Housing and the Democratic Ideal: The Life and Thought of Charles Abrams

A. Scott Henderson

Housing and the Democratic Ideal is the only comprehensive work on Charles Abrams to date. Though structured as a narrative biography, this book also uses Abrams's experiences as a lens through which we can better understand the development of American social policy and state expansion during the twentieth century. In his left-leaning critique of centrist liberalism, Abrams took aim at the use of fiscal and monetary policies to achieve social objectives—a practice that allowed business interests to maximize private profits at the expense of public benefits. His growing concern over racial discrimination prefigured its emergence as a highly contested aspect of the American state.

http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-11950-4/

Sharon Zukin: "Pacification by cappuccino"

Sharon Zukin is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and at the CUNY Graduate Center. Zukin is the author of books on cities, culture and consumer culture, and a researcher on urban, cultural and economic change. She was Broeklundian Professor from 1996 to 2008. She received the Lynd Award for Career Achievement in urban sociology, from the American Sociological Association, and the C. Wright Mills Book Award for Landscapes of Power. She was visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, 2010-11.

Teaching at the New School, New York
http://www.newschool.edu/continuing-education/events.aspx?id=85604

BOOKS:

Loft Living (1982)
The Cultures of Cities (1995) 
Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (Oxford University Press, 2010) is an update to Jane Jacobs'  The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)
Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)
Point of Purchase

Harvey, D. C., Hawkins, H., & Thomas, N. J. (2012). Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: people, places and networks.

Harvey, D. C., Hawkins, H., & Thomas, N. J. (2012). Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: people, places and networks. Geoforum, 43(3), 529-539. doi:http://dx.doi.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.11.010

Abstract

This paper develops an ethnographic study of a small rural based ‘creative cluster’, called Krowji, situated in the town of Redruth in West Cornwall, UK. The dominant geographies of creative industries research and policy in recent years have an acknowledged urban bias together with a focus on narratives of agglomeration. This paper sits alongside research that brings to the fore ‘other’ geographies of cultural production, and reflects an increasing interest in work on creativity in rural areas. Following work by Storper and Pratt, we explore Krowji’s complex interdependencies, investigating ‘the relations within, without and across the cluster’. We focus on the relationships between Krowji and its surrounding area together with the spatialities and temporalities of the relations that occur across and beyond the cluster. We address the dynamics and durability of relations formed within the cluster also paying attention to their disconnections. In offering this analysis we develop a valuable counterpoint to the urban bias of much work on creative clusters and we contribute to work that is looking more closely at the temporalities and spatialities of cultural production. Further, we point towards the value of ethnographical research on the creative industries.

Chris Butler: Henri Lefebvre Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City

Chris Butler: Henri Lefebvre Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City

http://books.google.com/books?id=TaQJawakHPYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+right+to+the+city+lefebvre&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zHkyUv6dH4W52wWAt4DYDA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20right%20to%20the%20city%20lefebvre&f=false

Henri Lefebvre: The Right to the City

Lefebvre, H. (1968). The Right to the City. In E. Kofman & E. Lebas (Eds.), Writings on

Cities. (147 159). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Sep 11

Synopsis

Lefebvre argues that cities are no longer what their historical purpose was: to provide

‘ouvre’ anthropological needs for information, symbolism, the imaginary and play.

Cities in his opinion became empty theatres of consumer goods for tourists.

He argues that only working class has the power to take action and power into their

hands. Lefebvre suggests a program of urban renewal to be put forward and presented

preferentially to the ‘left’ parties or political formations who would be willing to represent

the working class.