Introducing Urban Anthropology

This book provides an up-to-date introduction to the important field of urban anthropology. This is a critical area of study, as more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities and anthropological research is increasingly done in an urban context. Exploring contemporary anthropological approaches to the urban, the authors consider:

How can we define urban anthropology? What are the main themes of twenty-first-century urban anthropological research? What are the possible future directions in the field?

The chapters cover topics such as urban mobilities, place-making and public space, production and consumption, and politics and governance. These are illustrated by lively case studies drawn from urban settings across the world. Accessible yet theoretically incisive, Introducing Urban Anthropology will be a valuable resource for anthropology students and also for those working in urban studies and related disciplines such as sociology and geography. The revised second edition includes updated theoretical discussions and new ethnographic case studies. It features a new chapter on neoliberalism, austerity and solidarity, and engages more extensively with digital transformations of urban life.

Rivke Jaffe is Professor in the Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Anouk de Koning is Associate Professor in the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.

1 Introduction, 2 Urban Places, 3 Urban Mobilities, 4 Social Life in Public Space, 5 Urban Economies, 6 Consumption, Leisure and Lifestyles, 7 Neoliberalism and its discontents, 8 Planning the City, 9 Cities, Citizenship and Politics, 10 Violence, Security and Social Control, 11 Conclusion: The Futures of Urban Anthropology,