Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1177/15356841221076656
Alexandrea J. Ravenelle
Recent years have brought a collection of books examining the impact of the sharing economy on workers and on work, but much less attention has been paid to the impact on local communities. Airbnb, Short-Term Rentals and the Future of Housing focuses on the community impact, arguing that the most disruption from Airbnb and related short-term rental platforms has occurred in urban areas where housing markets are already stressed. Hoffman and Heisler utilize a case study approach with a focus on four American cities (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston), compared to Australia (primarily Sydney and Melbourne) and Germany (Berlin and Munich). Although the authors note that homesharing is hardly new, Airbnb has “removed the rooming house stigma and made short-term rentals fashionable, even sexy, for potential travelers” (p. 11). In addition, the platform benefits from “the tech industry’s well-known freedom from regulation” (p. 13). But perhaps most of all, Airbnb has benefited from “financialization,” which the authors define as “the increasingly active role of financial institutions and processes” (p. 15). The securitization of mortgages and high-risk banking strategies, including subprime loans, contributed to the Great Recession, but the rise in foreclosures and the post-recession rise in housing prices also contributed to an increasing number of renters and increased demand for affordable housing. Meanwhile, rental housing has been a declining portion of the U.S. housing market, holding little attraction for private builders outside the high end of the market. Meanwhile, renters—the majority of households in most large cities—pay a larger share of their incomes for housing and are increasingly rent-burdened (spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent). Indeed, Hoffman and Heisler cite a 2020 Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University report noting that “in most metro areas at least 40 percent of renters are costburdened and in some locations the figure is as high as 56 percent” (p. 17). As the rental sector becomes more attractive for investors, “institutional and corporate ownership of rental property has increased as the percentage of individual owners has dramatically declined” (p. 18). Enter Airbnb as “an inexpensive way to travel . . . a solution to high rents and mortgages” and a product of “the neoliberal Zeitgeist that celebrated individual entrepreneurship and technological innovation” (p. 18). Chapter 2 is entitled “Cities, Data and Data Wars,” but that title could actually be applied to every chapter. With few exceptions, chapters generally follow a similar format of discussing the local housing stock, the rise of Airbnb locally, reports created by anti-Airbnb groups, the platform’s response, and various laws and legal challenges. While this may not actually be the goal of the book, it quickly becomes obvious that the challenges of Airbnb—and the reactions from locals—are often not unique. While some
近年来，人们收集了一系列书籍，研究共享经济对工人和工作的影响，但对当地社区的影响却很少关注。Airbnb、Short Term Rentals和the Future of Housing专注于社区影响，认为Airbnb和相关短期租赁平台的最大干扰发生在住房市场已经紧张的城市地区。Hoffman和Heisler采用案例研究方法，重点研究美国四个城市（纽约、旧金山、洛杉矶和波士顿），而澳大利亚（主要是悉尼和墨尔本）和德国（柏林和慕尼黑）。尽管作者指出，家庭共享并不是什么新鲜事，但爱彼迎已经“消除了租房的污名，让短期租房成为潜在旅行者的时尚，甚至性感”（第11页）。此外，该平台受益于“科技行业众所周知的免于监管的自由”（第13页）。但也许最重要的是，爱彼迎受益于“金融化”，作者将其定义为“金融机构和流程日益积极的作用”（第15页）。抵押贷款证券化和包括次级贷款在内的高风险银行策略导致了大衰退，但止赎权的增加和经济衰退后房价的上涨也导致了租房人数的增加和对经济适用房的需求增加。与此同时，租赁住房在美国住房市场中的份额一直在下降，对高端市场以外的私人建筑商几乎没有吸引力。与此同时，租房者——大多数大城市的大多数家庭——为住房支付了更大比例的收入，而且租金负担越来越重（将收入的30%以上用于租金）。事实上，Hoffman和Heisler引用了哈佛大学住房研究联合中心2020年的一份报告，指出“在大多数大都市地区，至少40%的租房者承担了成本负担，在一些地区，这一数字高达56%”（第17页）。随着租赁行业对投资者的吸引力越来越大，“随着个人业主比例的大幅下降，机构和公司对租赁物业的所有权有所增加”（第18页）。Airbnb是“一种廉价的旅行方式……解决高租金和抵押贷款的方案”，也是“庆祝个人创业和技术创新的新自由主义时代精神”的产物（第18页）。第二章的标题是“城市、数据和数据战争”，但这个标题实际上可以应用于每一章。除了少数例外，章节通常采用类似的形式讨论当地住房存量、Airbnb在当地的崛起、反Airbnb团体创建的报告、平台的回应以及各种法律和法律挑战。虽然这实际上可能不是这本书的目标，但很快就很明显，Airbnb的挑战——以及当地人的反应——往往不是独一无二的。虽然一些城市，如洛杉矶，被视为不愿意采取太多行动来避免1076656 CTYXX10.1177/155356841221076656城市与社区书评书评2022
