Endangered City
The Politics of Security and Risk in Bogotá
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Duke University Press
Published:27th May '16
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£22.99(9780822361626)
This insightful exploration reveals how security and risk influence urban governance. Endangered City examines the implications for marginalized communities in Bogotá.
In the twenty-first century, the concepts of security and risk have taken center stage in urban planning, governance, and daily life. Endangered City by Austin Zeiderman delves into this evolving political landscape, emphasizing the necessity of anticipating future harm to effectively govern the present. Through a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and archival research conducted in Bogotá, Colombia, the author explores the strategies employed by state actors to safeguard the lives of marginalized citizens against various threats, ranging from environmental disasters to urban violence.
The book intricately follows the governmental agencies tasked with this protective role and the individuals affected by their policies. Endangered City sheds light on the complexities that arise when the logic of endangerment influences the dynamics of political engagement between citizens and the state. The narrative reveals the multifaceted nature of governance in contexts where vulnerability is a constant concern.
Particularly, the self-built settlements on the outskirts of Bogotá serve as a crucial focal point for understanding the implications of security and risk in urban environments. By examining these communities, Zeiderman highlights the broader impact of these themes on contemporary urban life, prompting readers to reconsider how cities are shaped by the interplay of governance, security, and the lived experiences of their inhabitants.
"Endangered City offers crucial insights into the contingent and localized assemblage and deployment of security frameworks both as technologies of governance and as platforms for citizen claims. By exploring environmental risk, the book persuasively shows how security logics mutate and are hybridized, continually opening new fields for intervention and mobilization, but also reinscribing securitized conceptions of authority and citizenship."
-- Federico Pérez * Anthropological Quarterly *
"A comprehensive book we have long owed Bogotá, Endangered City provides an interdisciplinary perspective that is historical, ethnographic, and spatially rich. Appealing to different audiences, including urban planners, risk experts, policy makers, students, and urban geographers, the book offers a de-centered view of urban theory and constitutes an important contribution to critical understandings of security. Moreover, I think this is a recommended reading in uncertain and frustrating times." -- Diana Ojeda * Society & Space *
"Zeiderman provides a vivid portrayal of everyday life in Bogota.... The depth of empirical detail is the strength of the book, which convincingly makes the case that more urban ethnographies are needed, especially in geography. Yet, this empirical specificity is also effortlessly interwoven with more general theoretical discussions, questions, and implications in critical urban studies and beyond."
-- Matthew B. Anderson * Social & Cultural Geography *
"Endangered City is an important contribution to contemporary urban studies and risk management via its nuanced unpacking of critical theory and as a well‐crafted ethnography of endangerment.... The text is well organized, eschewing excessive jargon and thus suitable for both undergraduates and graduates, as well as critical social theorists, Latin Americanists, and those concerned with urban policy, planning, and practice in the new millennium where the dominance of first world models can no longer be assumed for the global South." -- Marilyn Gates * Population, Space and Place *
"Endangered City is an original and valuable contribution to scholarship and should be consulted by all students of politics and security in Latin America." -- Eugene Carey * Latin American Review of Books *
ISBN: 9780822361435
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 431g
312 pages