South and North ― Contemporary Urban Orientations

This book explores urban life and realities in the cities of the global South and North. Through literature, film and other forms of media that constitute shared social imaginaries, the essays in the volume interrogate the modes of production that make up the fabric of urban spaces and the lives of their inhabitants. They also rethink practices that engender ‘cityness’ in diverse but increasingly interlinked conglomerations.

Probing ‘orientations’ of and within major urban spaces of the South — Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Tijuana, Delhi, Kolkata, Luanda, and Johannesburg — the book reveals the shared dynamics of urbanity built on and through the ruins of imperialism, Cold War geopolitics, global neoliberalism and the recent resurgence of nationalism. Completing a kind of arc, the volume then turns to cities located in the North such as Paris, Munich, Dresden, London and New York in order to map their coordinates in relation to the South.

The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of media and culture studies, city studies, development studies, global South studies, urban geography, built environment and literature.

Kerry Bystrom is Professor of English and Human Rights and Associate Dean of the College at Bard College Berlin, A Liberal Arts University, Germany. Her research is rooted in South and Southern African literary and cultural studies, with a current project on the cultural politics of the Cold War South Atlantic.

Ashleigh Harris is Associate Professor at the Department of English, Uppsala University, Sweden. Harris publishes in the field of Southern African, particularly Zimbabwean literature. She is primary investigator in a research project entitled ‘African Street Literatures and the Future of Literary Form’, funded by the Swedish Research Council and based at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Andrew J. Webber is Professor of Modern German and Comparative Culture at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research ranges widely over modern German-language visual and textual culture, with comparative and interdisciplinary interests, and a particular focus on urban studies.