Metropolitics

Infrastructure Financing and the Bonds of Inequality

Rachel Weber — 2021-10-19T05:00:00Z

Rachel Weber reviews historian Destin Jenkins' new book, The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the American City, which shows how decisions about infrastructure financing reinforce preexisting racial inequalities and hierarchies.
As the United States awaits a massive federal stimulus in the depths of the 2021 pandemic, it is easy to become spellbound by the possibilities of infrastructure. We think that public things—sewers, schools, roads, public housing—will save us, that they

- Reviews / infrastructure, inequalities, debt, United States, finance, local finance

Cities in the Age of Financialization

2021-06-18T05:00:00Z

Over the past four decades, the financialization of capitalism has transformed economies, societies, and urban space. This series of articles examines the growing involvement of financial actors, instruments, and rationales in the production of the urban built environment; the role of public authorities in this process; and their social, political, and spatial consequences.
---- ▼ Jump to the list of articles in this series ▼ Since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, the financial

- Series / finance, housing, financialization, real estate, urban project, urban development, development, urban planning

Detroit: Origins of the Urban Crisis Revisited

Andrew Newman — 2014-11-24T05:50:00Z

The recent reprint of Sugrue's classic history of Detroit's urban crisis highlights the roots of the city's present situation. Andrew Newman discusses how racialized policies and animosities dating back to the industrialization period are relevant to today's urban conflicts, introducing new themes of environmental justice and the dilemma of African-American political institutionalization.
The last decade has seen a flood of writing, film, photography, and research on Detroit, and with the

- Reviews / environment, Rust Belt, crisis, finance, race, Detroit

Finance as a New Terrain for Progressive Urban Politics

Desiree Fields — 2014-11-06T05:55:00Z

Since the foreclosure crisis, inequalities have only deepened in the US, with most wealth accruing to the 1%. Desiree Fields offers critical insights into what a progressive political countermovement that centers a narrative of finance with its thumb on the scale might look like.
The countermovement that wasn't
Many people, including me, believed that the global financial crisis that started in the US mortgage market signaled an unmistakable opening. Being so tightly linked to financial

- Debates / financial crisis, housing, inequalities, social movement, United States, crisis, rental, finance, foreclosure, progressive urban politics, rent, rental housing