Showing papers in "City in 2009"
TL;DR: The right to the city is becoming, in theory and in practice, a widespread, effective formulation of a set of demands to be actively thought through and pursued as mentioned in this paper. But whose right, what right and to what city? Each question is examined in turn, first in the historical context of 1968 in which Henri Lefebvre first popularized the phrase, then in its meaning for the guidance of action.
Abstract: The right to the city is becoming, in theory and in practice, a widespread, effective formulation of a set of demands to be actively thought through and pursued. But whose right, what right and to what city? Each question is examined in turn, first in the historical context of 1968 in which Henri Lefebvre first popularized the phrase, then in its meaning for the guidance of action. The conclusion suggests that exposing, proposing and politicizing the key issues can move us closer to implementing this right.
664 citations
TL;DR: This article argued that these arguments not only strip gentrification of its historical meaning as the neighbourhood expression of class inequality, but they are also analytically defective when considered alongside Marcuse's conceptual clarity on the various forms of displacement in gentrifying neighbourhoods.
Abstract: Peter Marcuse's contributions to the study of gentrification and displacement are immense, not just when measured in theoretical development, but in analytical rigour, methodological influence, cross‐disciplinary relevance and intellectual–political commitment to social justice. However, his contributions have been conveniently missed in the disturbing 21st‐century scholarly, journalistic, policy and planning rescripting of gentrification as a collective urban good. This paper charts and exposes the politics of knowledge production on this pivotal urban process by critically engaging with recent arguments that celebrate gentrification and/or deny displacement. I explain that these arguments not only strip gentrification of its historical meaning as the neighbourhood expression of class inequality; they are also analytically defective when considered alongside Marcuse's conceptual clarity on the various forms of displacement in gentrifying neighbourhoods. Understanding and absorbing Marcuse's crucial argum...
394 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors interpret critical urban theory with reference to four mutually interconnected elements: its theoretical character; its reflexivity; its critique of instrumental reason; and its emphasis on the disjuncture between the actual and the possible.
Abstract: What is critical urban theory? While this phrase is often used in a descriptive sense, to characterize the tradition of post‐1968 leftist or radical urban studies, I argue that it also has determinate social–theoretical content. To this end, building on the work of several Frankfurt School social philosophers, this paper interprets critical theory with reference to four, mutually interconnected elements—its theoretical character; its reflexivity; its critique of instrumental reason; and its emphasis on the disjuncture between the actual and the possible. On this basis, a brief concluding section considers the status of urban questions within critical social theory. In the early 21st century, I argue, each of the four key elements within critical social theory requires sustained engagement with contemporary patterns of capitalist urbanization. Under conditions of increasingly generalized, worldwide urbanization, the project of critical social theory and that of critical urban theory have been intertwined a...
356 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on critical urban theories to trace the working of oppressive power and the emergence of new subjectivities through the production of space, and analyze the struggle of Bedouin Arabs in the Beersheba metropolitan region, Israel/Palestine.
Abstract: The paper draws on critical urban theories (CUT) to trace the working of oppressive power and the emergence of new subjectivities through the production of space. Within such settings, it analyzes the struggle of Bedouin Arabs in the Beersheba metropolitan region, Israel/Palestine. The paper invokes the concept of ‘gray spacing’ as the practice of indefinitely positioning populations between the ‘lightness’ of legality, safety and full membership, and the ‘darkness’ of eviction, destruction and death. The amplification of gray space illuminates the emergence of urban colonial relations in a vast number of contemporary city regions. In the Israeli context, the ethnocratic state has forced the indigenous Bedouins into impoverished and criminalized gray space, in an attempt to hasten their forced urbanization and Israelization. This created a process of ‘creeping apartheid’, causing the transformation of Bedouin struggle from agonistic to antagonistic; and their mobilization from democratic to radical. The p...
317 citations
TL;DR: The right to the city movement has become a defining feature of urban struggles not just in the Euro‐American core, but around the world as discussed by the authors, though with different meanings, and it distinguishes a radical Lefebvrian version from more depoliticized versions.
