South and North [Hardcover]

This book explores urban life and realities in the cities of the Global South and North. Through literature, film and other forms of media that constitute shared social imaginaries, the essays in the volume interrogate the modes of production that make up the fabric of urban spaces and the lives of their inhabitants. They also rethink practices that engender cityness in diverse but increasingly interlinked conglomerations.

Probing orientations of and within major urban spaces of the South Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Tijuana, Delhi, Kolkata, Luanda and Johannesburg the book reveals the shared dynamics of urbanity built on and through the ruins of imperialism, Cold War geopolitics, global neoliberalism and the recent resurgence of nationalism. Completing a kind of arc, the volume then turns to cities located in the North such as Paris, Munich, Dresden, London and New York to map their coordinates in relation to the South.

The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of media and culture studies, city studies, development studies, Global South studies, urban geography, built environment and literature.

Lists of figures

List of contributors

Series editors preface

Acknowledgements

1.Introduction

2.Detachment Down South: On Salvage Operations and City-making

AbdouMaliq Simone

3.The Agency of Materials and the Future of Politics in the Shanty-town of the Global South

Russell West-Pavlov

4. Ideological Disorientation and Urban Struggle in Postwar Luanda: Notes on Netos Mausoleum