Chasing world-class urbanism : global policy versus everyday survival in Buenos Aires / Jacob Lederman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lederman, Jacob, author.

Series:

Globalization and community ; v. 30.

Globalization and community ; volume 30

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Globalization--Argentina--Buenos Aires.

Globalization.

City and town life--Argentina--Buenos Aires.

City and town life.

City planning--Argentina--Buenos Aires.

City planning.

Urbanization.

Argentina--Buenos Aires.

Urbanization--Argentina--Buenos Aires.

Physical Description:

viii, 264 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, [2020]

Summary:

What makes some cities world class? Increasingly, that designation reflects the use of a toolkit of urban planning practices and policies that circulates around the globe. These strategies--establishing creative districts dedicated to technology and design, "greening" the streets, reinventing historic districts as tourist draws--were deployed to build a globally competitive Buenos Aires after its devastating 2001 economic crisis. In this richly drawn account, Jacob Lederman explores what those efforts teach us about fast-evolving changes in city planning practices and why so many local officials chase a nearly identical vision of world-class urbanism. Lederman explores the influence of Northern nongovernmental organizations and multilateral agencies on a prominent city of the global South. Using empirical data, keen observations, and interviews with people ranging from urban planners to street vendors he explores how transnational best practices actually affect the lives of city dwellers. His research also documents the forms of resistance enacted by everyday residents and the tendency of local institutions and social relations to undermine the top-down plans of officials. Most important, Lederman highlights the paradoxes of world-class urbanism: for instance, while the priorities identified by international agencies are expressed through nonmarket values such as sustainability, inclusion, and livability, local officials often use market-centric solutions to pursue them. Further, despite the progressive rhetoric used to describe urban planning goals, in most cases their result has been greater social, economic, and geographic stratification. Chasing World-Class Urbanism is a much-needed guide to the intersections of culture, ideology, and the realities of twenty-first-century life in a major Latin American city, one that illuminates the tension between technocratic aspirations and lived experience.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Turning to Culture in Times of Crisis

2. New Objects of Government Innovation: Heritage, Culture, and Tourism

3. Becoming a Historic Center: The Invention of San Telmo

4. Best Practice in a Transnational Discourse Community

5. Recentering the South: The Creative, Livable City

6. The Production of Value in a Tourist Market

7. Contested Urban Futures.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1517908825

9781517908829

9781517908812

1517908817

OCLC:

1154113352