Vol. 31, May 2021.
Have you published something new in Global Urban History?
We'd like our members to know. Contact Ayan Meer with details.
GUHP is now a member-supported organization. To join or renew your membership, visit our Homepage. | GUHP Emerging:
Four Symposia Spotlighting the New Generation of Global Urban Historians
GUHP Emerging Resumes Friday and Saturday May 7 and 8.
Show your support for the future generation of Global Urban Historians!
We had terrific audiences at the first two symposia in April,
and look forward to seeing you in May.
*Note: some of the times listed for these events were originally posted one hour off, and have now been corrected on the GUHP website. The event on Friday will occur at 1 PM CUT, and on Saturday at 9 AM UTC. Please calculate you schedule accordingly. | | The Bonds of Inequality. Debt and the Making of the American City
by Destin Jenkins, University of Chicago, USA.
(UChicago Press, 2021)
This book shows in vivid detail how, beyond the borrowing decisions of American cities and beneath their quotidian infrastructure, there lurks a world of politics and finance that is rarely seen, let alone understood. Focusing on San Francisco, it offers a singular view of the postwar city, one where the dynamics that drove its creation encompassed not only local politicians but also banks, credit rating firms, insurance companies, and the national municipal bond market. Moving between the local and the national, the book uncovers how racial inequalities in San Francisco were intrinsically tied to municipal finance arrangements and how these arrangements were central in determining the distribution of resources in the city. [more] | | | | Between Realism and Revolt. Governing Cities in the Crisis of Neoliberal Globalism
by Jonathan Davies, DeMontfort University, UK.
(Bristol University Press, 2021)
This book develops a rich comparative analysis of austerity governance and resistance in eight cities, to establish a conjunctural perspective on the rolling crises of neoliberal globalism. Drawing on a multi-city study, Davies employs Gramscian regime analysis to consider the consolidation, weakening and transformation of urban governance regimes through the age of austerity. He explores how urban governance shapes variations in austere neoliberalism, tackling themes including collaboration, dominance, resistance and counter-hegemony. The book is a significant addition to thinking about how the era of austerity politics influences urban governance today. [more]
| | | | Ravenna. Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe
by Judith Herrin, King's College London, UK
(Princeton University Press, 2019)
At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here, in Ravenna on the coast of Italy, Arian Goths and Catholic Romans competed to produce an unrivaled concentration of buildings and astonishing mosaics. For three centuries, the city attracted scholars, lawyers, craftsmen, and religious luminaries, becoming a true cultural and political capital. Bringing this extraordinary history marvelously to life, Judith Herrin rewrites the history of East and West in the Mediterranean world before the rise of Islam and shows how, thanks to Byzantine influence, Ravenna played a crucial role in the development of medieval Christendom. [more] | | | | Urban Resilience in a Global Context
edited by Dorothee Branz and Avi Sharma.
(Columbia University Press, 2020)
Urban resilience is seen by many as a tool to mitigate harm in times of extreme social, political, financial, and environmental stress. Despite its widespread usage, however, resilience is used in different ways by policy makers, activists, academics, and practitioners. Some see it as a key to unlocking a more stable and secure urban future in times of extreme global insecurity; for others, it is a neoliberal technology that marginalizes the voices of already marginal peoples. This volume moves beyond praise and critique by focusing on the actors, agendas, and narratives that define urban resilience in a global context. By exploring the past, present, and future of urban resilience, this volume unlocks the potential of this concept to build more sustainable, inclusive, and secure cities in the 21st century. [more] | | | | "The fair value of bread. Tunisia, 28 December 1983-6 January 1984"
by Leyla Dakhli, CNRS, France.
International Review of Social History, Spring 2021.
