Metropolitics

We Have Been Here Before: Crisis, Response, and the Stasis of Urban Policy

Robert W. Lake — 2021-06-29T05:00:00Z

The disruptions produced by the global pandemic have spawned predictions of sweeping change that are unlikely to materialize. An example from a century ago explains why, and what we can do about it.
The front-page headline in the New York Times on May 6, 2021, optimistically announced a turning point in the ravages of the Covid‑19 pandemic in the United States. “Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic,” the Times reported, ushering in a “newfound optimism […] buoyed by a

- Essays / crisis, coronavirus, Covid-19, pandemic, history, urban policy, war, social change

A Social Portrait of the Subprime Crisis

Camille François & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-05-14T05:00:00Z

What have been the social and urban consequences of the subprime mortgage crisis, and what lessons can be learned and applied to the current health and economic crisis? Isaac Martin and Christopher Niedt's 2015 work, Foreclosed America, paints a sociological portrait of households evicted from their homes in the United States.
The economic consequences of the Covid‑19 pandemic invite comparisons with previous global economic crises, not least the recent subprime crisis. This crisis, which

- Reviews / subprime, crisis, financial crisis, housing crisis, Covid-19, coronavirus, pandemic, United States, foreclosure, evictions, inequalities

Contemporary Housing Struggles: Crises, Activism, and Critical Research

Joshua Akers — 2021-03-12T07:00:00Z

In this series, Metropolitics focuses on the intersection of organizing, technology, politics, and policy in urban rental housing struggles. It seeks to place the increasing salience of contemporary housing struggles in the context of the transformation of urban housing markets following the financial crisis and the additional precarity induced by Covid‑19.
---- ▼ Jump to the list of articles ▼ The US federal eviction moratorium will expire at the end of March. The original moratorium, issued

- Series / housing, activism, community organizing, Covid-19, crisis, financial crisis, housing crisis, coronavirus

Global Climate Crisis and the City: An Interview with Ashley Dawson

Ashley Dawson & Maura McGee — 2019-04-03T09:58:34Z

An interview with Ashley Dawson, professor of English at the College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY, about his most recent book Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change. He talks with Maura McGee about the global convergence of urbanization and climate change, strategies to confront climate chaos, and how communities and social movements can act.
Cities are the defining social and ecological form of the 21st century. They are home to the

- Interviews / global warming, environment, anthropocène, climate change, sustainable development, Global South, Global North, sea-level rise, crisis, environmental justice, just transition

The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the Rust Belt Revolt for the GOP

Elora Lee Raymond — 2017-01-13T06:10:00Z

In response to a tense post-election moment in the US, the Metropolitics editorial committee has initiated Rapid-Response Peer Review, with a commitment to quickly reviewing and publishing articles that examine organizing and activism around crucial urban issues. Our second call was for papers related to housing policy. Here, Elora Raymond deploys unique research on the location of underwater mortgages to suggest that housing, not jobs, may hold the key to reigniting progressive politics in the

- From the Field / housing, Rust Belt, crisis, housing crisis, Donald Trump, negative equity, underwater mortgage, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan

Contesting Economies of Displacement and Dispossession

Joshua Akers — 2017-01-13T06:05:00Z

Joshua Akers describes Detroit's housing crisis, characterized by speculation, displacement, and increasingly violent evictions; and resistance through direct action, mapping, and the production of new data sets.
There is a housing crisis in the city of Detroit. This has quickened over the past decade. What emerged in the aftermath of the financial crisis is an economy of displacement and dispossession clawing away the homes and livelihoods of poor and lower-middle-class residents. It is

- From the Field / housing, crisis, displacement, Detroit, housing crisis, evictions, speculation, foreclosure

The Crisis of Geographical Imagination in Turkey

Luka Lucić — 2016-06-21T05:00:00Z

Ethnic, nationalistic and social tensions are at an all-time high in Turkey, exacerbated by the re‑emergence of the “Kurdish problem” and the influx of Syrian refugees fleeing the war. Minorities are persecuted and academics denouncing exactions are targeted by the government. Luka Lucić compares this situation to the collapse of Yugoslavia and warns of possible dire times to come.
There was an old joke often told in Sarajevo during the early days of the siege (1992‑1995). All across former

- Essays / refugees, segregation, Turkey, crisis, minorities, ethnonationalism, Syria, former Yugoslavia, Kurdistan, persecution, ideology

Dawn of the Indebted: Zombie Neoliberalism Hits the Big Screen

Desiree Fields & Tom Gillespie — 2016-03-08T06:00:00Z

As the tremors of the 2008 crumbling US housing market were felt around the world, even the most astute couldn't have predicted that its backstory would be adapted into not one but two Hollywood features. Desiree Fields and Tom Gillespie review The Big Short and 99 Homes—two films depicting landscapes where not even the winners of the game believe in it anymore.
Around the world, the US subprime mortgage market is understood as the epicenter of the near-implosion of the global economy in

- Reviews / financial crisis, housing, real estate, crisis, foreclosure, subprime, Wall Street, film, documentary

The participatory production of temporary public spaces in times of crisis

2015-05-08T04:54:00Z

Are participatory measures a viable solution when it comes to developing urban spaces in times of crisis? According to the right-of-centre city council that came to power in Barcelona in 2011, the answer is “yes”, as reflected in the roll-out of its “empty spaces plan”, or “Pla Buits”, whereby the city subsidises associations and other groups in exchange for developing municipally approved activities on vacant urban lots, until such time as the coffers are replenished – and better uses found for

- From the Field / participation, public space, Spain, green spaces, Barcelona, urban agriculture, crisis, vacant lots, wasteland

Constructing Crises

Marla Nelson — 2015-02-23T05:50:00Z

A new book by Kevin Fox Gotham and Miriam Greenberg foregrounds the disturbing parallels between two seemingly distinct crises: Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast and the 9/11 attacks in New York City. Marla Nelson reviews their arguments and asserts that activists can draw on the authors' insights—particularly their exposure of the importance of “crisis framing”—to advance visions of more just and inclusive urban redevelopment.
In the nearly 10 years since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf

- Reviews / catastrophe, New Orleans, Katrina, disaster, recovery, United States, New York, crisis, resilience, Community Development Block Grants, private-activity bonds, community development