{"title":"Book Review: Lily M. Hoffman and Barbara Schmitter Heisler, Airbnb, Short-Term Rentals and the Future of Housing","authors":"Alexandrea J. Ravenelle","doi":"10.1177/15356841221076656","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841221076656","url":null,"abstract":"Recent years have brought a collection of books examining the impact of the sharing economy on workers and on work, but much less attention has been paid to the impact on local communities. Airbnb, Short-Term Rentals and the Future of Housing focuses on the community impact, arguing that the most disruption from Airbnb and related short-term rental platforms has occurred in urban areas where housing markets are already stressed. Hoffman and Heisler utilize a case study approach with a focus on four American cities (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston), compared to Australia (primarily Sydney and Melbourne) and Germany (Berlin and Munich). Although the authors note that homesharing is hardly new, Airbnb has “removed the rooming house stigma and made short-term rentals fashionable, even sexy, for potential travelers” (p. 11). In addition, the platform benefits from “the tech industry’s well-known freedom from regulation” (p. 13). But perhaps most of all, Airbnb has benefited from “financialization,” which the authors define as “the increasingly active role of financial institutions and processes” (p. 15). The securitization of mortgages and high-risk banking strategies, including subprime loans, contributed to the Great Recession, but the rise in foreclosures and the post-recession rise in housing prices also contributed to an increasing number of renters and increased demand for affordable housing. Meanwhile, rental housing has been a declining portion of the U.S. housing market, holding little attraction for private builders outside the high end of the market. Meanwhile, renters—the majority of households in most large cities—pay a larger share of their incomes for housing and are increasingly rent-burdened (spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent). Indeed, Hoffman and Heisler cite a 2020 Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University report noting that “in most metro areas at least 40 percent of renters are costburdened and in some locations the figure is as high as 56 percent” (p. 17). As the rental sector becomes more attractive for investors, “institutional and corporate ownership of rental property has increased as the percentage of individual owners has dramatically declined” (p. 18). Enter Airbnb as “an inexpensive way to travel . . . a solution to high rents and mortgages” and a product of “the neoliberal Zeitgeist that celebrated individual entrepreneurship and technological innovation” (p. 18). Chapter 2 is entitled “Cities, Data and Data Wars,” but that title could actually be applied to every chapter. With few exceptions, chapters generally follow a similar format of discussing the local housing stock, the rise of Airbnb locally, reports created by anti-Airbnb groups, the platform’s response, and various laws and legal challenges. While this may not actually be the goal of the book, it quickly becomes obvious that the challenges of Airbnb—and the reactions from locals—are often not unique. While some","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"21 1","pages":"82 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46023249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-27DOI: 10.1177/15356841211073589
A. Blok, Amanda K. Juvik, Anna Helene Kvist Møller, Jonas Skjold Raaschou-Pedersen, Jakob Laage-Thomsen
As elsewhere in Europe, cities in Denmark have witnessed a surge in civic urban nature engagement, such as place- and practice-based initiatives (e.g., public-access community gardens, organic food collectives, and grazing associations that enhance biodiversity). While this expansion of urban green communities, as we call them, is widely noted in the literature, less attention has been paid to the comparative variability of their local civic expression. In this article, we use digital methods to map out the group styles, the spatial intergroup networks, and the cultural-political value landscapes of 130 urban green communities across the four largest cities in Denmark. To compare results, we develop the concept of “civic engagement scenes” as a way of responding to recent developments in cultural and political sociology. Overall, we show how this notion allows for interpreting civic greening groups: they are neither neighborhood-based endeavors nor hubs of social movement mobilization, but rather geographies of co-engagement that span cities while also forge new senses and practices of place.
