Urban Affairs Review appoints Book Review Editor
Urban Affairs Review recently appointed Dr. Jill Simone Gross as Book Review Editor. The journal is eager to relaunch its book review program as a regular section of the journal. Please share new and upcoming titles with us at our dedicated email address, urbanaffairsbookreviews@gmail.com.
From the Local to the Hyperlocal
Mark Chou (Austrialian Catholic University) reviews “Small Isn’t Beautiful: The Case Against Localism” and “Hyperlocal: Place Governance in a Fragmented World” in this book review essay.
Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India’s Urban Slums
Squatter settlements dot the cities of the Global South, but they exhibit uneven access to public goods. Auerbach tackles this puzzle in Demanding Development, painting a revealing portrait of local claims making and problem-solving networks in India’s urban slums. In doing so, the author speaks to a central problem of development as public resources for infrastructure are limited and accessed through a complex web of political relationships.
Segregation by Design
Jessica Trounstine has recently published Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities (Cambridge). A fascinating empirical examination of how local governments have used the distribution of public goods and land use control to increase the wealth of white property owners at the expense of people of color and the poor. This post by Trounstine discusses the core argument of the book and some potential solutions. Her post is followed by several reactions to the book from notable scholars of local and urban politics.