Book picks similar to
Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place by Setha Low
anthropology
species-of-spaces
arch-urban-theory
urbanism
No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City
Katherine S. Newman - 1999
Newman's message is clear and timely." --The Philadelphia InquirerIn No Shame in My Game, Harvard anthropologist Katherine Newman gives voice to a population for whom work, family, and self-esteem are top priorities despite all the factors that make earning a living next to impossible--minimum wage, lack of child care and health care, and a desperate shortage of even low-paying jobs. By intimately following the lives of nearly 300 inner-city workers and job seekers for two yearsin Harlem, Newman explores a side of poverty often ignored by media and politicians--the working poor.The working poor find dignity in earning a paycheck and shunning the welfare system, arguing that even low-paying jobs give order to their lives. No Shame in My Game gives voice to a misrepresented segment of today's society, and is sure to spark dialogue over the issues surrounding poverty, working and welfare.
A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America
Vishaan Chakrabarti - 2013
If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build "a Country of Cities," to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees.Vishaan Chakrabarti is the director of Columbia University's Center for Urban Real Estate (CURE). In March 2012, Chakrabarti became a partner at SHoP Architects, where he will be working on such projects as the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn. An architect and planner, Chakrabarti has worked in both the public and private sectors: as a top executive at Related Companies; a director at the New York City Planning Commission; an associate partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; a transportation planner for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World
Doug Saunders - 2010
These transitional spaces are where the next great economic and cultural boom will be born, or where the great explosion of violence will occur. The difference depends on our ability to notice.The twenty-first century is going to be remembered for the great, and final, shift of human populations out of rural, agricultural life into cities. The movement engages an unprecedented number of people, perhaps a third of the world's population, and will affect almost everyone in tangible ways. The last human movement of this size and scope, and the changes it will bring to family life, from large agrarian families to small urban ones, will put an end to the major theme of human history: continuous population growth.Arrival City offers a detailed tour of the key places of the "final migration" and explores the possibilities and pitfalls inherent in the developing new world order. From villages in China, India, Bangladesh and Poland to the international cities of the world, Doug Saunders portrays a diverse group of people as they struggle to make the transition, and in telling the story of their journeys — and the history of their often multi-generational families enmeshed in the struggle of transition — gives an often surprising sense of what factors aid in the creation of a stable, productive community.
Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis
Sam Anderson - 2018
It was founded in a bizarre but momentous "Land Run" in 1889, when thousands of people lined up along the borders of Oklahoma Territory and rushed in at noon to stake their claims. Since then, it has been a city torn between the wild energy that drives its outsized ambitions, and the forces of order that seek sustainable progress. Nowhere was this dynamic better realized than in the drama of the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team's 2012-13 season, when the Thunder's brilliant general manager, Sam Presti, ignited a firestorm by trading future superstar James Harden just days before the first game. Presti's all-in gamble on "the Process"—the patient, methodical management style that dictated the trade as the team’s best hope for long-term greatness—kicked off a pivotal year in the city's history, one that would include pitched battles over urban planning, a series of cataclysmic tornadoes, and the frenzied hope that an NBA championship might finally deliver the glory of which the city had always dreamed.Boom Town announces the arrival of an exciting literary voice. Sam Anderson, former book critic for New York magazine and now a staff writer at the New York Times magazine, unfolds an idiosyncratic mix of American history, sports reporting, urban studies, gonzo memoir, and much more to tell the strange but compelling story of an American city whose unique mix of geography and history make it a fascinating microcosm of the democratic experiment. Filled with characters ranging from NBA superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; to Flaming Lips oddball frontman Wayne Coyne; to legendary Great Plains meteorologist Gary England; to Stanley Draper, Oklahoma City's would-be Robert Moses; to civil rights activist Clara Luper; to the citizens and public servants who survived the notorious 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, Boom Town offers a remarkable look at the urban tapestry woven from control and chaos, sports and civics.
Securing the Heart of A Bully
Kennedy B. - 2020
Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space
Michael Sorkin - 1992
A new Kind of urbanism--manipulative, dispersed, and hostile to traditional public space--is emerging both at the heart and at the edge of town in megamalls, corporate enclaves, gentrified zones, and psuedo-historic marketplaces. If anything can be described as a paradigm for these places, it's the theme park, an apparently benign environment in which all is structured to achieve maximum control and in which the idea of authentic interaction among citizens has been thoroughly purged. In this bold collection, eight of our leading urbanists and architectural critics explore the emblematic sites of this new cityscape--from Silicon Valley to Epcot Center, South Street Seaport to downtown Los Angeles--and reveal their disturbing implications for American public life.
