Setha M. Low

Denise Lawrence-Zúñiga

Over the last two decades anthropologists have drawn on insights from ethnographic inquiry to challenge accepted definitions and ideas of space and place. Their efforts have led to an understanding that both the conceptual and material dimensions of space as well as of built forms and landscape characteristics are central to the production (and reproduction) of social life. The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture is an unprecedented collection of key articles presented explicitly for students and researchers in anthropology, environmental psychology, sociology, architecture, geography, and urban planning. The volume includes an introduction that synthesizes existing literature, highlights core issues, and maps potential directions for future research.

Locating Culture

Anthropology of Space and Place

Neil Smith

Why is public space disappearing? Why is this disappearance important to democratic politics and how has it become an international phenomenon? Public spaces are no longer democratic spaces, but instead centres of private commerce and consumption, and even surveillance and police control. "The Politics of Public Space" extends the focus of current work on public space to include a consideration of the transnational - in the sense of moving people and transformations in the nation or state - to expand our definition of the 'public' and public space. Ultimately, public spaces are one of the last democratic forums for public dissent in a civil society. Without these significant central public spaces, individuals cannot directly participate in conflict resolution. "The Politics of Public Space" assembles a superb list of contributors to explore the important political dimensions of public space as a place where conflicts over cultural and political objectives become concrete.

The Politics of Public Space

Friendly gossip, political rallies, outdoor concerts, drugs, shoeshines, and sex-for-sale—almost every aspect of Latin American life has its place and time in the public plaza. In this wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary study, Setha M. Low explores the interplay of space and culture in the plaza, showing how culture acts to shape public spaces and how the physical form of the plaza encodes the social and economic relations within its city. Low centers her study on two plazas in San José, Costa Rica, with comparisons to public plazas in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. She interweaves ethnography, history, literature, and personal narrative to capture the ambiance and meaning of the plaza. She also uncovers the contradictory ethnohistories of the European and indigenous origins of the Latin American plaza and explains why the plaza is often a politically contested space.

The Politics of Public Space and Culture

On the Plaza

Irwin Altman

In step with the growing interest in place attachment, this volume examines the phenomena from the perspective of several disciplines-including anthropology, folklore, and psychology-and points towards promising directions of future research.

Place Attachment

Erve Chambers

This book originates in two symposia held during 1985 at the annual meetings of the Society for Applied Anthropology and the Environmental Design Research Association.

A Comparative Perspective

Housing, Culture, and Design

Anthropological perspectives are not often represented in urban studies, even though many anthropologists have been contributing actively to theory and research on urban poverty, racism, globalization, and architecture. The New Urban Anthropology Reader corrects this omission by presenting 12 cross-cultural case studies focusing on the analysis of space and place. Five images of the city--the divided city, the contested city, the global city, the modernist city, and the postmodern city--serve as the framework for the selected essays. These images highlight current research trends in urban anthropology, such as poststructural studies of race, class, and gender in the urban context; political economic studies of transnational culture; and studies of the symbolic and social production of urban space and planning. Selected Chapters: Theorizing the City: An Introduction by Setha M. Low Part I. The Divided City The Changing Significance of Race and Class in an African American Community, Steven Gregory Fortified Enclaves: The New Urban Segregation by Teresa P. R. Caldeira Part II. The Contested City Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space in Costa Rica, Setha M. Low Part III. The Global City Wholesale Sushi: Culture and Commodity in Tokyo's Tsukiki Market, Ted Bestor Part IV. The Modernist City The Modernist City and the Death of the Street by James Holston Part V. The Postmodern City Spatial Discourse and Social Boundaries: Re-imagining the Toronto Waterfront by Matthew Cooper

Setha M. Low

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