Urban Inequalities. Ethnographically Informed Reflections

This collection brings together leading thinkers on human beings in urban spaces and inequalities therein. The contributors eschew conceptual confusion between equality — of opportunity, of access, of the right to compete for whatever goal one chooses to pursue — and levelling. The discussions develop in the belief that old and emerging forms of inequality in urban settings need to be understood in depth, as does the machinery that, as masterfully elucidated by Hannah Arendt, operates behind oppression to sustain power and inequality. Anthropologists and fellow ethnographically committed social scientists examine socio-economic, cultural and political forms of urban inequality in different settings, helping to address comparatively these dynamics.

-Explores the displacement of citizenship in urban spaces via the marginalization of existing communities.

-Covers a range of geographies, from the USA, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and India.

-Presents ethnographically engaged contributions that expand dominant understandings of social inequality in the contemporary era.