Fluid New York: Cosmopolitan Urbanism and the Green Imagination

May Joseph

Published by Duke University Press 2013

Fluid New York

Cosmopolitan Urbanism and the Green Imagination

May Joseph

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822378884

Overview
Contents

About this book

Fluid New York offers reflections on how New York began to incorporate the city's archipelago ecology into plans for a livable and sustainable future in the decade between September 11 and Hurricane Sandy.

Author / Editor information

May Joseph is Professor of Social Science at the Pratt Institute, where she teaches urbanism, global studies, and visual culture. She is the founder of Harmattan Theater, which produces site-specific outdoor productions exploring the history of New York City through its architecture, design, and natural environment. Joseph is the author of Nomadic Identities: The Performance of Citizenship and a coeditor (with Jennifer Natalya Fink) of Performing Hybridity.

Reviews

“Joseph addresses vital topics like city planning for ecological sustainability and how the city must meet the needs of a heterogeneous population. . . . Joseph expresses both affection and concern for her city, highlighting both its creative potential and provincial hubris it must outgrow.” - Publishers Weekly

“I relished Joseph’s vivid accounts of New Yorkers’ communal campaigns against the wanton destruction of urban green spaces that had been a source of pleasure, solace and inspiration to citizens for many decades. She demonstrates that environmental challenges bring people together, no matter how disparate and apparently divided the population of a large city may seem to be. . . . [I]t speaks powerfully to a critical moment in urban ecology.” - Laurence Coupe, Times Higher

“A tour-de-force, Fluid New York should be read and absorbed by anyone interested in how urbanism has recently developed along with ecology and how it continues to evolve within an ecological context.” - Jim Elledge, The Mom Egg

"Fluid New York is a beautifully written and conceived book. Based on rich ethnographic material, May Joseph develops a persuasive vision of New York as a city with an emerging culture of 'fluid urbanism.' Her compelling arguments offer a way to rethink space and performative cultures in cities such as Bangalore, Beijing, and Dar es Salaam, and to put New York in dialogue with those cities and their urbanisms. This is wonderful, vivid, and insightful work."—Smriti Srinivas, author of Landscapes of Urban Memory and In the Presence of Sai Baba

"This important book illuminates new ideas that took hold of the bodies and minds of New Yorkers in the decade after September 11. May Joseph's New York is characterized by the radical implosion and intensification of global difference. Her narrative consistently gives voice to people who have always been present in New York but not often heard from."—Brian McGrath, Research Chair in Urban Design, Parsons The New School for Design

"Gorgeously written and keenly observed, Joseph’s book evokes both the global and the local in her consideration of New York City’s evolving relationship to its waterfront. . . . This vast book and its singular story reveal the pleasures of cosmopolitan belonging, as well as the difficult measures that must be taken to preserve urban settings and citizens on a warming planet."

-- Jennie Lightweis-Goff Journal of American Culture

“Joseph addresses vital topics like city planning for ecological sustainability and how the city must meet the needs of a heterogeneous population. . . . Joseph expresses both affection and concern for her city, highlighting both its creative potential and provincial hubris it must outgrow.”

-- Publishers Weekly

“I relished Joseph’s vivid accounts of New Yorkers’ communal campaigns against the wanton destruction of urban green spaces that had been a source of pleasure, solace and inspiration to citizens for many decades. She demonstrates that environmental challenges bring people together, no matter how disparate and apparently divided the population of a large city may seem to be. . . . [I]t speaks powerfully to a critical moment in urban ecology."

-- Laurence Coupe Times Higher Education

“A tour-de-force, Fluid New York should be read and absorbed by anyone interested in how urbanism has recently developed along with ecology and how it continues to evolve within an ecological context.”

-- Jim Elledge Mom Egg Review

“Joseph’s work is highly creative and beautifully written. The book will be welcomed by scholars of urban studies especially those interested in cultural studies, citizenship studies and urban environmental history.”

-- Anthony Levenda Urban Studies

“Fluid New York would be useful in any course about the history of New York City. For scholars interested in how the environment shapes and is shaped by urban life and culture, Joseph’s book deepens our understanding.”

-- Sean Singer American Studies

“Fluid New York is an admirable study and I recommend it to readers who are interested in the green future of coastal cities.”

-- William Kornblum Contemporary Sociology

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Prologue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
PART I fluid urbanism
1. Water Ecology, Island City Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2. Transoceanic New York, City of Rivers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
3. The Maritime Sky of Manhattan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4. Thinking Metropolitanism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
PART II cosmopolitan frugality
5. Nomadic Urbanism and Frugality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
6. Nyerere, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi Cultures of Frugality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
PART III ecological expressivity
7. Greening Hardscape Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
8. Marathon City, Biking Boroughs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
PART IV maritime mentalities
9. Brooklyn Carnival and the Sale of Dreamland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
10. Spirits of the Necropolis, Planes on the Hudson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
11. Governors Island Maritime Pasts, Ecological Futures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
12. After Hurricane Sandy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
Conclusion: Toward a Praxis of Cosmopolitan Citizenship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	239

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 264
Illustrations
- Other: 3 illustrations, 5 maps

eBook

Published: July 2, 2013
ISBN: 9780822378884