This book explores the connections between the processes of social structuring and sensibilities in contemporary cities. The transformations of capitalism on a global scale imply reconfigurations both in the way of planning and organizing cities, and in the ways of dwelling and feeling them. The generalization of the urban, the suburbanization of the metropolis, and classified and racializing segregation, just to mention some significant phenomena, not only introduce changes linked to the forms of consumption of the city and the land, the appropriation and privatization of collective places, the strategic revaluation of urban times / spaces, or the establishment of new centralities. They also involve changes in sensibilities, which translate into substantial transformations in the lives of people and groups that dwell in cities in the Global North and South. Based on various empirical records and methodological procedures, the chapters included in this book establish a fertile dialogue between collaborators from different geocultural contexts that locate urban experiences and sensibilities as a point of articulation to address the processes of social structuring on a global scale.
This volume zooms in on the transformation of the city/metropolis from the standpoints of work/political economy, sustainability, security/surveillance and race., focusing on how the city is experience/sensed across different communities of people. Springing from diverse traditions of thought and methodological perspectives, including politics, ethnography, philosophy, and urban planning, the chapters offer the opportunity to capture the city as a puzzle of perceptions and experiences. In this same direction the multiplicity of spaces/times - the Mexico Federal District, Port-of-Spain, Shanghai, Milan, Paris, Buenos Aires and Puno - are the reference points of the chapters to indicate how their sociability, experientialities and sensibilities are organized. The book, at the same time, constitutes an opportunity to analyze the possibilities of including trust, reciprocity and equality as axes for looking at the "life-of-the-cities" as a central component of a new form of politics of sensibilities.
Adrian Scribano is Director of the Centre for Sociological Research and Studies at the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina.
Margarita Camarena Luhrs is Research at the Institute for Social Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Ana Lucia Cervio is Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina.