Abstract: In order to explain the traction, which the right to the city slogan currently enjoys within urban resistance movements and beyond, this paper contextualizes its emergence in the shifting framework of postwar political–economic regimes and then traces and compares the different versions of this motto, which has become a defining feature of urban struggles not just in the Euro‐American core, but around the world—though with different meanings. It distinguishes a radical Lefebvrian version from more depoliticized versions as widely used in the global NGO context, problematizing the latter for limiting the participatory demand to inclusion within the existing system. The conclusion opens up the question of the implications of the current crisis for the right to the city movement.
315 citations
TL;DR: The rapidly unfolding global economic recession is dramatically intensifying the contradictions around which urban social movements have been rallying, suddenly validating their claims regarding th... as discussed by the authors, and thus validating the claims regarding social movements.
Abstract: The rapidly unfolding global economic recession is dramatically intensifying the contradictions around which urban social movements have been rallying, suddenly validating their claims regarding th...
293 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that next to the notions of rollback and rollout neoliberalization, which have been put forward to explain urban politics during a generation of neoliberalisation, the notion of roll back and roll out neoliberalization is not a good fit.
Abstract: Urban politics has changed during a generation of neoliberalization. This paper argues that next to the notions of roll‐back and roll‐out neoliberalization, which have been put forward to explain t...
162 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the emerging crossovers between the "targeting" of everyday life in so-called "smart" border and "homeland security" programs and related efforts to delegate the sovereign power to deploy lethal force to increasingly robotized and automated war machines.
Abstract: The latest in an ongoing series of papers on the links between militarism and urbanism published in City, this paper opens with an exploration of the emerging crossovers between the ‘targeting’ of everyday life in so‐called ‘smart’ border and ‘homeland security’ programmes and related efforts to delegate the sovereign power to deploy lethal force to increasingly robotized and automated war machines. Arguing that both cases represent examples of a new military urbanism, the rest of the paper develops a thesis outlining the scope and power of contemporary interpenetrations between urbanism and militarism. The new military urbanism is defined as encompassing a complex set of rapidly evolving ideas, doctrines, practices, norms, techniques and popular cultural arenas through which the everyday spaces, sites and infrastructures of cities—along with their civilian populations—are now rendered as the main targets and threats within a limitless ‘battlespace’. The new military urbanism, it is argued, rests on five ...
91 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show how the just city of Amsterdam came to live, celebrated its achievements and mourned its death, and suggest that an equitable distribution of scarce resources and democratic engagement are essential preconditions for the realization of a just city.
Abstract: This paper shows how the just city of Amsterdam came to live, celebrates its achievements and mourns its death. The paper suggests that an equitable distribution of scarce resources and democratic engagement are essential preconditions for the realization of a just city. Social movements of Amsterdam struggled hard to make their city just and they had considerable success. However, in the late 1980s, social movements lost their momentum and, in the late 1990s, neoliberal ideologies increasingly pervaded municipal policies. Whereas urban renewal was previously used to universalize housing access and optimize democratic engagement, it is now used to recommodify the housing stock, to differentiate residents into different consumer categories and to disperse lower income households. Part of the reason that these policies meet so little opposition is that the gains of past social struggles are used to compensate the most direct victims of privatization and demolition. Future generations of Amsterdammers, howev...
81 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines Berlin's urban renewal policy since the 1990s and studies how different definitions of displacement support different policy alternatives, arguing that the conceptualisation of displacement is not merely an academic exercise, but has enormous political implications.
Abstract: Building on Peter Marcuse’s definition of displacement, this paper examines Berlin’s urban renewal policy since the 1990s and studies how different definitions of displacement support different policy alternatives. It argues that the conceptualisation of displacement is not merely an academic exercise, but has enormous political implications. We show how theoretical differences in the definition of displacement have been taken up by policy‐makers and used as justification for the withdrawal from ‘welfarist’ politics of market intervention to be replaced by advisory services to individual tenants. We argue that social scientists are partly responsible for this change and call for more critical intervention of scholars into public debates and a clearer specification of policy alternatives.
75 citations
TL;DR: The Mikado as mentioned in this paper is a classic example of the punishment-fit-the-crime approach to criminal justice: let the punishment fit the crime, and the crime fit the punishment.
Abstract: ‘My object all sublime I shall achieve in time— To let the punishment fit the crime— The punishment fit the crime.’ W.S. Gilbert 1836–1911: The Mikado (1885) I was pleased to see Tom Slater’s provo...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the dominance of Jakarta and its relations with other cities in Indonesia and explore the development of Jakarta in relation to other big cities and the possibility that the decentralization would create regional cities as "rivals" of Jakarta.
