Urban Politics

Into our trash cans go dead batteries, dirty diapers, bygone burritos, broken toys, tattered socks, eight-track cassettes, scratched CDs, banana peels.... But where do these things go next? In a country that consumes and then casts off more and more, what actually happens to the things we throw away? In Garbage Land, acclaimed science writer Elizabeth Royte leads us on the wild adventure that begins once our trash hits the bottom of the can.

Jon Reznick doesn’t trust the CIA—but when operative Daniel Black shows up near his home in Maine, he listens. A high-value target has been taken out by a sniper in Mallorca. The kill was clean. Professional. And just the beginning. Reznick is sent in under deep cover to hunt for the assassin and retrieve a cache of Cold War–era surveillance tapes—evidence so explosive it could bring down presidents. As bodies begin to fall and the sniper’s true mission comes into focus, Reznick realizes the stakes are far higher than anyone imagined.

This book is the first anthology to explore the connection between race and the suburbs in American cinema from the end of World War II to the present. It builds upon the explosion of interest in the suburbs in film, television, and fiction in the last fifteen years, concentrating exclusively on the relationship of race to the built environment. Race and the Suburbs in American Film is a stimulating resource for considering the manner in which race is foundational to architecture and urban geography, which is reflected, promoted, and challenged in cinematic representations.

Wer wissen möchte, wie wir und vor allem unsere Kinder bald schon leben, welche Technologien sie und die Welt prägen werden, muss durch Shenzhen streifen. Die 12-Millionen-Metropole in Südchina gehört zu den innovativsten Städten der Welt. Eine Megacity, die quasi aus dem Nichts entstand, wo Nachhaltigkeit und moderne Lebensqualität selbstverständlich sind, aber eben auch Gesichtserkennung und der gläserne Mensch. Die Cloud in Shenzhen weiß alles. Die Shenzhener Techies stellen inzwischen das Silicon Valley in den Schatten, ihre Start-ups zählen zu den wertvollsten der Welt.

Once America’s capitalist dream town, Detroit is our country’s greatest urban failure, having fallen the longest and the farthest. But the city’s worst crisis yet (and that’s saying something) has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into a laboratory for the future. Urban planners, land speculators, neopastoral agriculturalists, and utopian environmentalists―all have been drawn to Detroit’s baroquely decaying frontier. With an eye for both the darkly absurd and the radically new Detroit-area native Mark Binelli has chronicled this convergence.

Bicycle/Race paints an unforgettable picture of Los Angeles—and the United States—from the perspective of two wheels. This is a book of borderlands and intersections, a cautionary tale about the dangers of putting infrastructure before culture, and a coming-of-age story about power and identity.

Le città europee sono più di un luogo fisico, più della somma dei loro edifici, sono l'esito di una "intenzione estetica" che nasce dalla quotidianità dei cittadini. Marco Romano ripercorre le origini storiche di questa lunga ricerca della bellezza, individuando così il contributo fondamentale, sebbene poco raccontato, che le donne hanno dato a questo sviluppo. È stato infatti l'intuito e il desiderio femminile a suggerire ieri come oggi molte soluzioni che hanno dato forma alle nostre città, dalle capitali ai villaggi.

Unsettling Choice traces the contestations that surfaced when, in the wake of the 2007-2009 Great Recession, public schools navigated austerity by expanding choice-based programs. Ujju Aggarwal argues that this strategy mobilized mechanisms rooted in market logics to recruit families with economic capital on their side, solidifying a public sphere that increasingly resembled the private.

Multiple times a day, in cities across the US and beyond, a simple yet powerful message is repeated by the well-meaning, the ignorant, and the bigoted: “don’t go”—avoid at all costs those Black and Brown disinvested neighborhoods that have become bywords for social disorder and urban decay. This book is a collection of intimate stories that uncover the hidden influence of both subtle and overt “don’t go” messages and the segregation they perpetuate in Chicago.

Jamison Hart, former SIS operative turned freelance bad guy, has his own reasons for going after Aisling. And now he has the resources of a new organization to bring to bear. But our favorite witch is far from unequipped. With her family at her side, Aisling seeks a second wand to multiply her magical power. Shimmer continues to display increased intelligence and demands endless upgrades. Add in Victoria Watson and Mia Pederson who support the Secret Agent on a daily basis.