{"title":"The Place of Greening: Comparing Civic Engagement Scenes of Urban Natures across Danish Cities","authors":"A. Blok, Amanda K. Juvik, Anna Helene Kvist Møller, Jonas Skjold Raaschou-Pedersen, Jakob Laage-Thomsen","doi":"10.1177/15356841211073589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211073589","url":null,"abstract":"As elsewhere in Europe, cities in Denmark have witnessed a surge in civic urban nature engagement, such as place- and practice-based initiatives (e.g., public-access community gardens, organic food collectives, and grazing associations that enhance biodiversity). While this expansion of urban green communities, as we call them, is widely noted in the literature, less attention has been paid to the comparative variability of their local civic expression. In this article, we use digital methods to map out the group styles, the spatial intergroup networks, and the cultural-political value landscapes of 130 urban green communities across the four largest cities in Denmark. To compare results, we develop the concept of “civic engagement scenes” as a way of responding to recent developments in cultural and political sociology. Overall, we show how this notion allows for interpreting civic greening groups: they are neither neighborhood-based endeavors nor hubs of social movement mobilization, but rather geographies of co-engagement that span cities while also forge new senses and practices of place.","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"21 1","pages":"91 - 112"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2022-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48083805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-15DOI: 10.1177/15356841211054790
Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana
Academics largely define gentrification based on changes in the class demographics of neighborhood residents from predominately low-income to middle-class. This ignores that gentrification always occurs in spaces defined by both class and race. In this article, I use the lens of racial capitalism to theorize gentrification as a racialized, profit-accumulating process, integrating the perspective that spaces are always racialized to class-centered theories. Using the prior literature on gentrification in the United States, I demonstrate how the concepts of value, valuation, and devaluation from racial capitalism explain where and how gentrification unfolds. Exposure to gentrification varies depending on a neighborhood’s racial composition and the gentrification stakeholders involved, which contributes to racial differences in the scale and pace of change and the implications of those changes for processes of displacement. Revising our understanding of gentrification to address the racialization of space helps resolve seemingly contradictory findings across qualitative and quantitative studies.
{"title":"Theorizing Gentrification as a Process of Racial Capitalism","authors":"Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana","doi":"10.1177/15356841211054790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211054790","url":null,"abstract":"Academics largely define gentrification based on changes in the class demographics of neighborhood residents from predominately low-income to middle-class. This ignores that gentrification always occurs in spaces defined by both class and race. In this article, I use the lens of racial capitalism to theorize gentrification as a racialized, profit-accumulating process, integrating the perspective that spaces are always racialized to class-centered theories. Using the prior literature on gentrification in the United States, I demonstrate how the concepts of value, valuation, and devaluation from racial capitalism explain where and how gentrification unfolds. Exposure to gentrification varies depending on a neighborhood’s racial composition and the gentrification stakeholders involved, which contributes to racial differences in the scale and pace of change and the implications of those changes for processes of displacement. Revising our understanding of gentrification to address the racialization of space helps resolve seemingly contradictory findings across qualitative and quantitative studies.","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"21 1","pages":"173 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42980130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-31DOI: 10.1177/15356841211041363
Sebastián F. Villamizar-Santamaría
According to the theories of social disorganization and collective efficacy, population heterogeneity contributes to the erosion of social ties and the increase in crime. I test that assumption through an in-person and digital ethnography in La Calera, a rural area in Colombia undergoing population change through gentrification and facing increasing burglaries, cattle theft, and other crimes. I argue that the use of social media in this socially mixed community for a common goal—safety—enables coalitions among residents that reach across social divisions. By participating in community meetings but especially through social media, residents monitor the area to look after homes and each other, highlighting feelings of “unity” and “cohesion” that strengthen social ties among them and the police despite the heterogeneity in class composition. This case examines when social organization can occur despite class polarization, even in a country with a long civil war history and high class inequality.