Abstract: Jakarta as the capital of Indonesia has exercised strong political power over the nation since the colonial era. The old and new order regimes have retained that position by introducing symbols to represent a dignified center. This political power has also strengthened its economic development. The recent political movement following the fall of Soeharto led to the strengthening of other cities, especially in Java. Decentralization processes have led to the formation of new symbols in other regional cities and these emerging urban centers have grown in important ways. This paper will discuss the dominance of Jakarta and its relations with other cities in Indonesia. It explores the development of Jakarta in relation to other big cities and the possibility that the decentralization would create regional cities as ‘rivals’ of Jakarta. It concludes that although the other cities in Indonesia have increased their significance as regional centers through economic growth, they remain a shadow of Jakarta’s domina...
TL;DR: In this article, a local social movement in Berlin successfully challenged the city's currently largest harbor front development project "Media Spree" and demonstrated that in a contested city, urban development cannot adequately be explained by 'top-down' approaches focusing on neo-structuralist arguments, but that it is rather the result of a complex negotiation process.
Abstract: In the summer of 2008, a local social movement in Berlin successfully challenged the city’s currently largest harbor front development project ‘Media Spree’. While the project, which aims to attract and develop creative industries, is a model of neo‐liberal urbanism, the paper demonstrates that in a contested city, urban development cannot adequately be explained by ‘top‐down’ approaches focusing on neo‐structuralist arguments, but that it is rather the result of a complex negotiation process. The paper thus makes the case for the relevance of analyzing social movements for understanding urban development.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the significance of smaller urban contexts for the comparative analysis of contemporary urban social movements and examine how, by connecting local concerns with wider environmental issues, Cittaslow is implicated in processes of social change.
Abstract: In this paper I consider the significance of smaller urban contexts for the comparative analysis of contemporary urban social movements. Existing literature on urban social movements tends to focus on how they are manifested in big cities. Here I suggest that the questions they address might be addressed equally usefully in relation to smaller urban settlements. In doing I take the Slow City (Cittaslow) movement (whose member towns have populations of less that 50,000) as a case study. Through an analysis of three domains of the movement’s activity (the transnational; the national and its relationships with the state; and the local context) I examine how, by connecting local concerns with wider environmental issues, Cittaslow is implicated in processes of social change.
TL;DR: In contrast to the lack of urbanism in Mao's era, urbanism is being promoted under China's market transition as discussed by the authors, and urbanization is used as a new accumulation strategy.
Abstract: This paper describes the rise of ‘urbanism’ in China. Following Louis Wirth, urbanism here refers to a way of life characterized by anonymous, heterogeneous and diverse social relations. In contrast to the lack of urbanism in Mao’s era, urbanism is being promoted under China’s market transition. We critically examine how urbanism is used as a new accumulation strategy, or ‘urbanization‐as‐accumulation’. Monotonic urban landscapes are thus transformed into exotic and transplanted mosaics. We illustrate this with the example of the ‘neo‐urbanism residence’ as a suburbia for the affluent in China. This ‘accumulation through transforming the built environment’ echoes the recent ‘urban renaissance’ in the West.
TL;DR: This paper explored the reasons behind people's engagement in political action, particularly the marginalized and threatened, using the example of the marches against immigration reform in the USA, and followed immigrant women in an effort to understand what made them participate in those demonstrations despite risks of deportation, lack of experience in demonstrating and fear.
Abstract: This paper explores the reasons behind people’s engagement in political action, particularly the marginalized and threatened. Using the example of the marches against immigration reform in the USA, the paper follows immigrant women in an effort to understand what made them participate in those demonstrations despite risks of deportation, lack of experience in demonstrating and fear. Based on fieldwork with domestic workers in Los Angeles, we suggest that in a condition of urbanity (understood as a historically situated condition characterized by a mode of living based on interdependencies, mobility, uncertainty and speed), there is much continuity between everyday life and political events. Everyday life is constituted by personal biographies, which we define as the accumulation of experience and emotional trajectories. Most social movement theories tend to emphasize the extraordinariness of political events, focusing on ruptures with everyday life. In this paper, we argue that radical urban theory ought ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors aim to develop such normative orientations in planning theory by drawing on theoretical resources in the cognate field of critical development studies, which they call Critical Development Studies (CDS).