В Питер стекались те, у кого с удачей была напряженка. Им казалось, что приехать сюда стоило только ради того, чтобы тебе фартило всю оставшуюся жизнь. Они еще не знали, что совсем скоро Питер проникнет в их дом, в их постель, он будет все время рядом; куда бы они ни уезжали от этого города, он будет сидеть у них под кожей, как у героев этой истории, где отношения на завтрак, обед и ужин не только со вкусом белых ночей, но и с привкусом серых будней.

Americans are loud. Amsterdam equals sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Mexicans are lazy and Germans are boring, but punctual. Paris is romantic, Wuhan infectious, Ukrainians heroic, and New Zealand untouched.

Katowice nieustannie intrygują odwiedzających je podróżnych i zachwycają swoich mieszkańców. Wśród efektownej architektury i urokliwych zakątków górniczych osiedli miasto skrywa nieznaną stronę. Autorzy odnajdują tajemnicze historie i zapomniane miejsca. Z pasją opowiadają o zaskakujących wydarzeniach i niezwykłych ludziach. Przeszłość nieustannie splata się z teraźniejszością.

Żadne inne duże polskie miasto nie ma tylu tajemniczych i niezwykłych historii co Szczecin. Dlaczego? Bo nigdzie indziej losy nie potoczyły się w tak skomplikowany sposób. W ciągu wieków miastem władali na przemian Niemcy, Polacy, Francuzi i Szwedzi. W czasie II wojny światowej największe zniszczenia spowodowali w nim nie Rosjanie, lecz... Anglicy. Wiele razy w oficjalnej historii Szczecina próbowano przemilczać niewygodne fakty lub wymyślać nieprawdziwe propagandowe hasła. Tymczasem na przełomie XIX i XX wieku było to jedno z najważniejszych miast Europy.

Słynie jako miasto mostów. Zachwyca architekturą. Uwodzi i obiecuje moc ekscytujących wrażeń. Wrocław od lat niczym niepokojąco piękna kobieta urzeka i skrywa sekrety... Tamara Barriga z pasją i odwagą wnika w nieodkryte dotąd tajemnice Wrocławia. Zdradza, dlaczego w Mrówkowcu mieszka się luksusowo i… nieznośnie. Opowiada o ludziach, którzy wyróżniali się mądrością, pracowitością, a w końcu zapisali się w historii miasta i nie tylko: profesor Alzheimer, Otfrid Foerster – lekarz Lenina, Sir Gutmann – ojciec igrzysk paraolimpijskich czy profesor Tołpa – wierzący w leczniczą moc torfu.

Developed as the commercial hub of the Texas cotton and sugarcane industries, Houston was designed for profit, not stability. Its first residents razed swamplands into submission to construct a maze of highways and suburbs, giving the city a sprawling, centerless energy as storms and floods rattled coastal Texas. When Hurricane Harvey made landfall in 2017, Fields set off from his home in Iowa back to the battered city of his childhood to rescue his mother. Fields tracks the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, one storm in a long lineage that threatens the fourth largest city in America.

In The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down, Howard Mansfield returns with thoughtful linked narratives examining a crucial and overlooked element of American identity: property.

Helicopters thwopped low over the city, filming blocks of burning cars and buildings, mobs breaking into storefronts, and the vicious beating of truck driver Reginald Denny. For a week in April 1992, Los Angeles transformed into a cityscape of rage, purportedly due to the exoneration of four policemen who had beaten Rodney King. It should be no surprise that such intense anger erupted from something deeper than a single incident. In The Contested Murder of Latasha Harlins, Brenda Stevenson tells the dramatic story of an earlier trial, a turning point on the road to the 1992 riot.

On a clear Saturday night in downtown Philadelphia, a spectacular mafia assassination is captured by a TV news chopper, and the footage becomes a worldwide viral sensation. This lurid publicity stunt is the work of Julian Breton, a professional "culture-hacker" who honed his dark arts running psychological warfare operations for the US military. But Breton appears to have killed the wrong man in a case of mistaken identity.

All of Mumbai's possessions and memories come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. Towering at the outskirts of the city, the mountains are covered in a faint smog from trash fires. Over time, as wealth brought Bollywood knock offs, fast food, and plastics to Mumbaikars, a small, forgotten community of migrants and rag-pickers came to live at the mountains' edge, making a living by reusing, recycling, and reselling.