Description
Book SynopsisRiobamba and Cuenca, two intermediate cities in Ecuador, have become part of global networks through transnational migration, incoming remittances, tourism, and global economic connections. Their landscape is changing in several significant ways, a reflection of the social and urban transformations occurring in contemporary Ecuadorian society. Exploring the discourses and actions of two contrasting population groups, rarely studied in tandem, within these citiespopular-settlement residents and professionals in the planning and construction sectorthis study analyzes how each is involved in house designs and neighborhood consolidation. Ideas, ambitions, and power relations come into play at every stage of the production and use of urban space, and as a result individual decisions about both house designs and the urban layout influence the development of the urban fabric. Knowledge about intermediate cities is crucial in order to understand current trends in the predominantly urban soc
Trade Review
“Klaufus’ work provides interesting cultural insight for architecture and urban planning fields with an added anthropological perspective often overlooked and understudied… This ambitious project achieves an admirable breadth of themes, an impressive range of theoretical engagement.” · Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
“This is a wonderful book..[The] inclusion of two contrasting population groups in two cities makes it an ambitious and challenging project, which in less competent hands could be problematic. But it is this breadth combined with depth which really gives the study its authority. The focus on intermediate cities is refreshing and the exploration of global networks and influences through international migration offers new insights and makes an important and contemporary contribution to the literature. This is outstanding interdisciplinary scholarship and ethnography at its best… a valuable addition to the literature on housing, poverty, urban studies and city planning as well as to the study of popular aesthetics, architecture, urban anthropology, and sociology.” · Peter Kellett, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables
List of Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction: Urban Living and Architecture
Chapter 1. Intermediate Andean Cities
Chapter 2. Neighborhood Dialectics
Chapter 3. Habits in House Building
Chapter 4. Fashionable Homes
Chapter 5. Transformations in Cuencan Architecture
Chapter 6. Riobamba, Disordered City
Chapter 7. The Ordinary City
Appendix: Ethnographic Urban Research
Glossary
References
Index