Abstract: Planning theory shares with critical urban theory an orientation toward normative political questions and a ‘politics of the possible’. Beyond those broad contours, however, it is fair to say that only a thin slice of planning theory takes up the normative commitments of critical urban theory: to challenge the violence of capitalism, to seek out the agents of revolutionary social change and to interrogate the ends in relation to the means of practice. In this paper I aim to develop such normative orientations in planning theory by drawing on theoretical resources in the cognate field of critical development studies. The professional practices which both critical development studies and planning theory take as their object of study share a duplicitous relationship to processes of capitalist accumulation and liberal notions of benevolent trusteeship. Yet, critical development studies has clearly done a better job of tracing the entanglements of projects of improvement with projects of empire. When such theo...
TL;DR: The authors argue that Hanoi's double vulnerability has made its rulers acutely aware of the need to demonstrate the city's power as a capital city through urban planning and architectural design, the buildin...
Abstract: Hanoi, like most capital cities, performs functions at three levels. It is home to its residents and provides local level services for them. But it also has a role as a city for all citizens of the Vietnamese state, performing capital city functions across the entire national territory as well as beyond national borders. Hanoi is especially interesting because of the uneasy way in which it has been forced to share power internally with Ho Chi Minh City in the south—Hanoi maintaining political and cultural sway but its rival becoming stronger in economic and demographic terms. Externally, it has struggled for recognition, having been regarded as capital of a weak political state open to the interventions of the Chinese, French, Americans and the Soviet Union. This paper argues that Hanoi’s double vulnerability has made its rulers acutely aware of the need to demonstrate the city’s power as a capital city—or at least to give the semblance of power—through urban planning and architectural design, the buildin...
TL;DR: In the context of contemporary capitalism, emancipative social movements must resist intimidation not only through official repression by the state apparatus (through police brutality and sometimes through military interventions); the illegal, criminal side of capitalism also threatens emancipation as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the context of contemporary capitalism, emancipative social movements must resist intimidation not only through official repression by the state apparatus (through police’s brutality and sometimes through military interventions); the illegal, criminal side of capitalism also threatens emancipative struggle. Within this framework, the real and potential role of the ‘hyperprecariat’ (i.e., the workers who depend on—and often were expelled to—the informal sector in semi‐peripheral countries, and who work and live under very vulnerable conditions) is a key one. Criminal attempts to co‐opt, to silence, to neutralize the social force of emancipative social movements have been already a daily experience in several cities and countries. The main trouble for emancipative urban movements is that the ‘enemies’ they have to face inside segregated spaces, and who belong to the ‘hyperprecariat’, do not seem to be—strictly in terms of social class—‘enemies’ at all. ‘Micro‐level warlords’ such as drug traffickers oper...
TL;DR: Ramallah has emerged as the de facto capital of a truncated Palestinian proto-state as discussed by the authors, where the centralization of economic, political, cultural and recreational activity, the influx of migrants and diasporic returnees, the rise of new middle classes and a relative social openness all signal the possibility of the nucleus of real urbanity.
Abstract: Ramallah has emerged as the de facto capital of a truncated Palestinian proto‐state. The centralization of economic, political, cultural and recreational activity, the influx of migrants and diasporic returnees, the rise of new middle classes and a relative social openness all signal the possibility of the nucleus of real urbanity. The rhythms and patterns of everyday urban life are palpable; cultural and sub‐cultural life are pronounced and women have achieved a relative degree of social and spatial freedom. Yet Ramallah is a city under siege—encamped and militarily surrounded. It exists in a curious liminality: tethered between indirect colonial occupation and the restless mobilization of local urbanity—neither directly occupied nor free, besieged but somehow vibrant. In its spatialization of new Palestinian wealth and power Ramallah has rewritten the coordinates of local politics, generated new class and professional interests and forged new consumption‐based subjectivities. Here, an elite‐driven produ...
TL;DR: In this paper, a brief response to "Cities for people, not for profit: Introduction" by Neil Brenner, Peter Marcuse and Margit Mayer, which introduces City's homonymous special issue is given.
