Summary book
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
The growth of urban anthropology can be attributed to global processes of rapid urbanization
and shifts within anthropology. Historically, cities were not the predominant dwelling places,
but their growth over millennia, particularly from the Industrial Revolution onwards, led to
more than half of the world's population now residing in urban areas.
While sociology developed from the growth of industrial cities, urban anthropology evolved
on diverse trajectories, with notable contributions from both North American/European and
Global South perspectives. Urbanization, linked to globalization in the late twentieth century,
became a central focus.
Within anthropology, the discipline's colonial roots led to early research on 'native
populations.' The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a move to decolonize anthropology,
challenging the focus on 'the Other' and prompting a shift towards studying people in
'modern' urban economies. This decolonizing movement advocated studying sites where
researchers lived and worked, often in urban areas. In France, this shift in the 1970s toward
an 'anthropology of the present' spurred research on French cities.
Box 1.1 City typologies
In Ulf Hannerz's influential work on urban anthropology, he introduced a typology consisting
of Courttown, Commercetown, and Coketown to categorize cities based on their primary
functions. Courttown represents ceremonial cities with a focus on political and ceremonial
power. Commercetown emerges due to trade networks, with marketplaces playing a crucial
role. Coketown, a type from the nineteenth century, is characterized by massive
industrialization, often tied to specific economic activities like textile manufacturing.
While these typologies help conceptualize different urban development trajectories, they
oversimplify the diverse and dynamic nature of cities. Many cities combine various functions,
and shifts in political or economic activities can transform urban landscapes, leading to the
decline or abandonment of urban sites. Examples include the decline of early Mesopotamian
cities and the deserted areas in the former industrial hub, Detroit.
Situating urban anthropology
Cities, with their plazas and diverse features, often serve as places for unexpected
encounters among people from various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. The size
and diversity of cities contribute to the emergence of scenes, subcultures, and cultural
creativity. Demographic density leads to the urban phenomenon of crowds, influencing
sensations of anonymity, loneliness, or freedom, and potentially sparking collective violence
or political action. Cities, as symbolic grounds for political power, house official buildings and
public spaces that serve both as spectacles of state power and arenas for political
contestation.
These characteristics guide the questions urban anthropologists ask, focusing on how cities
shape identification, social relations, cultural repertoires, and power dynamics. Urban
anthropology, emerging later than related fields like urban sociology and geography,
distinguishes itself by its global approach, studying cities across Africa, Asia, Latin America,
Europe, and North America.
Urban anthropologists stand out from urban sociologists and geographers in their methods,
primarily relying on ethnography and participant observation. This approach grants access to
hidden aspects of urban life, mapping tacit knowledge and revealing less obvious routines.
,Ethnographic methods align with anthropology's focus on everyday life and the less
quantifiable aspects of how people make sense of their urban surroundings. The significant
contribution of urban anthropology lies in its commitment to understanding the full complexity
of people's social and cultural lives in cities, documenting how they navigate diverse,
unequal, and ever-changing urban landscapes.
Box 1.2 what is a city
The definition of the core concept of "the city" has sparked ongoing debates in urban
anthropology and studies. Early definitions emphasized the city's functions as local centers of
power, where various activities converged. Alternatively, some definitions focused on
physical form and demographic characteristics, citing size, density, and population
heterogeneity as key features. Sociologist Louis Wirth emphasized impersonal, formal, and
business-oriented relationships as defining urbanism, contrasting it with face-to-face
relationships in rural areas.
Constructivist perspectives view the city as a social construct, existing because people
collectively believe it does. This approach considers the power dynamics involved in defining
a city and recognizes the fiscal, economic, and legal implications tied to political and
administrative definitions. Municipal authorities gain taxing and regulatory powers, impacting
residents and businesses within city limits.
Recent scholars see the city not just as a place but as a dynamic social-material-
technological process or assemblage. Cities are viewed as intersections of various networks
involving people, animals, money, ideas, and technology. Urban political ecologists
emphasize the interwoven nature of cities and nature, framing the city as the urbanization of
nature. This perspective highlights cities as processes shaped by the dynamic and unstable
interaction of multiple elements.
Historical developments
Urban anthropology became a distinct subfield in the mid-twentieth century, with historical
roots traced back to significant predecessors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The overview covers developments in the field during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,
primarily focusing on English-language anthropological literature and not fully encompassing
traditions in other languages like French, German, Spanish, or Dutch.
