A Companion to Urban Anthropology

BLACKWELL COMPANIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY

A Companion to Urban Anthropology

“The city is becoming the basic currency of human – and non-human – life: a pile of interconnections which makes a series of difficult wholes. This volume navigates the anthropology of this medium with the greatest aplomb.”
Nigel Thrift, University of Warwick

A Companion to Urban Anthropology presents original essays on central concepts in urban anthropology and ethnography. Featuring contributions from more than 25 leading international scholars in urban studies, the readings cover a wide variety of topics. Each essay explores a key phenomenon and is grounded in the author’s original research along with findings of other urbanists. Classic issues such as built structures and urban planning, community, markets, and race lead to emergent areas of study including borders, sexualities, nature, extralegality, and resilience and sustainability. A Companion to Urban Anthropology offers revealing insights into the complex forces that continue to shape the urban experience.

Preface viii

Notes on Contributors x

Introduction 1
Donald M. Nonini

Part I Foundational Concepts: Affirmed and Contested 13

1 Spatialities 15
Setha M. Low

2 Flows 28
Gary W. McDonogh

3 Community 46
John Clarke

4 Citizenship 65
Sian Lazar

Part II Materializations and Their Imaginaries 83

5 Built Structures and Planning 85
Deborah Pellow and Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga

6 Borders 103
Thomas M. Wilson

7 Markets 120
Linda J. Seligmann

8 Cars and Transport 142
Catherine Lutz

Part III Dividing Processes, Bases of Solidarity 155

9 Class 157
Don Kalb

10 Gender 177
Ida Susser

11 Sexualities 193
Ara Wilson

12 Race 210
Brett Williams

13 Extralegality 222
Alan Smart and Filippo M. Zerilli

Part IV Abstractions of Consequence 239

14 Global Systems and Globalization 241
Jonathan Friedman

15 Governance 255
Jeff Maskovsky and Julian Brash

16 Policing and Security 271
Josiah McC. Heyman

17 Transnationality 291
Nina Glick Schiller

18 Cosmopolitanism 306
Pnina Werbner

Part V Experiencing/Knowing the City in Everyday Life 327

19 Practices of Sociality 329
José Guilherme Cantor Magnani

20 Memory and Narrative 347
Lindsay DuBois

21 Religion 364
Thomas Blom Hansen

Part VI Nature and the City 381

22 Nature 383
Robert Rotenberg

23 Food and Farming 394
Donald M. Nonini

24 Pollution 414
Eveline Dürr and Rivke Jaffe

25 Resilience 428
Stephan Barthel

Part VII Challenging the Present, Anticipating Urban Futures 447

26 The Commons 449
Maribel Casas-Cortés, Sebastian Cobarrubias, and John Pickles

27 Social Movements 470
Michal Osterweil

28 Futures 486
Hilary Cunningham and Stephen Bede Scharper

Index 498

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