Synopses & Reviews
In
City/Art, anthropologists, literary and cultural critics, a philosopher, and an architect explore how creative practices continually reconstruct the urban scene in Latin America. The contributors, all Latin Americanists, describe how creativityandmdash;broadly conceived to encompass urban design, museums, graffiti, film, music, literature, architecture, performance art, and moreandmdash;combines with nationalist rhetoric and historical discourse to define Latin American cities. Taken together, the essays model different ways of approaching Latin Americaandrsquo;s urban centers not only as places that inspire and house creative practices but also as ongoing collective creative endeavors themselves. The essays range from an examination of how differences of scale and point of view affect peopleandrsquo;s experience of everyday life in Mexico City to a reflection on the transformation of a prison into a shopping mall in Uruguay, and from an analysis of Buenos Airesandrsquo;s preoccupation with its own status and cultural identity to a consideration of what Miami means to Cubans in the United States.
Contributors delve into the aspirations embodied in the modernist urbanism of Brasandiacute;lia and the work of Lotty Rosenfeld, a Santiago performance artist who addresses the intersections of art, urban landscapes, and daily life. One author assesses the political possibilities of public art through an analysis of subway-station mosaics and Julio Cortandaacute;zarandrsquo;s short story andldquo;Graffiti,andrdquo; while others look at the representation of Buenos Aires as a andldquo;Jewish elsewhereandrdquo; in twentieth-century fiction and at two different responses to urban crisis in Rio de Janeiro. The collection closes with an essay by a member of the Sandatilde;o Paulo urban intervention group Arte/Cidade, which invades office buildings, de-industrialized sites, and other vacant areas to install collectively produced works of art. Like that group, City/Art provides original, alternative perspectives on specific urban sites so that they can be seen anew.
Contributors. Hugo Achugar, Rebecca E. Biron, Nelson Brissac Peixoto, Nandeacute;stor Garcandiacute;a Canclini, Adriandaacute;n Gorelik, James Holston, Amy Kaminsky, Samuel Neal Lockhart, Josandeacute; Quiroga, Nelly Richard, Marcy Schwartz, George Yanduacute;dice
Review
andldquo;Urban planning in the world's most chaotic megacities? Flamboyant creativity in the planet's slums? The breathless pace of change in Latin America has left us both fascinated and confused. City/Art creates an exciting space for real interdisciplinary dialogue between culture studies and urban planning scholars on the new challenges to urban life in some of the world's largest cities, and helps us in the urgent task of rethinking the cultural with respect to the social and political spaces in which it is imbedded.andrdquo;andmdash;Debra A. Castillo, author of Re-dreaming America: Toward a Bilingual Understanding of American Literature
Review
andldquo;Professor Biron, and the international colleagues whose work she has collected in City/Art, admirably aid in the effort to move nortamericanos' view of Latin America from the trivial to the substantial.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This is a fascinating, if rather fragmented, book. This fragmentedness is intentional, and is due in part to the multidisciplinary, open-ended orientation of the collection. . . . [T]he book challenges us to approach and understand the complexity of andlsquo;Latin Americanandrsquo; cities in new, productive, and inspiring ways.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;City/Art includes ten provocative chapters spanning a variety of topics within the urban cultural studies field. From architecture and city planning to more ephemeral artistic manifestations embodied in graffiti, film, fiction and everyday life, the distinguished scholars assembled here provide a thoughtful assessment of what is otherwise a vast, nearly incomprehensible, hyper-dynamic subject.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;An insightful and suggestive collection of approaches to creative practices that produce and are produced by Latin American cities. City/Art offers a multidisciplinary collage of ways of studying and interrogating meaningful imaginaries of some of the most vibrant, amicable, violent, passionate, unequal, sensual, and intriguing cities in the contemporary world.andrdquo;andmdash;Daniel Mato, Universidad Central de Venezuela
Review
“Combining deep on-the-ground knowledge, clear writing, and balanced political and social analysis, this indispensable book throws new light on one of the most puzzling and seemingly intractable issues of twenty-first century Latin America.”
Review
“An important collection that calls attention not only to the fracture and fragility of Latin American cities, but to their resilience in responding to endemic violence and inequality. A valuable contribution sure to be embraced by scholars and students.”
Synopsis
This collection of essays argues that urban arts not only shape the imagined space of Latin American cities, but also structure real, lived urban space.
Synopsis
An interdisciplinary collection exploring how creative practices broadly conceived to encompass urban design, museums, graffiti, film, music, literature, architecture, and performance art, continually reconstruct the urban scene in Latin America.
Synopsis
Even as violent crime has declined worldwide in recent decades, Latin American cities have remained dangerous—they are now among the most violent in the world. This book brings together a stellar roster of contributors to look at the causes and consequences, as well as the possible solutions to the problem of urban violence in Latin America.
Using a framework of fragility and resilience, the contributors explore the ways that rapid urbanization—with its accompanying poverty and exclusion—has combined with the wide availability of firearms and a relatively young population to contribute to high rates of homicide and other violent crime. That violence in turn spurs calls for increased law enforcement, which itself often takes excessively aggressive form, wreaking havoc on already marginalized communities. Featuring original fieldwork and case studies, this volume offers a fresh comparative approach to the issue that will be valuable to scholars and policy makers alike.
About the Author
Kees Koonings is associate professor of development studies on the Faculty of Social Sciences at Utrecht University and professor of Brazilian studies at the University of Amsterdam. Dirk Kruijt is professor emeritus of development studies on the Faculty of Social Sciences at Utrecht University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: City/Art: Setting the Scene / Rebecca E. Biron 1
Part 1. Urban Designs
What is a City? / Nandeacute;stor Garcandiacute;a Canclini 37
Buenos Aires is (Latin) America, Too / Adriandaacute;n Gorelik 61
The Spirit of Brasandiacute;lia: Modernity as Experiment and Risk / James Holston 85
Part 2. Street Signs
City, Art, Politics / Nelly Richard 115
The Writing on the Wall: Urban Cultural Studies and the Power of the Aesthetics / Marcy Schwartz 127
Miami Remake / Josandeacute; Quiroga 145
The Jew in the City: Buenos Aires in Jewish Fiction / Amy Kaminsky 165
Part 3. Traffic
On Maps and Malls / Hugo Achugar 185
Culture-Based Urban Development in Rio de Janeiro / George Yanduacute;dice 211
Latin American Megacities: The New Urban Formlessness / Nelson Brissac Peixoto 233
Bibliography 251
Contributors 267
Index 271