The Railway Adventures: Places, Trains, People and Stations
Geoff Marshall - 2018
It is also the best route to enjoying the landscape of Great Britain. Within these pages Vicki Pipe and Geoff Marshall from All the Stations (YouTube transport experts and survivors of a crowd-funded trip to visit all the stations in the UK) help you discover the hidden stories that lie behind branch lines, as well as meeting the people who fix the engines and put the trains to bed. Embark on unknown routes, disembark at unfamiliar stations, explore new places and get to know the communities who keep small stations and remote lines alive.
The New Geography of Jobs
Enrico Moretti - 2012
An unprecedented redistribution of jobs, population, and wealth is under way in America, and it is likely to accelerate in the years to come. America’s new economic map shows growing differences, not just between people but especially between communities. In this important and persuasive book, U.C. Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti provides a fresh perspective on the tectonic shifts that are reshaping America’s labor market—from globalization and income inequality to immigration and technological progress—and how these shifts are affecting our communities. Drawing on a wealth of stimulating new studies, Moretti uncovers what smart policies may be appropriate to address the social challenges that are arising. We’re used to thinking of the United States in dichotomous terms: red versus blue, black versus white, haves versus have-nots. But today there are three Americas. At one extreme are the brain hubs—cities like San Francisco, Boston, Austin, and Durham—with a well-educated labor force and a strong innovation sector. Their workers are among the most productive, creative, and best paid on the planet. At the other extreme are cities once dominated by traditional manufacturing, which are declining rapidly, losing jobs and residents. In the middle are a number of cities that could go either way. For the past thirty years, the three Americas have been growing apart at an accelerating rate. This divergence is one the most important recent developments in the United States and is causing growing geographic disparities is all other aspects of our lives, from health and longevity to family stability and political engagement. But the winners and losers aren’t necessarily who you’d expect. Moretti’s groundbreaking research shows that you don’t have to be a scientist or an engineer to thrive in one of these brain hubs. Among the beneficiaries are the workers who support the "idea-creators"—the carpenters, hair stylists, personal trainers, lawyers, doctors, teachers and the like. In fact, Moretti has shown that for every new innovation job in a city, five additional non-innovation jobs are created, and those workers earn higher salaries than their counterparts in other cities. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. As the global economy shifted from manufacturing to innovation, geography was supposed to matter less. But the pundits were wrong. A new map is being drawn—the inevitable result of deep-seated but rarely discussed economic forces. These trends are reshaping the very fabric of our society. Dealing with this split—supporting growth in the hubs while arresting the decline elsewhere—will be the challenge of the century, and The New Geography of Jobs lights the way.
The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
William H. Whyte - 1980
Whyte published the findings from his revolutionary Street Life Project in The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Both the book and the accompanying film were instantly labeled classics, and launched a mini-revolution in the planning and study of public spaces. They have since become standard texts, and appear on syllabi and reading lists in urban planning, sociology, environmental design, and architecture departments around the world.Project for Public Spaces, which grew out of Holly's Street Life Project and continues his work around the world, has acquired the reprint rights to Social Life, with the intent of making it available to the widest possible audience and ensuring that the Whyte family receive their fair share of Holly's legacy.From the forward: For more than 30 years, Project for Public Spaces has been using observations, surveys, interviews and workshops to study and transform public spaces around the world into community places. Every week we give presentations about why some public spaces work and why others don't, using the techniques, ideas, and memorable phrases from William H. "Holly" Whyte's The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.Holly Whyte was both our mentor and our friend. Perhaps his most important gift was the ability to show us how to discover for ourselves why some public spaces work and others don't. With the publication of The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces and its companion film in 1980, the world could see that through the basic tools of observation and interviews, we can learn an immense amount about how to make our cities more livable. In doing so, Holly Whyte laid the groundwork for a major movement to change the way public spaces are built and planned. It is our pleasure to offer this important book back to the world it is helping to transform.
how the poor die
George Orwell
Orwell gives an anecdotal account of his experiences in a french public hospital which triggers a contemplation of hospital literature in the context of 19th-century medicine.
A Hood Dilemma is Still Bittersweet: A Naptown Triangle (A Bittersweet Hood Dilemma Book 3)
Natavia - 2015
Tassana is on the right path for the sake of her son. The problems between Osari and Tassana might cause her to go back to her old ways. Osari is trying to make it right for the sake of his family until his secret comes out. When all has been revealed, will it drive Tassana away permanently? Shimmy and Dez are young and in love until Kiwanna comes back into the picture. Dez is forced into making a tough decision leaving Shimmy with a lot of questions. Armory is a guy with a motive, will Shimmy figure it out before its too late? Kyree is stuck between two men, Osari and Pernell. Pernell does everything he can to get Kyree back. Kyree is torn from her past with Pernell, which is causing her to fall in love with another man. The man Kyree falls in love with is in love with another woman. Every hood has its dilemma, even when one dilemma ends many more occurs. Everyone is in a love triangle, but there is only room for one, who will they choose? This is an urban tale of love, heart-breaks, secrets and lies.