Abstract: This paper offers a brief response to ‘Cities for People, Not for Profit: Introduction’ by Neil Brenner, Peter Marcuse and Margit Mayer, which introduces City’s homonymous special issue. Additionally, very short remarks on a few other papers included in the same special issue are also provided, for the sake of a better clarification of some aspects of my critique. These are made from a political and cultural viewpoint which partly supplements, partly challenges the authors’ Eurocentric and Marxist perspective.
TL;DR: In this paper, the use of gentrification within urban policy by examining gentrifiers' neighbourhood practices is examined empirically by examining the practices of the gentrifier, and it is shown that the gentrification normalises governance, which essentialises middle-class settlement and legitimates their residential practices over those of working-class communities.
Abstract: This paper critiques the use of gentrification within urban policy by examining gentrifiers’ neighbourhood practices. Strategies of gentrification are increasingly used to attract people and capital to places of ‘decline’ in order to combat the effects of uneven development. Policy experts and governments believe middle‐class settlement creates ‘cohesive’, socially mixed communities. However, such a strategy may have serious unintended and paradoxical consequences. Despite widespread application we know little about the outcomes of gentrification within urban policy. This paper seeks to rectify this by critically examining the hegemony of gentrification. This is explored empirically by examining the practices of gentrifiers. Hegemony normalises governance, which essentialises middle‐class settlement and legitimates their residential practices, over those of working‐class communities. Analysis of changes in the Park area in Glasgow reveals that incoming residents’ choices and practices centre around the co...
TL;DR: In terms of its landscape, design, and central location within the country, Naypyidaw as mentioned in this paper reflects the aspirations of its founder, Senior General Than Shwe, head of the State Peace and Development Council military junta.
Abstract: In terms of its landscape, design, and central location within the country, Burma’s (Myanmar’s) new capital of Naypyidaw, established in 2005, reflects the aspirations of its founder, Senior General Than Shwe, head of the State Peace and Development Council military junta. His goals have been not only to enhance state security through the new capital’s central location and relative isolation, but also to construct a new ‘Myanmar identity’ based on ethnic–racial unity rather than political pluralism. The author concludes that the decision to quit the old capital Rangoon was made because of its long history of popular unrest and its central role in the historical development of an insurgent tradition of ‘revolutionary nationalism.’
TL;DR: The authors reflect on the circumstances under which urban studies, critical theory and radical politics have come together so instructively in Peter Marcuse's own life and work, including the personal and political dimensions of his exemplary career, and the worldhistorical forces that triangulated radical thought, revolutionary politics and metropolitan life in the 20th century.
Abstract: The celebration of Peter Marcuse’s 80th birthday at the Right to the City conference in the fall of 2008 provided a poignant moment to reflect on the circumstances under which urban studies, critical theory and radical politics have come together so instructively in his own life and work. An adequate consideration of these involves not only the personal and political dimensions of his exemplary career, but also the world‐historical forces that triangulated radical thought, revolutionary politics and metropolitan life in the 20th century. Their trans‐Atlantic trajectories—from the revolutionary conjunctures between the world wars through military–Keynesian restorations of capital to the uneven globalization of neoliberal imperialisms—raise a challenging question concerning the legacies and possibilities of critical urban theory. How has urban studies learned from and contributed to critical theory, in response to the demands of radical politics? In this paper, I reflect on the relevance of the Frankfurt Sc...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that the real urban world is partially mediated by these worlds and that subjective viewpoints and understandings of the possibilities of urban space and experience appear to be opened up.
Abstract: Traditional notions of urbanism have focused on the cultures, social life and institutions of cities. Yet within cities new forms of sociability and freedom have been granted through active engagement with simulated alternatives to urban space. These, at least partially, substitute, mediate and otherwise extend the meaning and experience of urban life. While the urban experience has long been overlaid by intersubjective images from literature, cinema and other media, the interactive turn represented by video gaming, in plausible social worlds, appears capable of modifying this experience. Super‐popular video games and the cohorts of their players force a greater elasticity to descriptors of the constitution of urban social life. For those who more or less inhabit these interactive alternatives, subjective viewpoints and understandings of the possibilities of urban space and experience appear to be opened up. Our empirical material suggests that the ‘real’ urban world is partially mediated by these worlds,...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that Malaysian architecture has moved from expansive imaginations in the Independence era to narrow albeit spectral imaginations of Islamic exclusivity characterized by the turn to Middle Eastern symbolisms toward the new millennium.
