In his ethnography of the politics of security and risk in Bogotá, Colombia, Austin Zeiderman demonstrates the value of ethnographic research for theorizing alternative urbanisms in Latin America and beyond. Based on twenty months of fieldwork between 2008 and 2010, Endangered City centers on a government disaster risk management program in Bogotá that seeks to relocate residents living in areas of high risk to environmental hazards to more secure living conditions. These residents are among millions of internally displaced Colombians that fled violent rural areas to live in self built settlements on the urban periphery. Zeiderman argues that the imperative to manage insecurity and protect citizens against future harm has given rise to governance practices that reshape urban life, political subjectivities, and the state-citizen relationship. The book offers an in-depth exploration of these practices and a contemplation of how they are made/remade and with what consequences.
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