From the Field / Nuit debout, mobilization, protest, politics, political participation, engagement, public space, territory, mapping, Paris region, Greater Paris, Paris, France, Île-de-France

Diverting Eyes and Bodies: The Management of Homeless Visibility in New York City

Eric Goldfischer — 2019-11-19T06:00:00Z

Eric Goldfischer argues that homeless diversion programs in New York City simultaneously divert the bodies of homeless people away from public spaces and the eyes of housed people away from these populations, so that city residents will not see and attempt to comprehend the crisis of homelessness.
In recent months, renewed attention has focused on the visibility of homeless New Yorkers in the subway system. Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) president Andy Byford and others have publicly

- Debates / homelessness, New York, visibility, invisibility, marginalized populations, public space

Saving Ivy Island: A Civil War in North Portland

Lauren Everett — 2019-01-15T08:13:58Z

Lauren Everett examines two different approaches by community activists confronting change in a tight-knit Portland neighborhood, and the struggle that ensued. She considers how official decision-making processes may or may not include mechanisms for considering community input, and the challenges of working with a community plan that leaves room for interpretation.
The community plan for the neighborhood of St Johns in the north of Portland, Oregon, prioritizes both neighborhood

- From the Field / participation, public space, United States, neighborhood, consultation, community, Portland (Oregon), neighborhood preservation

Migrants' Occupation of Lycée Jean Quarré: The Refugee Cause and the Cause of a Neighborhood

Isabelle Coutant & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-11-16T06:00:00Z

The flows of migrants seeking refuge in Europe since the summer of 2015 have led to temporary settlements—legal or otherwise—in various urban locations. What is the impact of their presence on individual neighborhoods and relations with local communities? A study by Isabelle Coutant on the occupation of a disused high school in northeastern Paris sheds light on these impacts and the associated expressions of solidarity, engagement and tension that emerge.
In the summer of 2015, the

- Essays / France, immigration, refugees, public space, working-class neighborhoods, collective action, Paris, proximity, neighborhood, migration, sociabilities, RESF, hospitality, politics, school, migrants, engagement, occupation, local action, asylum

Excluding Fast and Slow: Charlottesville's Long Battle over Public Space

Frank Muraca — 2018-01-09T06:00:00Z

The “Unite the Right” white-supremacist rally in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted into violence, killing one person and injuring many others. While local politicians distance themselves from the largest hate gathering in the US, a closer look at Charlottesville's public spaces reveals the exclusionary tactics of local business-oriented leaders.
“It's definitely been a sad vibe today but if you didn't know any better looking out the window, you would think it was a typical Sunday,”

- From the Field / public space, United States, exclusion, affordable housing, displacement, race, homelessness, Charlottesville

Counterpublic Spaces and Movement-Building

Oksana Mironova — 2017-03-08T15:12:47Z

To make themselves and their causes visible in traditional public arenas like streets and parks, social activists require counterpublic spaces, where communities come together to define goals and to carry out the unglamorous work of movement-building and organizing. In this article, Oksana Mironova reflects on the emergence of counterpublic spaces in the context of current resistance to the politics and policy of the Trump administration, identifying challenges for activists also striving to

- Essays / public space, social movement, New York, counterpublics, counterpublic spaces, resistance, Mayday Community Space, Judson Memorial Church

Citadels, Cores, and Confetti: Urban Festivals in the New Political Economy of the Music Industry

Johan Jansson — 2017-01-05T20:07:54Z

How have changes in the music industry—especially regarding the way music is produced and consumed today—affected urban spaces and the production of the city more generally? In his review of Jonathan Wynn's Music/City, Johan Jansson examines the wider urban context surrounding music and the city, and in particular the impact on local communities of the ever-growing number of music festivals taking place in and around urban areas.
In recent years, the music industry has undergone thorough

- Reviews / public space, placemaking, culture, United States, Austin, arts, music, festivals, cultural policy, production of the city, Nashville, Newport (Rhode Island), festivalization