{"title":"Eyes on the Screen: Digital Interclass Coalitions against Crime in a Gentrifying Rural Town","authors":"Sebastián F. Villamizar-Santamaría","doi":"10.1177/15356841211041363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211041363","url":null,"abstract":"According to the theories of social disorganization and collective efficacy, population heterogeneity contributes to the erosion of social ties and the increase in crime. I test that assumption through an in-person and digital ethnography in La Calera, a rural area in Colombia undergoing population change through gentrification and facing increasing burglaries, cattle theft, and other crimes. I argue that the use of social media in this socially mixed community for a common goal—safety—enables coalitions among residents that reach across social divisions. By participating in community meetings but especially through social media, residents monitor the area to look after homes and each other, highlighting feelings of “unity” and “cohesion” that strengthen social ties among them and the police despite the heterogeneity in class composition. This case examines when social organization can occur despite class polarization, even in a country with a long civil war history and high class inequality.","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"21 1","pages":"62 - 81"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46356651","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-28DOI: 10.1177/15356841211044761
Jennifer Clark
The book meaningfully contributes to urban theory by engaging with multiple theoretical traditions. In the realm of political economy, for instance, Lederman acknowledges the neoliberal orientation of city officials but also highlights the effort— even among the most business-oriented city leaders—to celebrate local culture and heritage. Channeling postcolonial skepticism, he questions the limited explanatory power of generic concepts such as gentrification. And he nods toward assemblage theory, especially while analyzing how global policies circulate among international thinktanks and experts. Lederman’s wide-angle lens allows him to demonstrate just how far—or not—Western theories can “travel” to study social change among cities in the global South.
{"title":"Book Review: Sharon Zukin, The Innovation Complex: Cities, Tech and the New Economy","authors":"Jennifer Clark","doi":"10.1177/15356841211044761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211044761","url":null,"abstract":"The book meaningfully contributes to urban theory by engaging with multiple theoretical traditions. In the realm of political economy, for instance, Lederman acknowledges the neoliberal orientation of city officials but also highlights the effort— even among the most business-oriented city leaders—to celebrate local culture and heritage. Channeling postcolonial skepticism, he questions the limited explanatory power of generic concepts such as gentrification. And he nods toward assemblage theory, especially while analyzing how global policies circulate among international thinktanks and experts. Lederman’s wide-angle lens allows him to demonstrate just how far—or not—Western theories can “travel” to study social change among cities in the global South.","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"20 1","pages":"374 - 376"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44375620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-28DOI: 10.1177/15356841211044762
Michael Levien
{"title":"Book Review: Patrick Inglis, Narrow Fairways: Getting by & Falling Behind in the New India","authors":"Michael Levien","doi":"10.1177/15356841211044762","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211044762","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44775349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-28DOI: 10.1177/15356841211044764
Daniel Silver
