Crisis Cities: Disaster and Redevelopment in New York and New Orleans
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Description
Crisis Cities blends critical theoretical insight with a historically grounded comparative study to examine the form, trajectory, and contradictions of redevelopment efforts following the 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina disasters. Based on years of research in the two cities, Gotham and Greenberg contend that New York and New Orleans have emerged as paradigmatic crisis cities, representing a free-market approach to post-disaster redevelopment that is increasingly dominant for crisis-stricken cities around the world. This approach, which Gotham and Greenberg term crisis driven urbanization, emphasizes the privatization of disaster aid and resources, the devolution of disaster recovery responsibilities to the local state, and the use of generous tax incentives to bolster revitalization. Crisis driven urbanization also involves global branding campaigns and public media events to repair a city's image for business and tourism, as well as internally-focused political campaigns and events that associate post-crisis political leaders and public-private partnerships with this revitalized urban image.By focusing on past and present conditions in New York and New Orleans, Gotham and Greenberg show how crises expose long-neglected injustices, underlying power structures, and social inequalities. In doing so, they reveal the impact of specific policy reforms, public-private actions, and socio-legal regulatory strategies on the creation and reproduction of risk and vulnerability to disasters. Crisis Cities questions the widespread narrative of resilience and reveals the uneven and contradictory effects of redevelopment activities in the two cities.
Product Details
Price
$55.19
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publish Date
May 05, 2014
Pages
352
Dimensions
6.1 X 9.1 X 1.0 inches | 1.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780199752218
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Kevin Fox Gotham is Professor of Sociology at Tulane University. Miriam Greenberg is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Reviews
"Every urban crisis is also an opportunity, and in this penetrating study of post-disaster New York and New Orleans, Kevin Gotham and Miriam Greenberg show how and why the market-model of redevelopment does so little for the people and places that need it most. Crisis Cities is insightful, sophisticated, and, alas, timely. It belongs not only in the classroom, but on every mayor's desk." --Eric Klinenberg, author of Heat Wave and Going Solo
"In this wide-ranging and carefully researched book, Gotham and Greenberg explore the crisis-driven strategies of urbanization that have been pursued in two major post-disaster U.S. cities and their deeply uneven, polarizing and destructive impacts upon the social and ecological fabric. A fundamental and original analysis of early twenty-first century urban transformations in the age of disaster capitalism, this book is a superb demonstration of how the methods of critical urban studies can illuminate the powerful social, political, economic and ideological forces that are reshaping cities and regions today." --Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design
"Crisis Cities is a critical revelation of the political and economic forces that direct the resources offered to cities after catastrophes. The authors clearly show how the resources are not necessarily directed to the rebuilding and recovery projects that serve all segments of the communities and would provide a successful collective future. Drawing on catastrophes in two well-known American cities the dangers of this common path are clearly presented." --Shirley Laska, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of New Orleans
"The history, empirical work, and theoretical framework provided by Crisis Cities is a major contribution to urban sociology and, I hope, to urban policy." --American Journal of Sociology"Professionals in emergency management roles, particularly those responsible for preparedness and recovery planning in large urbanized areas, will recognize the challenges described in the book as relevant to the devolution of disaster recovery response and a growing reliance on privatized redevelopment. Crisis Cities should serve as required reading in this new era of crisis planning and recovery." --Social Service Review
"In this wide-ranging and carefully researched book, Gotham and Greenberg explore the crisis-driven strategies of urbanization that have been pursued in two major post-disaster U.S. cities and their deeply uneven, polarizing and destructive impacts upon the social and ecological fabric. A fundamental and original analysis of early twenty-first century urban transformations in the age of disaster capitalism, this book is a superb demonstration of how the methods of critical urban studies can illuminate the powerful social, political, economic and ideological forces that are reshaping cities and regions today." --Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory, Harvard Graduate School of Design
"Crisis Cities is a critical revelation of the political and economic forces that direct the resources offered to cities after catastrophes. The authors clearly show how the resources are not necessarily directed to the rebuilding and recovery projects that serve all segments of the communities and would provide a successful collective future. Drawing on catastrophes in two well-known American cities the dangers of this common path are clearly presented." --Shirley Laska, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of New Orleans
"The history, empirical work, and theoretical framework provided by Crisis Cities is a major contribution to urban sociology and, I hope, to urban policy." --American Journal of Sociology"Professionals in emergency management roles, particularly those responsible for preparedness and recovery planning in large urbanized areas, will recognize the challenges described in the book as relevant to the devolution of disaster recovery response and a growing reliance on privatized redevelopment. Crisis Cities should serve as required reading in this new era of crisis planning and recovery." --Social Service Review
