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
The Editor Donald M. Nonini is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA. He has written extensively on state formation, local politics, ethnic and class relations, the Chinese diaspora, and globalization in urban settings in Southeast Asia, Australia, and the southern United States. His latest book is “Getting By” among Chinese in Malaysia: An Historical Ethnography of Class and State Formation (2015).
Reviews for 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, The University of Warwick