Urban anthropology’s predecessors
Early urban anthropology predecessors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries fall
into three categories: literary journalists, academically inclined reformers, and empirical
sociologists studying Chicago. Journalists like Charles Dickens and Émile Zola explored the
lives of the urban poor, often with a political purpose. Academically oriented figures like
Friedrich Engels and Charles Booth used statistics and cartography, contributing to Victorian-
era sanitary reform. The University of Chicago's Chicago School in the early twentieth
century, led by figures like William I. Thomas and Robert Park, emphasized empirical data,
fieldwork, and human ecology in understanding urban behavior. This school produced classic
studies on marginalized groups and neighborhoods, laying the foundation for urban
sociology. The boundaries between these groups are often blurred, with figures like Engels
and Park wearing multiple hats as journalists, activists, and academics.
Early urban anthropology
In the mid-twentieth century, urban anthropology gained prominence as anthropologists
turned their focus toward the city. Chicago-trained anthropologist Robert Redfield, exploring
the contrast between 'folk society' and the 'modern city,' introduced the concept of a folk-
urban continuum, emphasizing degrees of cultural disorganization, secularization, and
individualization.
, As rural-to-urban migration surged in the Global South, anthropologists followed peasant
migrants, studying their adaptation to urban environments. The Rhodes-Livingstone Institute
in British Central Africa and the University of Manchester examined life in mining towns in the
African Copperbelt, providing insights into social transformations associated with migration
and industrialization. British anthropologists like Max Gluckman, Albert Epstein, and Clyde
Mitchell, alongside American anthropologist Hortense Powdermaker, explored the 'African
Industrial Revolution' and conceptualized 'African modernity.'
In the 1950s-1970s, anthropologists like Oscar Lewis and Ulf Hannerz extended their focus
to African, Latin American, Caribbean, and North American cities. Drawing from sociologist
William Foote Whyte's community studies, they applied ethnographic methods to urban
neighborhoods, challenging earlier notions of urban relationships as anonymous. Lewis and
Hannerz conducted research in both Western and non-Western cities, examining
sociocultural life in marginalized neighborhoods. The debate surrounding Oscar Lewis'
'culture of poverty' thesis sparked discussions on the complex relationship between culture
and poverty in urban settings.
Late twentieth-century ‘turns’
In the 1970s and 1980s, urban anthropologists, influenced by political economy perspectives,
collaborated with figures like David Harvey and Manuel Castells. Applying Marxist theories,
scholars such as Ida Susser and Leith Mullings explored how capitalism shaped urban lives.
The City University of New York (CUNY) was a key hub for interdisciplinary research at this
intersection.
In Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, anthropologists delved into the urban informal
economy, focusing on street vending and small-scale manufacturing. Latin American studies
emphasized marginalized places like Brazilian favelas, while African anthropologists
concentrated on urban social relations.
The 1990s marked a shift towards the spatial turn in urban anthropology, inspired by French
thinkers like Foucault and Lefebvre. Emphasizing the social production of space, this turn
highlighted everyday spatial tactics used by the powerless. Setha Low played a crucial role in
consolidating the spatial turn, intersecting with a cultural turn in geography, particularly in Los
Angeles.
By the 1990s, anthropologists embraced the global dimension, with Arjun Appadurai and
Saskia Sassen providing frameworks for understanding the impact of globalization on urban
landscapes. Cities were now seen as inseparable from global networks and flows involving
people, goods, ideas, and money.
Doing urban anthropology
In discussing the actual research practices of urban anthropology, it's emphasized that
ethnographic fieldwork remains the central methodology, although urban anthropology faces
unique challenges compared to traditional anthropological practices. Cities pose difficulties
as people often spend time in diverse, less accessible places, and their lives are intricately
linked to expansive social networks across the urban landscape. The complexity extends
beyond individual experiences, involving economic and political processes at various scales,
from local to global.
Urban anthropology is characterized as an engaged field that highlights marginalized lives
and aims to uncover mechanisms sustaining marginalization. In cities, social inequalities are
visibly prevalent in daily life, requiring anthropologists to engage directly with these
disparities. They navigate social fields encompassing both underprivileged urban residents
and privileged groups. The focus often involves analyzing the production of these
inequalities, with a growing trend toward collaborative research. Some urban anthropologists