Cities are more than places to live, work, or mobilize political or social movements— though they are all of these things. That they are also host to myriad local scenes that infuse urban experience with opportunities for shared enjoyments has only become more evident since 2020 as access to them has been severely reduced due to public health restrictions on public sociability. If a 300-page book about craft beer and the birth of a local scene might have previously seemed gratuitous, witnessing so many streets stripped of the aura with which their scenes had infused them is a reminder of the value of serious scholarly investigation into the basis and dynamics of urban cultural life. Michael Ian Borer’s Vegas Brews: Craft Beer and the Birth of a Local Scene represents such an investigation. Borer offers a richly detailed, close ethnographic study of the emergence of the microbrew craft scene in Las Vegas, animated by a much bigger question: in a city where consumerism, alienation, indifference, and artifice predominate, can scenes thrive that evoke local authenticity and the “well-crafted life?” The stark contrast between the official narrative of Vegas and efforts to cultivate spaces infused by this counternarrative makes the book especially poignant. Vegas Brews shines most through synthesis and application of diverse, existing concepts to illuminate the inner workings of the Vegas craft beer scene. Most notably, Borer revives John Irwin’s woefully neglected 1977 book, Scenes, which developed a dramaturgical approach to studying local scenes unfolding among disco dancers, surfers, skiers, spiritualists, and hippies. Following Irwin, Borer highlights three key aspects: scenes are (1) expressive: they are used for direct gratification but also promote an ethos; (2) voluntary: people choose to participate at different degrees and in different ways; and (3) publicly available: knowledge about the scene—where it is happening, what activities it entails, what ethos it stands for—can be acquired by anybody who is willing to participate and learn about it. Much of Vegas Brews involves observations about how these principles operate on the ground as local scene-makers work to build and grow the craft beer scene in Vegas. While the stories themselves are vivid and give the reader that feeling of having “been there” characteristic of good ethnographic writing, in the course of the analysis Borer extends the concepts, often through creative combination with other related themes. For example, Borer links Irwin’s categories to an explanation of why scenes are fun, and to the concept of fun more generally. Part of the fun comes from the voluntary aspect, which makes participation an opportunity to play without fully or categorically being defined by group membership. The public character also means that involvement can be a process of discovery: moving from the periphery of the scene into the core means encountering diverse characters, such as “beer geeks,” ba
城市不仅仅是居住、工作或发动政治或社会运动的地方——尽管它们都是这些东西。自2020年以来，由于公共卫生限制对公共社交的限制，进入这些地方的机会严重减少，它们也承载了无数的当地场景，为城市体验注入了共享享受的机会，这一点变得更加明显。如果说一本300页的关于精酿啤酒和一个地方景观诞生的书在以前似乎是没有必要的，那么，目睹如此多的街道失去了这些景观赋予它们的光环，就会提醒人们，对城市文化生活的基础和动态进行严肃的学术研究是有价值的。Michael Ian Borer的《拉斯维加斯酿造:精酿啤酒和当地场景的诞生》就代表了这样一种调查。Borer对拉斯维加斯微酿工艺场景的出现进行了详细而细致的人种学研究，并提出了一个更大的问题:在一个消费主义、异化、冷漠和诡计占主导地位的城市里，场景能否繁荣起来，唤起当地的真实性和“精心制作的生活”?拉斯维加斯的官方叙述与这种反叙事注入的努力之间形成鲜明对比，使这本书特别尖锐。维加斯啤酒通过综合和应用各种现有概念来阐明维加斯精酿啤酒场景的内部运作。最值得注意的是，Borer复兴了John Irwin 1977年被严重忽视的著作《场景》，这本书发展了一种戏剧的方法来研究迪斯科舞者、冲浪者、滑雪者、通灵者和嬉皮士之间展开的当地场景。继Irwin之后，Borer强调了三个关键方面:场景具有表现力:它们用于直接满足，但也促进了一种精神;(2)自愿性:人们选择不同程度、不同方式的参与;(3)公开可用性:任何愿意参与和学习的人都可以获得关于场景的知识——它在哪里发生，它需要什么活动，它代表什么精神。维加斯啤酒厂的大部分内容都涉及到这些原则是如何在当地的场景制造者努力在维加斯建立和发展精酿啤酒场景时运作的。虽然故事本身很生动，给读者一种“身临其境”的感觉，这是优秀的民族志写作的特点，但在分析过程中，波尔扩展了概念，通常是通过与其他相关主题的创造性结合。例如，Borer将Irwin的分类与为什么场景有趣的解释联系起来，并将其与更普遍的乐趣概念联系起来。部分乐趣来自自愿方面，这使得参与成为一种机会，无需完全或绝对地由团队成员定义。公共角色也意味着参与可以是一个发现的过程:从场景的外围进入核心意味着遇到不同的角色，如“啤酒爱好者”，调酒师和经销商，以及不同的地方，因为场景分散在松散的附属场所。个人进出的运动，以及1044764 CTYXXX10.1177/15356841211044764City & CommunityBook Reviews book-review2021
