Book Review: Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil

Abstract

Much of urban sociology has been devoted to understanding the demographic structure and organization of cities. The concentric ring model, which placed factories and the poor at the center and more affluent residents at the edge, in many ways no longer accurately describes modern cities, and indeed some would argue never did. Often framed as a project of dismantling the Chicago School hegemony, many have proposed alternative models, for example the LA School's contention that cities follow a more haphazard and patchwork pattern. In The Great Inversion, a book-length version of his 2008 New Republic article entitled "Trading Places," Alan Ehrenhalt joins this debate, arguing that although a concentric ring pattern persists in American cities, it has been turned inside out. Describing the process as a "demographic inversion," he contends that the suburbs, once the domain of affluent whites, are now (or quickly becoming) populated predominantly by immigrants, minorities, and the poor. At the same time, the central city has become a highly desirable place to live for those who can afford it. As this process unfolds, twentyfirst century American cities are coming to resemble nineteenth century European cities like Paris, where the wealthy enjoyed Haussmann's boulevards in the center and poor immigrants were relegated to the cramped outer arrondissements.This argument is built on a series of diverse cases ranging from downtowns (Philadelphia, Houston, and Phoenix) and inner-city neighborhoods (Chicago's Sheffield, Manhattan's financial district, and Brooklyn's Bushwick), to suburbs (Cleveland Heights, OH; Clarendon, VA; and Stapleton, CO) and the metropolitan fringe (Atlanta's Gwinnett county). These cases offer detailed and engaging illustrations of the idiosyncratic changes-both demographic and land use-occurring in these places. For example, the Gwinnett county case highlights that Atlanta's urban sprawl is increasingly driven not by white flight, but by immigrants seeking affordable housing. Similarly, the Stapleton case documents the phenomenon of grayfield redevelopment (here, a former airport) under the aegis of New Urbanism. Although these cases do an excellent job of describing American cities' changing forms, it is less clear how they are connected to each other or to an overarching narrative. Thus, they ultimately raise two important questions, which Ehrenhalt struggles to answer: Is a demographic inversion really taking place, and what is driving the changes?

The Fuzzy Side of Publicness: Visualizing Street Politics of Everyday life through the Lens of Distance

“…Viewing publicness as a fuzzy and gradient notion suggests being more open to uncertainty, ambivalence, and emergence that characterize the immediate experience (Holston, 2009). Manifestations of publicness transition between generic and situational experiences according to which urban routine is being observed (Figure 1).…”