In 2018, the Morandi bridge collapsed, killing 43 people and displacing 600 from their homes in Genoa's postindustrial outskirts. Almost entirely isolated after the collapse, Certosa bore much of the brunt of the disaster. This is when Genoa's conservative administration launched On the Wall, a street art project meant to assuage residents’ anger; the theme chosen for the murals was “joy.” Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2019 and 2022, this project explores the post-political underpinnings of Certosa's “joyous” street art.
These murals, I suggest, are an attempt by the city administration to enact a type of aesthetic governance that seeks to conceal institutional neglect while foreclosing political antagonism; this happens through a distribution of the sensible (Ranciѐre 2010, 24-25) that is meant to promote consensus by shaping the residents’ perception of their neighborhood. However, I also contend that, instead of fostering a post-political allegiance between Genoa's conservative administration and Certosa's residents, the street art project failed to sway a community organized around the awareness of its own disenfranchisement. Since Certosa's ruination continued unabated, beleaguered residents intensified their demands for the safety and the basic services that are still denied to their neighborhood.
{"title":"“Joy”: Murals and the Failure of Post-politics After the Morandi Bridge Collapse","authors":"Emanuela Guano","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12442","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.12442","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 2018, the Morandi bridge collapsed, killing 43 people and displacing 600 from their homes in Genoa's postindustrial outskirts. Almost entirely isolated after the collapse, Certosa bore much of the brunt of the disaster. This is when Genoa's conservative administration launched On the Wall, a street art project meant to assuage residents’ anger; the theme chosen for the murals was “joy.” Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2019 and 2022, this project explores the post-political underpinnings of Certosa's “joyous” street art.</p><p>These murals, I suggest, are an attempt by the city administration to enact a type of aesthetic governance that seeks to conceal institutional neglect while foreclosing political antagonism; this happens through a distribution of the sensible (Ranciѐre 2010, 24-25) that is meant to promote consensus by shaping the residents’ perception of their neighborhood. However, I also contend that, instead of fostering a post-political allegiance between Genoa's conservative administration and Certosa's residents, the street art project failed to sway a community organized around the awareness of its own disenfranchisement. Since Certosa's ruination continued unabated, beleaguered residents intensified their demands for the safety and the basic services that are still denied to their neighborhood.</p>","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"35 1","pages":"38-61"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"50142284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 2021, the Society for Urban, National, Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA), a section of the American Anthropological Association, changed its name to Critical Urban Anthropology Association (CUAA). This essay addresses the question “What is Critical About Critical Urban Anthropology?” by reflecting on problematic assumptions about African cities that are perpetuated over time and the need to critique these ideas. I suggest a more active and participatory approach to pedagogy is necessary to creating a critical urban anthropology that can help to challenge these assumptions.
{"title":"What is Critical About Critical Urban Anthropology?","authors":"Suzanne Scheld","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12434","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.12434","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In 2021, the Society for Urban, National, Transnational/Global Anthropology (SUNTA), a section of the American Anthropological Association, changed its name to Critical Urban Anthropology Association (CUAA). This essay addresses the question “What is Critical About Critical Urban Anthropology?” by reflecting on problematic assumptions about African cities that are perpetuated over time and the need to critique these ideas. I suggest a more active and participatory approach to pedagogy is necessary to creating a critical urban anthropology that can help to challenge these assumptions.</p>","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"34 1","pages":"14-17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"137718702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Building Socialism: The Afterlife of East German Architecture in Urban Vietnam Christina Schwenkel, Durham: Duke University Press, 2020, 432 pp.","authors":"Michal Murawski","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12431","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ciso.12431","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134258088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Security measures take up more and more space in our cities. In parallel, the security industry is growing. To understand these developments, we must take a step back and unfold the rationales and theories that lie behind such security measures and their materiality, specifically in the security industry. This article uses the case of the newly developed counterterrorism industry in Copenhagen to unpack some of the general dynamics that enable growth in the security industry and an increase in security measures. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among security companies, architecture firms, the Municipality of Copenhagen, the national security service, and others, this article shows how theories about counterterrorism develop in an interplay between this diverse group of security actors. The article zooms in on a security company and an architecture firm, and their divergent approaches to counterterrorism measures, and shows how both develop in conflict with local city values and security-skeptical actors. The two companies work hard to establish and promote theories not only about counterterrorism but also about what is best for the city and its citizens, which help legitimize their work in Copenhagen and shape public opinion on counterterrorism, and, ultimately, the materiality of the city.
{"title":"Concrete Blocks, Bollards, and Ha-ha Walls: How Rationales of the Security Industry Shape Our Cities","authors":"Stine Ilum","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12424","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ciso.12424","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Security measures take up more and more space in our cities. In parallel, the security industry is growing. To understand these developments, we must take a step back and unfold the rationales and theories that lie behind such security measures and their materiality, specifically in the security industry. This article uses the case of the newly developed counterterrorism industry in Copenhagen to unpack some of the general dynamics that enable growth in the security industry and an increase in security measures. Building on ethnographic fieldwork among security companies, architecture firms, the Municipality of Copenhagen, the national security service, and others, this article shows how theories about counterterrorism develop in an interplay between this diverse group of security actors. The article zooms in on a security company and an architecture firm, and their divergent approaches to counterterrorism measures, and shows how both develop in conflict with local city values and security-skeptical actors. The two companies work hard to establish and promote theories not only about counterterrorism but also about what is best for the city and its citizens, which help legitimize their work in Copenhagen and shape public opinion on counterterrorism, and, ultimately, the materiality of the city.</p>","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"34 1","pages":"88-110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ciso.12424","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125169983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chasing World-Class Urbanism: Global Policy versus Everyday Survival in Buenos Aires Jacob Lederman, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2020, 280 pp.","authors":"Sarah Muir","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12430","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ciso.12430","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122807631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stuck with Tourism: Space, Power, and Labor in Contemporary Yucatán Matilde Córdoba Azcárate, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020, 316 pp.","authors":"Zhiyi Wang","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12432","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ciso.12432","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124389335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"CUAA: We Have Always Been Critical Engaged Urbanists","authors":"Setha Low","doi":"10.1111/ciso.12421","DOIUrl":"10.1111/ciso.12421","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46417,"journal":{"name":"City & Society","volume":"34 1","pages":"24-29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124570330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}