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John Clarke is in conversation with 12 leading scholars about the dynamics of thinking critically in the social sciences. The conversations range across many fields and explore the problems and possibilities of doing critical intellectual work in ways that are responsive to changing conditions.By emphasising the many voices in play, in conversation with as well as against others, Clarke challenges the individualising myth of the heroic intellectual. He underlines the value of thinking critically, collaboratively and dialogically.The book also provides access to a sound archive of the original conversations.

The concepts employed to understand cities around the world are sourced form a limited set of urban experiences. Comparative urbanism seeks to address this problem, but has yet to offer concrete tools to do so. This book engages with comparative urbanisms as one of the most critical debates facing urban studies. Rather than corrective inclusion, an analysis of the premises behind comparative urbanism suggests that the focus should be on how cities and cases are compared. An epistemic inversion is necessary to redraw the relationship of models and cases. Employing an empirical study of art spaces in Beijing and Berlin to engage with this experiment, the qualitative investigation delves into their motivations and practices, discovering how non-profit art spaces claim and sustain their space in a competitive urban landscape. The nature of these art spaces as temporary is considered in the context of precarity and nomadism, but also challenged as the durability of many art spaces transcend the material space. The spaces of possibility that are exposed in a context of perceived inevitabilities reveal the function of aspiration. Aspiration, as a navigational capacity, is not only a function of the individual but also about the presence of elsewhere. This was significant for the imagination of the possible, and for their attainment.

We praise those people who do things for others. But the symbolic power of giving means individuals can take advantage of the glow of ‘goodness’ that charity provides. This book analyses the reality of how charity operates in the social world; how the personal benefits of giving and volunteering are vital for getting charitable acts to happen; how the altruism associated with gifts isn't always what it seems; how charity misbehaviour or bad management gets overlooked; and how charity symbols are weaponised against those who don't participate. Drawing on original data and a novel application of the sociology of Bourdieu, this book examines a wide range of examples from culture, politics and society to provide an entertaining critique of how contemporary charity works.

Detroit has come to symbolise deindustrialization and the challenges, and opportunities, it presents. As many cities struggle with urban decline, racial and ethnic tensions and the consequences of neoliberal governance and political fragmentation, Detroit’s relevance grows stronger. Why Detroit matters bridges academic and non-academic responses to this extreme example of a fractured and divided, post-industrial city. Detroit has long been portrayed as a metonym for urban failure, most often depicted through its ruins and abandonment. However, more recently, a new narrative of comeback has emerged. While both narratives depict parts of the city, they do not tell the entire story and need to be critically examined and placed within wider socioeconomic-, political-, geographic- and racial-contexts. This edited volume seeks to critically understand these contexts to examine both the lessons from Detroit’s recent history and the new and inspiring visions which can currently be found there. Rather than only seeing decline and abandonment, these visions and the scholarly pieces within the book offer hope for a fair and just urban future. Contributions from many of the leading scholars on Detroit are joined by influential writers, planners, artists and activists who have contributed chapters drawing on their experiences and ideas. The book concludes in a unique way with interviews with some of the city’s most prominent visionaries who are engaged in inspiring practices which provide powerful lessons for Detroit and other cities around the world.