Abstract: The search for alternative architectural expressions in the capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, has seen a shift from regionalistic and Malay revivalist architectural models to a trend labeled as Middle Eastern eclecticism, best exemplified by the new city of Putrajaya. This paper delineates and analyses these architectural shifts in these two ‘capital’ cities from the Independence to contemporary eras in terms of shifting contestations over what is ‘national’ in modern Malaysian history. Highlighting changing material and imaginative drives behind attempts to manifest power of the nation and their consequences on the architecture of these two cities, this paper shows how Malaysian architecture has moved from expansive imaginations in the Independence era to narrow albeit spectral imaginations of Islamic exclusivity characterized by the turn to Middle Eastern symbolisms toward the new millennium. This evolutionary architecture, we argue, must be understood in terms of the growing enmeshment of Malaysi...
TL;DR: In this article, historical and contemporary examples (the 19thcentury Vienna Ringstrase and ‘rent barracks’, the early 20th-century ‘Red Vienna’ Gemeindebau, yesterday's Plattenbau East and West, today's urban sprawl, the recent international prison architecture and the new Berlin Potsdamer Platz) are analyzed as "domination built in stone" that is, examples of "culture industry".
Abstract: Using historical and contemporary examples (the 19th‐century Vienna Ringstrase and ‘rent barracks’, the early 20th‐century ‘Red Vienna’ Gemeindebau, yesterday's Plattenbau East and West, today's urban sprawl, the recent international prison architecture and the new Berlin Potsdamer Platz) cities are analyzed as ‘domination built in stone’, that is, examples of ‘culture industry’. With few exceptions the ruling class also determined labor architecture, that is, how the proletariat lived in factory settlements, public housing and urban sprawl. History shows that claiming a ‘right to the city’ needs more than a struggle against the very effective claim of capital on the same city: radical new ideas for a politicized ‘architecture from below’.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the tension inherent in the role of Bangkok as both a cosmopolitan, outward looking metropolis and national capital of a country where "Outer Thailand" selects governments, demanding a hinterland orientation from the metropolis.
Abstract: This paper explores tensions inherent in the role of Bangkok as both a cosmopolitan, outward looking metropolis and national capital of a country where ‘Outer Thailand’ selects governments, demanding a hinterland orientation from the metropolis. The situation is exacerbated by frequent changes of regime, often involving contestation in Bangkok’s open spaces. Although the original raison d’etre of the city was as the national capital of Siam, the capital function has become less important since the mid‐20th century, presenting both risks, for example security, as well as benefits, such as monumental architecture, to residents of the metropolis. A fundamental misalignment has developed between Bangkok’s political and socio‐economic roles. In essence, this means that Outer Thailand puts governments in power, but residents of the metropolis play a key role in removing them from power.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss what the right to the city means in this, the twenty-first century, taking the bus daily and demonstrating on Sunday, reflections on the formation of poli...
Abstract: What does the ‘Right to the City’ mean in this, the twenty‐first century? Two articles in the previous issue: ‘Taking the bus daily and demonstrating on Sunday: reflections on the formation of poli...
TL;DR: Wacquant and Lokman as discussed by the authors described a highly meaningful incident of physical interaction outside the ring while the ethnographer was conducting fieldwork in a boxing gym, tracking the fabrication of the pugilistic habitus through apprenticeship.
Abstract: The second piece of the series depicts a highly meaningful incident of physical interaction outside the ring while the ethnographer was conducting fieldwork in a boxing gym, tracking the fabrication of the pugilistic habitus through apprenticeship (Wacquant, 2004). In a painful haircutting session, the author receives not only a black‐American style fade, but confirmation of his full membership in the group. This text emphasizes the fundamental importance of accounting for ethnographer’s lived experience as intersubjective and embodied; it is through our lived bodies in action that we relate to the world that is shared with the informants (Merleau‐Ponty, 1962; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992; Crossley, 1996). Here ethnography emerges as a corporeal activity that plumbs the processes through which knowledge of a particular culture becomes acquired and deployed, the researcher being an active, socially constituted agent producing effects in the field (Wacquant, 2009). Paula Lokman, Scenes and Sounds Editor