There’s Still Beauty in This Street Love: Her Fallen Angel
Elle Kayson - 2017
No Distractions. Ángel Cruz had been chanting those words to himself most of his life, struggling to stay disciplined and dedicated in the crazy, brutal world that surrounded him. His work as an exclusive assassin demanded all his attention. Ángel had no time for relationships… until the day he set eyes and his wandering hands on Tamar Kinsey. For the first time in his life, he was distracted as hell, focused on the Kinsey princess. Ángel was determined to have her laughter, her loyalty, and the one thing he never expected to want: her love. Despite her family’s insistence on sheltering her from everything, Tamar Kinsey had made up her mind to master the underworld as well as her older brothers. Ángel Cruz’s offer to teach her the game was too good to pass up. Tay found Ángel’s dark persona and overprotectiveness both frustrating and alluring. Even as she learns to love her fallen angel, the demons of his unresolved past threaten to destroy any chance they might have in the present. Their sexual chemistry was off the charts, but Briar Rose and Ty Kinsey were still figuring out this relationship business. An up-and-coming surgeon, Briar knew a stellar reputation is crucial to her goal of rising into hospital administration. The appeal of her young dope boy made her want to throw caution to the wind and, for once, just live. Ty vowed to renounce his player ways and rock with her solely. But, as Briar learns the profound importance of family to the Kinseys, she fears that her longest-held secret will keep her and Ty apart forever.
King
Tremayne Johnson - 2011
Subsequent to his father's troubles spilling over into their home-life, he and his mother migrated to the United States when Deon was only six years old. For the two immigrants, making a living in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn was not an easy task. Suhati, his mother, worked extremely hard trying to sustain a stable lifestyle and shield Deon from all the negativity that surrounded them. After an altercation Deon got into with a bully at school he befriended a neighborhood hustler by the name of Jayson "Jay-Roc" Washington. Jay-Roc familiarized Deon with the street-life and schooled him on the necessary skills needed to survive in the concrete jungle. He taught him that fear equals control and Deon soon adapted to his environment like a chameleon. It didn't take long before Deon became immersed in the exact same lifestyle his mother once tried to shelter him from. He was taking steps in the same shoes his father had previously walked in, down that similar extended road to danger and he was too blind to realize it. When he finally opens his eyes to what life is really about, is it too late? KING is a grimy, heart felt, street tale of lust, envy, and hate. When the pressure is applied, only the strong will subsist and everything done in the shadows will come to light. Love is blind, karma is real, and vengeance is the sweetest joy. How long will it take Deon to learn that jealousy destroys from within? Brace yourself for the ride of your life. He who embraces the crown is considered KING!
A Staten Island Love Letter 5: The forgotten Borough
Jahquel J. - 2019
Messiah may have done something that could end her relationship with her daughter and husband. Has she gone too far, or like usual Messiah, did she know what she was doing? Staten is stuck on trying to handle loving Liberty, even after she ended things, be a father to he and Chanel’s daughter, and be there for a pregnant Maliah as well. Can he juggle it all, while trying to be there for his big brother too?Justice felt like her life was over. What was supposed to be the happiest day of her life, ended up being one of the worst days. She thought her past with shitty men was over when it came to Priest. Can Priest redeem himself? Or is this the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Justice decides to call it quits?Liberty is fighting for her life. Will Staten come running to her rescue like the past? Or will he finally give Liberty what she has been wanting; space? If that’s not enough, Ty is falling for Liberty – hard. Is he willing to compete for Liberty’s heart, knowing it belongs to her ex, Staten?With Ghost’s condition and Samoor’s condition, Free is stretched thin trying to be brave and hold down the home front. Will it all be too much to handle, or will Free pull up her big girl pants and hold it down for her son and man? Find out in the finale of this series!
Karmyn's Chance at Love
Bree - 2016
Karmyn is a girl who doesn’t know love. She never had any friends and barely spoke a word. Her mom was an addict who never showed her love. She was sent to live with her dad when she was just fourteen years old and Karmyn was happy with that. She found out she had an older brother and was excited to know that she had a family. A family to love her, embrace her and treat her like she belonged somewhere. Things never turn out as planned. Karmyn’s dad is a ruthless pimp with a past and his only interest in Karmyn is to sell her to the highest bidder. Because of the people closest to her, Karmyn thought she would never find love. She felt like love was hiding from her…. until she met Chance. Chance is a survivor. With no parents and an evil aunt, Chance has to do whatever he can to survive in the streets of Brooklyn. He meets Karmyn and he finds a friend in her. One night, he discovers that his boss has been killed, and he meets a lady that would change his life forever, Tru. She took him under her wing and treated him like family. He finally has a steady place to lay his head and to call home but it came with a price, his friendship with Karmyn. Will Chance be able to balance his new family and his friendship with Karmyn? Will he be the one to show Karmyn what it’s like to be in love or will he break her heart like everyone else in her life? Can he be Karmyn’s Chance at Love?