Metropolitics

The Impact of Tort Reform Liability Shields During the Covid‑19 Pandemic: Hyper-Preemption in the States

Davia C. Downey & William M. Myers — 2024-10-01T05:00:00Z

The Covid‑19 pandemic exposed how federal and state preemption hamstrings local policymaking. Using the case of tort reform liability shields during the pandemic, Davia C. Downey and William M. Myers show how this is often a matter of politics divorced from reality.
This essay considers the impact of state–local preemption during the coronavirus pandemic (Pearson and Conway 2021). Preemption is when a higher level of government displaces the lawmaking capabilities of another when they come

- Essays / Covid-19, coronavirus, law, state, United States, pandemic, tort, preemption

Post–Amazon HQ2 Incentive Reform: We can have good deals—but not without transparency and meaningful public participation

Mary Donegan — 2019-05-21T05:00:00Z

What does the collapse of New York City's Amazon HQ2 deal mean for the future of economic development incentive policy?
Amazon's February 2019 decision to pull out of a plan to locate a headquarters in western Queens in New York City sparked a flurry of analysis from journalists. Did Amazon's decision signal a retrenchment from skyrocketing economic development incentive deals? Or was it a blip, reflecting Amazon's flatfooted public outreach, New York's poorly-structured incentive programming

- Debates / Queens, New York, economic development, economic development incentives, request for proposal, Amazon, United States, state, jobs, employment, tech economy

The Leaderless Urban Social Movement as Problem and Solution

Caio Teixeira — 2018-09-25T05:00:00Z

Today, with urban uprisings driven by leaderless social movements, the future of the would-be progressive agenda has been called into question. Inspired by Brazil's “June Journeys”, Caio Teixeira explores how we might situate leaderless social movements and their forward-looking agenda within the context of the leftist political spectrum.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements The literature on urban politics has shown the enduring role of progressive social movements in

- From the Field / public transportation, local government, São Paulo, social movement, transport, state, mass transit, progressive urban politics, Brazil, fares, political power, policymaking, mayors, progressive mayors, horizontality, leaderless social movements

The Limits of Progressive Policymaking in US Cities

Richard Schragger — 2018-09-11T05:05:00Z

While many US cities appear to enjoy extensive powers—as evidenced by the progressive policies enacted by certain mayors—local government is in reality often curbed by legislative retaliation at state and federal levels, in a context of ruthless political competition, geographical polarization, and rising anti-urbanism. Richard Schragger, author of City Power, sheds light on the dynamics at play and how cities can respond to them.
---- Series: Progressive Mayors and Urban Social Movements

- Essays / city, local government, urban policy, conflict, polarization, state, progressive urban politics, political geography, political power, anti-urbanism, policymaking, power play

Repositioning the state's role through water politics in Mexico City's informal settlements

Guillem Ramírez Chico — 2018-03-27T05:00:00Z

Throughout the Mexico City metropolitan area, the struggle for water access often defines the relationship (or lack thereof) between municipal governments and residents. Guillem Ramirez Chico delineates the distinctive local politics of water provision in three of the area's informal settlements, asserting that poor households are frequently left vulnerable in the name of environmental conservation.
In Mexico City, water is used as a political tool to get political support, through client

- From the Field / local government, water, settlements, state, informality, Mexico, informal housing, water access, water politics, informal settlements, state-free spaces, Mexico City

Immigrants and Transnational Citizenship

Fernando Aquino — 2017-02-14T18:52:52Z

In spite of the loud fear-mongering about immigration and borders in the US and Europe, sociologists have found that immigrants' civic organizing in their host countries makes them increasingly important actors in changing their home countries' economy, politics, and culture. Fernando Aquino reviews an important collection of research edited by Alejandro Portes and Patricia Fernández-Kelly.
In 1992, as a new reporter for Listin USA, a branch of Listin Diario, a major Dominican daily, I was in

- Reviews / immigration, state, migration, citizenship, diaspora, civic organizing, transnationalism, remittances

Thirty Years of Urban Sociology

Christian Topalov & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-10-30T06:00:00Z

What is urban sociology in France? Christian Topalov, one of the key players in the history of this discipline, looks back on the two key periods during which the label “urban sociology” came into its own: the 1970s, and the era that heralded the “problem of the banlieues” from the early 1980s onwards – two periods in which academics' and public policymakers' visions of the city coincided.
Translated with the support of the Institut Français Series: Urban Studies in France “The city is what

- Essays / France, suburbs, public policy, urban knowledge, sociology, state, urban sociology

Migrant Destinies

Sylvaine Bulle & Laetitia Tura & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-01-15T05:50:00Z

Although borders are often invisible, they govern people's right to move freely, as well as clandestine migration strategies. Here, Sylvaine Bulle comments on photographs by Laetitia Tura and, in doing so, examines the complex interactions – between law, economics and violence – that sharing territories implies.
The United States, Mexico, Latin America, Africa... are they any spaces, territories or citizens capable of resisting the action of governments who organise “the distribution of

- Essays / immigration, state, migration, borders, photography, Le Bar Floréal, migrants

Beirut: the city beneath the surface

Céline Barrère & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-10-23T04:55:00Z

The geographer Éric Verdeil distances himself from the dominant analyses that constantly depict Beirut as a “city at war”. Instead, he considers the way the Lebanese capital has been planned and developed, seeing urban planning as a process that mirrors territories and produces narratives and challenges arising from struggles between social groups.
Éric Verdeil, shunning the usual discourse on Beirut and Lebanon focusing on the civil war, has taken the novel approach of considering the war as

- Reviews / urban planning, Lebanon, Beirut, profession, state