Since the Bolivian revolution in 1952, migrants have come to the city of Cochabamba, seeking opportunity and relief from rural poverty. They have settled in barrios on the city’s outskirts only to find that the rights of citizens—basic rights of property and security, especially protection from crime—are not available to them. In this ethnography, Daniel M. Goldstein considers the significance of and similarities between two kinds of spectacles—street festivals and the vigilante lynching of criminals—as they are performed in the Cochabamba barrio of Villa Pagador. By examining folkloric festivals and vigilante violence within the same analytical framework, Goldstein shows how marginalized urban migrants, shut out of the city and neglected by the state, use performance to assert their national belonging and to express their grievances against the inadequacies of the state’s official legal order. During the period of Goldstein’s fieldwork in Villa Pagador in the mid-1990s, residents attempted to lynch several thieves and attacked the police who tried to intervene. Since that time, there have been hundreds of lynchings in the poor barrios surrounding Cochabamba. Goldstein presents the lynchings of thieves as a form of horrific performance, with elements of critique and political action that echo those of local festivals. He explores the consequences and implications of extralegal violence for human rights and the rule of law in the contemporary Andes. In rich detail, he provides an in-depth look at the development of Villa Pagador and of the larger metropolitan area of Cochabamba, illuminating a contemporary Andean city from both microethnographic and macrohistorical perspectives. Focusing on indigenous peoples’ experiences of urban life and their attempts to manage their sociopolitical status within the broader context of neoliberal capitalism and political decentralization, The Spectacular City highlights the deep connections between performance, law, violence, and the state.

Winner, Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize, Modern Language Association, 2010 The Spectacular City, Mexico, and Colonial Hispanic Literary Culture tracks the three spectacular forces of New World literary culture—cities, festivals, and wonder—from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, from the Old World to the New, and from Mexico to Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. It treats a multitude of imperialist and anti-imperialist texts in depth, including poetry, drama, protofiction, historiography, and journalism. While several of the landmark authors studied, including Hernán Cortés and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, are familiar, others have received remarkably little critical attention. Similarly, in spotlighting creole writers, Merrim reveals an intertextual tradition in Mexico that spans two centuries. Because the spectacular city reaches its peak in the seventeenth century, Merrim's book also theorizes and details the spirited work of the New World Baroque. The result is the rich examination of a trajectory that leads from the Renaissance ordered city to the energetic revolts of the spectacular city and the New World Baroque.

Everyday Life in the Spectacular City is a groundbreaking urban ethnography that reveals how middle-class citizens and longtime residents of Dubai interact with the city's so-called superficial spaces to create meaningful social lives. Rana AlMutawa shows that inhabitants adapt themselves to top-down development projects, from big malls to megaprojects. These structures serve residents' evolving social needs, transforming Dubai's spectacular spaces into personally important cultural sites. These practices are significant because they expand our understanding of agency as not only subversive but also adaptive. Through extensive fieldwork, AlMutawa, herself an Emirati native to Dubai, finds a more nuanced story of belonging. This story does not seek to uncover the "real" city that lies beneath the veneer of the spectacle, but rather to demonstrate that social meanings and forms of belonging take place within the spectacle itself. By offering an alternative to the discourse of authenticity and elucidating the dynamics of ambivalent belonging, AlMutawa belies stereotypes that portray Dubai's developments as alienating and inherently disempowering. Everyday Life in the Spectacular City speaks beyond the Middle East to a globalized phenomenon, for Dubai's spectacles are unexceptional in today's changing world.

Seattle's project of 'downtown revitalization' is often touted as a civic endeavour that serves the community as a whole. Gibson questions that assumption. He examines the trade-off between the gain produced by redevelopment and the loss of public space.

In this follow-up to the design classic 50/60/70 Iconic Australian Houses, Karen McCartney, founding editor of interiors magazine Inside Out, has compiled a selection of significant examples of Australian houses of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, each brilliantly photographed and with a depth of coverage rarely seen before. Featured architects include Richard Leplastrier, Glenn Murcutt and Wood Marsh. A detailed introduction places the period in social, historical and architectural context, before each of the selected houses is individually reviewed in an informed and engaging style. In each example the relationship between the architect and owner is discussed, as is the linking of the building to its site, materials and architectural detailing. The author has interviewed many architects and owners for their personal insights. Each study includes a feature on the interior decoration and a discussion of designers and manufacturers of iconic furniture, fittings and fabrics. 70/80/90 Iconic Australian Houses features stunning photography by Michael Wee, both panoramic and detailed, throughout. The homes from these three decades form a significant part of Australian architectural history.

Architects' Houses offers an insight into how contemporary architects live in the homes they have designed specifically for themselves and their family: from warehouses to apartments, from an entirely new build to a substantial renovation. In the absence of a 'client' and a formal brief, architects can be truly adventurous, exploring groundbreaking, unconventional ideas and materials in designing their own houses. In this lavishly photographed book, Crafti looks at the fascinating details of the process involved, as much as the end result. What were the challenges, the hardships and the problems faced? Did ideas have to be modified to suit the budget? Were there compromises along the way? What discoveries were made? Architects' Houses also explores the things that didn't quite go to plan. Their insights and journeys will appeal to those looking for fresh ideas that go beyond the traditional offerings by architects.