Reading about cities

The essays in Patrick Keiller’s [amazon_link id=”1781687765″ target=”_blank” ]The View From The Train[/amazon_link] will appeal to anyone who enjoys the psychogeography genre – Iain Sinclair’s [amazon_link id=”0141014741″ target=”_blank” ]London Orbital[/amazon_link] etc – and I do. They are more interested in the economics of cities, and particularly inequality and public space, than many of the other psychogeography books, however. There is overlap for example with Anna Minton’s [amazon_link id=”0241960908″ target=”_blank” ]Ground Control[/amazon_link] and Lynsey Hanley’s [amazon_link id=”1847087027″ target=”_blank” ]Estates[/amazon_link]. Yesterday I wrote about the observations Keiller makes on ports and on housing. Although I don’t agree with all he says, it’s very interesting.

[amazon_image id=”1781687765″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The View from the Train: Cities and Other Landscapes[/amazon_image]   [amazon_image id=”0141977396″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Floating City: Hustlers, Strivers, Dealers, Call Girls and Other Lives in Illicit New York[/amazon_image]

I must be in a cities mood, as I picked up and have now started reading Sudhir Venkatesh’s [amazon_link id=”0141977396″ target=”_blank” ]Floating City[/amazon_link], which is an ethnographic approach to globalised, financialised, unequal New York City. As I’ve got flights today and tomorrow, I should be able to report back soon.