Metropolitics

Dakar, Portrait of a Capital City

Armelle Choplin — 2025-09-12T05:00:00Z

Dakar, métamorphoses d'une capitale, by architects Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou, takes readers on a journey through the history of the Senegalese capital, from pre‑colonial Lebu villages to contemporary urban laboratory.
In their book Dakar, métamorphoses d'une capitale, Senegalese architects Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou present a masterful exploration of Dakar. Through meticulous archival research and iconography, the authors explore the lesser-known history of the former West African

- Reviews / Dakar, housing, history, housing policy, heritage, Africa, culture, urban planning, urban growth, West Africa, Senegal

Industrial Wasteland and the Commons

Jules Desgoutte & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-02-26T06:00:00Z

Long considered places of experimentation, sharing and freedom, friches culturelles, or temporary cultural spaces, seem to have become tools of metropolitan attractiveness, resulting in gentrification and increased real-estate values. Jules Desgoutte looks at the reasons for this transformation and examines the strategies of resistance at play.
Long considered places of experimentation, sharing and freedom, friches culturelles, or temporary cultural spaces, seem to have become tools of

- From the Field / communs, friches, culture, arts, urbanisme transitoire, urbanisme temporaire

Culture and the Nighttime Economy: A Conversation with London's Night Czar and Culture-at-Risk Officer

Amin Ghaziani — 2019-11-12T06:00:00Z

Amin Ghaziani describes the high closure rate of LGBTQ nighttime venues in London, and the city's recognition of these venues' intertwined economic and cultural significance.
From 2006 to 2016, the number of LGBTQ bars, pubs, and nightclubs in London declined by 58%, falling from 125 venues to 53. Figure 1 shows the spatial distribution of these closures. The impact was most acute in central London.
An audit by the Greater London Authority (GLA) found that 44% of all nightclubs, 35% of all

- From the Field / LGBTQ+, homosexuality, night, London, United Kingdom, England, culture, nighttime economy, nightlife

The Educational Fortunes of Children of Immigrants in France

Mathieu Ichou & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-07-06T05:00:00Z

How can the attainment gap between children of immigrants and children of native-born parents be explained? While some underline the role of an implausible “culture of origin”, Mathieu Ichou shows that differences in academic achievement are linked above all to social origin, and in particular to the social positions occupied by immigrant parents both in their host country and in their country of origin.
Despite many nuanced contributions from sociologists, the theme of academic failure among

- Essays / immigration, culture, children, education, school, social class

Shanghai's West Bund Cultural Corridor Exemplifies the Opportunities and Risks of State-Driven Cultural Development

Siqi Tu — 2018-05-08T05:00:00Z

The West Bund Cultural Corridor in Shanghai is the latest entrant in a global competition to attract investment by combining cultural institutions with real-estate megaprojects. But arrangements between the corridor's private art museums and institutions of the local and national state remain ambiguous, raising questions about economic elitism and artistic freedom.
China's contemporary art scene is on the rise, as is the number of private museums in China, most notably in Shanghai. The Long

- From the Field / culture, urban development, China, development, neoliberalism, arts, global cities, Shanghai, cultural district, arts district, arts-centered development, cultural corridor

The Arts as Fundamental—and Fragile—in Community Life

Andrew Zitcer & Julie Hawkins & Neville Vakharia — 2017-02-22T06:00:00Z

Arts funding in America mirrors the inequality found in society more broadly. Yet amid persistent poverty and other challenges, West Philadelphia residents assert that arts access and participation are central to their conception of a life well-lived. Andrew Zitcer, Julie Hawkins and Neville Vakharia discuss their research in West Philadelphia, noting the vibrant cultural production taking place there and maintaining that arts should be considered a fundamental right.
Amid the existential

- Essays / culture, United States, art, artist, arts, community, Philadelphia, community development, community arts

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

“We Are the Scene”: Alternative Art Economies in Bushwick

Mary Kosut — 2016-09-13T05:00:00Z

Artists and art communities are essential to the cultural life of cities. In New York City, artists have created networks of artist-run galleries in unlikely spaces that are outside the corporate gallery system. Sociologist Mary Kosut explores how artists generate alternative urban art economies within the contemporary New York art world.
Art scenes are integral to urban cultural centers—Berlin, Paris, London, and New York are defined by vibrant artist communities. As an art capital, New York

- From the Field / gentrification, culture, New York, art, culture-based economy, artist, arts, Brooklyn, art worlds, galleries, art economies, Bushwick

The Tokyo skyline, or the hidden order behind opportunistic construction

Raphaël Languillon-Aussel & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-11-13T06:00:00Z

Behind the apparent disorder, Tokyo's current skyline in fact complies with complex rules. While the first towers in Tokyo appeared in the late 1960s, the “verticalization” of the city has in reality taken place over two distinct periods: the 1980s – the era of the construction of the global city – and the 2000s – Tokyo's renaissance. Since the 2000s, the skyline has tended to respect certain spatial codes, specific to the Japanese context, against a backdrop of dynamic tension between the

- Essays / architecture, culture, skyline, towers, development, Tokyo, Japan, space, verticality

Arts Districts Without Artists

Meghan Ashlin Rich — 2015-03-23T05:55:00Z

Numerous studies have examined gentrification's harmful effects for low-income residents, but few examine the consequences for its “pioneers,” the artists who jump-start the process. Focusing on a Baltimore neighborhood turned “Arts & Entertainment District,” sociologist Meghan Ashlin Rich shows what happens when artists' work intertwines with the city's agenda for revitalization.
A “naturally occurring” Arts & Entertainment District is born in Baltimore
Baltimore's Station North

- From the Field / gentrification, culture, United States, Baltimore, culture-based economy, artist, arts, Arts & Entertainment District, cultural district, arts district, arts-centered development