The “Bread Riots” that broke out in Tunisia on 28 December 1983 lasted barely ten days. Yet, they cost the lives of over one hundred people. The revolt studied here centred on two popular neighbourhoods of Tunis in the wake of massive, World Bank-sponsored development plans. This article seeks to understand how the inhabitants in these quarters reacted to the establishment of a new welfare state that was more concerned with fighting poverty – or fighting the poor – than with equalizing conditions or offering the same opportunities for everyone. The author argues that the great Bread Revolt of 1983–1984 marked a break with past practices of state reform and popular protest. [Access the article here]
| | | | "Concerts and inadvertent secularization: Religious music in the entertainment market of 18th century Paris"
by Andrei Pesic, Stanford University, USA.
Past & Present, 2021
Public concerts offer a new perspective on the controversial subject of secularization and the Enlightenment. From 1725–90, the Concert spirituel in Paris, one of the earliest and most famous concert series in Europe, presented a mixture of sacred and secular music when other entertainments were forbidden during religious holidays. Over the course of the century, the proportion of religious works in its repertoire declined significantly. Whereas previous interpretations tended to describe secularization as resulting either from battles between philosophes and the Church or from broader declines in belief, this article casts doubt on these explanations by showing the heterogeneous composition of the Concert’s audience. [Access the article here]
| | | | "An incomplete megastructure: the Golden Mile Complex, global planning education, and the pedestrianised city"
by H. Koon Wee, University of Hong Kong.
Journal of Architecture, 2020
New attitudes towards modernisation and urban renewal were developed in Singapore from the 1960s. Post-war ideals of Brutalist architecture and revisionist attitudes towards high modernism coursed through Singapore’s Golden Mile Complex (GMC). This article focuses on the GMC as a contested site and as a built megastructure, in an effort to chart a new relationship between architecture, urban design, and the missed opportunity to develop a pedestrianised city. [Access the article here]
| | |  | | The Archive Box #5 - Chasing Archives in Ottoman Tunis
The Archive Box is a series featuring global urban historians reflecting on their archival experience, and on the practical and theoretical challenges they faced while working with a variety of archives in different cities across the world.
In 1830, French troops conquered Algiers. Five years later, and partly in reaction to the French conquest, the Ottomans established direct rule over Tripolitania (modern-day Libya), which was previously ruled by a local dynasty. The small Tunisian polity found itself squeezed between these two newly-occupied territories and cornered between two global empires. What happens to the sovereign status of a polity when it is the object of a global imperial rivalry, and how do the archives of its capital city tell this story? From the French colonial heritage of the Tunisian National Archives to the multilingual informal correspondences of Tunisians across the Ottoman Mediterranean, Youssef Ben Ismail takes us through Tunis’ Ottoman archives, wrestling the city away from archetypal imperial representations, and revealing deep contestations over this North African past. [Access the article here]
| | | Related Networks and Events
| | CfP: "Colonial Baggage: Global Tourism in the Age of Empires, 1840s-1870s"
Online Workshop, 18-19 November 2021
The workshop explores the dynamics of tourist travel in colonial and imperial contexts. They welcome case studies from all geographical areas, dating roughly from the onset of the age of steam until the era of decolonization. Three hitherto neglected aspects inform its agenda: the connection between tourism and imperial (infra)structures; the trans-colonial and intra-regional dimension of tourism; as well as the workers of imperial tourism. Deadline for abstracts: June 1, 2021. [more]
| | | | CfP: "Social Movements and Protest Actions in Africa"
KUJUA, Journal of the African Studies Students' Association
This journal published by the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, with the support of French Institute of Research in Africa at Nigeria (IFRA-Nigeria), offers an accessible platform for sharing interdisciplinary explorations from researchers and students at any stage in their research. With this issue, KUJUA is looking for submissions on a broad range of topics related to social movements and protest actions in Africa. Deadline: May 20, 2021. [more]
| | | | "(Re)Imagining Port Cities: Understanding Space, Society and Culture"
TU Delft Online Course, May 26-June 7 2021
Port city regions are at the forefront of many urgent contemporary issues such as migration, climate change, digitization, etc. Addressing these challenges and developing sustainable solutions, requires more than technical interventions, it requires rethinking and redesigning the basic spatial and socio-cultural paradigms that prevail at present. In this course students will analyze examples of port cities from a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural perspective. [more] | | | |