{"title":"Book Review: Michael Ian Borer, Vegas Brews: Craft Beer and the Birth of a Local Scene","authors":"Daniel Silver","doi":"10.1177/15356841211044764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211044764","url":null,"abstract":"Cities are more than places to live, work, or mobilize political or social movements— though they are all of these things. That they are also host to myriad local scenes that infuse urban experience with opportunities for shared enjoyments has only become more evident since 2020 as access to them has been severely reduced due to public health restrictions on public sociability. If a 300-page book about craft beer and the birth of a local scene might have previously seemed gratuitous, witnessing so many streets stripped of the aura with which their scenes had infused them is a reminder of the value of serious scholarly investigation into the basis and dynamics of urban cultural life. Michael Ian Borer’s Vegas Brews: Craft Beer and the Birth of a Local Scene represents such an investigation. Borer offers a richly detailed, close ethnographic study of the emergence of the microbrew craft scene in Las Vegas, animated by a much bigger question: in a city where consumerism, alienation, indifference, and artifice predominate, can scenes thrive that evoke local authenticity and the “well-crafted life?” The stark contrast between the official narrative of Vegas and efforts to cultivate spaces infused by this counternarrative makes the book especially poignant. Vegas Brews shines most through synthesis and application of diverse, existing concepts to illuminate the inner workings of the Vegas craft beer scene. Most notably, Borer revives John Irwin’s woefully neglected 1977 book, Scenes, which developed a dramaturgical approach to studying local scenes unfolding among disco dancers, surfers, skiers, spiritualists, and hippies. Following Irwin, Borer highlights three key aspects: scenes are (1) expressive: they are used for direct gratification but also promote an ethos; (2) voluntary: people choose to participate at different degrees and in different ways; and (3) publicly available: knowledge about the scene—where it is happening, what activities it entails, what ethos it stands for—can be acquired by anybody who is willing to participate and learn about it. Much of Vegas Brews involves observations about how these principles operate on the ground as local scene-makers work to build and grow the craft beer scene in Vegas. While the stories themselves are vivid and give the reader that feeling of having “been there” characteristic of good ethnographic writing, in the course of the analysis Borer extends the concepts, often through creative combination with other related themes. For example, Borer links Irwin’s categories to an explanation of why scenes are fun, and to the concept of fun more generally. Part of the fun comes from the voluntary aspect, which makes participation an opportunity to play without fully or categorically being defined by group membership. The public character also means that involvement can be a process of discovery: moving from the periphery of the scene into the core means encountering diverse characters, such as “beer geeks,” ba","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":"20 1","pages":"371 - 372"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43018589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-28DOI: 10.1177/15356841211044763
Xuefei Ren
{"title":"Book Review: Jacob Lederman, Chasing World-Class Urbanism: Global Policy versus Everyday Survival in Buenos Aires","authors":"Xuefei Ren","doi":"10.1177/15356841211044763","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15356841211044763","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47486,"journal":{"name":"City & Community","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49493920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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