Wounded Cities Destruction and Reconstruction in a Globalized World

by Schneider, Jane; Susser, Ida

• ISBN13: 9781859736883
• ISBN10: 1859736882
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Berg Pub Ltd

Summary

Although the seemingly apocalyptic scale of the World Trade Center disaster continues to haunt people across the globe, it is only the most recent example of a city tragically wounded. Cities are, in fact, perpetually caught up in cycles of degeneration and renewal. As with the WTC, from time to time these cycles are severely ruptured by a sudden, unpredictable event. In the wake of recent terrorist activities, this timely book explores how urban populations are affected by wounds inflicted through violence, civil wars, overbuilding, drug trafficking, and the collapse of infrastructures, as well as natural disasters such as earthquakes. Mexico City, New York, Beirut, Belfast, Bangkok and Baghdad are just a few examples of cities riddled with problems that undermine, on a daily basis, the quality of urban life. What does it mean for urban dwellers when the infrastructure of a city collapses transport, communication grids, heat, light, roads, water, and sanitation? What are the effects of foreign investment and huge construction projects on urban populations and how does this change the look and character of a city? How does drug trafficking intersect with class, race, and gender, and what impact does it have on vulnerable urban communities? How do political corruption and mafia networks distort the built environment? Drawing on in-depth case studies from across the globe, this book answers these intriguing questions through its rigorous consideration of changing global and national contexts, social movements, and corrosive urban events. Adopting a grass roots up approach, it places emphasis on peoples experiences of uneven development and inequality, their engagement with memory in the face of continual change, and the relevance of political activism to bettering their lives. It is especially attentive to the historical interaction of particular cities with wider political and economic forces, as these interactions have shaped local governance over time. Imagining each city as a body politic, the authors consider its capacity both to mediate local conflict and to broach the healing of wounds.

Author Biography

Jane Schneider is Professor of Anthropology, Graduate and University Center, at City University of New York.

Ida Susser is Professor of Anthropology, Graduate and University Center, at City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Figures	p. vii
Contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Woimded Cities: Destruction and Reconstruction in a Globalized World	p. 1
References	p. 21
The City as a Body Politic	p. 25
References	p. 44
The Degradation of Urban Life	p. 45
The Depreciation of Life during Mexico City's Transition into "the Crisis"	p. 47
Notes	p. 67
References	p. 68
International Commodity Markets, Local Land Markets and Class Conflict in a Provincial Mexican City	p. 71
Notes	p. 88
References	p. 88
Rethinking Infrastructure: Siberian Cities and the Great Freeze of January 2001	p. 91
Notes	p. 106
References	p. 106
Crises of Crime and Criminalization	p. 109
How Kingston Was Wounded	p. 111
Notes	p. 125
References	p. 126
Woimded Medellin: Narcotics Traffic against a Background of Industrial Decline	p. 129
References	p. 147
Global Justice in the Postindustrial City: Urban Activism beyond the Global-Local Split	p. 149
Notes	p. 165
References	p. 168
After Drugs and the "war on Drugs": Reclaiming the Power to Make History in Harlem, New York	p. 173
Notes	p. 193
References	p. 195
Rapid, Inconsistent Expansion	p. 201
Bangkok, the Bubble City	p. 203
Notes	p. 222
References	p. 224
Contemporary Ho Chi Minh City in Numerous Contradictions: Reform Policy, Foreign Capital and the Working Class	p. 227
Notes	p. 244
References	p. 247
Reconstruction and Recovery	p. 249
Belfast: Urban Space, "policing" and Sectarian Polarization	p. 251
References	p. 266
Healing the Wounds of the War: Placing the War-Displaced in Postwar Beirut	p. 271
Notes	p. 289
References	p. 289
Woimded Palermo	p. 291
References	p. 308
Epilogue: Baghdad, 2003	p. 311
Notes
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