Ryan Centner
Biographic Data
| ID | 316157 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ryan Centner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ryan |
| FAMILY NAME | Centner |
| SIGNATURE | CENTNER R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tufts University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3295-3186 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Infrastructure, Empire, and Connection in the “American” Pacific
Ryan Centner on an imperial network
The Everynight Politics of Expatriate Gay Men Across the Global South: Forging Community in Buenos Aires, Flirting with Nonexistence in Dubai
As privileged migrants but also sexual minorities, how do gay expatriates engage in politics in the places they settle? Comparing across transnational hubs of the Global South, this article focuses on expatriate gay men and how politics is a variable part of their nightlife. Socio-legal context shapes the nature of the queer night, engendering distinct forms of everynight politics: informal yet impactful plays of power and practices of conviviali…
Geographies of entitled anger: Revanchist populism in Brazil and beyond
In an age of resurgent populism, emotional geographies play an underexamined yet pivotal role in explaining cross-class alliances that have enabled particularly angry forms of revanchist politics across world regions. This essay delineates the notion of “revanchist populism” and its grounding in “entitled anger,” as well as self-righteous geographical imaginations more broadly, to shed new light on the Brazilian case in recent years, which is fur…
Imaginative, Extroverted Havana
Exploring an ever-dynamic, often-struggling city
Peril, privilege, and queer comforts: The nocturnal performative geographies of expatriate gay men in Dubai
This article investigates the intersection of expatriate experiences, queer men’s lives, and nocturnal geographies within the transnational Middle Eastern setting of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Although narrowly focused on cisgender men who self-identify as “Western” and “gay,” the study addresses a lack of research about LGBT+ presence among expatriates globally, and poor coverage of queer residents in Gulf cities generally. Using ethnogr…
On not being Dubai: Infrastructures of urban cultural policy in Istanbul & Beirut
This paper compares how Istanbul and Beirut both attempt to underline their cultural and developmental uniqueness today in contrast to a metonymic menace – Dubai, standing in for spectacular yet supposedly cultureless Gulf cities. Even amid their own speculative construction frenzies that threaten local heritage, Turkish and Lebanese city-shapers assert theirs are ‘real’ cities because they have ‘civilization’ and ‘history.’ By addressing their o…
Moving Away, Moving Onward: Displacement Pressures and Divergent Neighborhood Politics in Buenos Aires
This paper focuses on two Buenos Aires neighborhoods that face displacement pressures. Building on research about urban mobilization in a range of cities, this paper highlights how collaboration can vary in its configuration and orientation at the neighborhood level, despite similar circumstances. Data include ethnographic excerpts from the experiences of residents who fight to remain in their homes but ultimately leave, which trace out distinct …
Microcitizenships: Fractious Forms of Urban Belonging after Argentine Neoliberalism
To explain cross-class spatial relations in 'post-neoliberal' Buenos Aires, this article develops the notion of microcitizenships, defined as group-specific quasi-legal relationships with the local state, entailing both recognition and service provision in order to grant exclusive yet temporary rights to particularized legitimate uses of urban space. This conceptualization contrasts in particular with prominent theorizations of liberal, insurgent…
Techniques of Absence in Participatory Budgeting: Space, Difference and Governmentality across Buenos Aires
Techniques of absencedescribe some of the potentially anti-deliberative practices that haunt recently widespread participation-based governance schemes. Techniques of absence remove certain kinds of people - on a spatialised basis - from crucial 'democratic' conversations. To illustrate these, I use ethnographic accounts from the implementation of a citywide participatory budgeting programme in three neighbourhoods across Buenos Aires, Argentina,…
Places of Privileged Consumption Practices: Spatial Capital, the Dot–Com Habitus, and San Francisco's Internet Boom
Drawing from interviews and fieldwork with former dot–com workers in San Francisco, this article examines how their spatialized consumption practices formed exclusionary places of privilege during the city's millennial boom of internet companies. I focus especially on the personalized deployment of uneven social power in situations where space is at stake. After considering how this group differed from a history of other urban newcomers, I develo…
Places of Privileged Consumption Practices: Spatial Capital, the Dot–Com Habitus, and San Francisco's Internet Boom
Drawing from interviews and fieldwork with former dot–com workers in San Francisco, this article examines how their spatialized consumption practices formed exclusionary places of privilege during the city's millennial boom of internet companies. I focus especially on the personalized deployment of uneven social power in situations where space is at stake. After considering how this group differed from a history of other urban newcomers, I develo…
Microcitizenships: Fractious Forms of Urban Belonging after Argentine Neoliberalism
To explain cross-class spatial relations in 'post-neoliberal' Buenos Aires, this article develops the notion of microcitizenships, defined as group-specific quasi-legal relationships with the local state, entailing both recognition and service provision in order to grant exclusive yet temporary rights to particularized legitimate uses of urban space. This conceptualization contrasts in particular with prominent theorizations of liberal, insurgent…
Techniques of Absence in Participatory Budgeting: Space, Difference and Governmentality across Buenos Aires
Techniques of absencedescribe some of the potentially anti-deliberative practices that haunt recently widespread participation-based governance schemes. Techniques of absence remove certain kinds of people - on a spatialised basis - from crucial 'democratic' conversations. To illustrate these, I use ethnographic accounts from the implementation of a citywide participatory budgeting programme in three neighbourhoods across Buenos Aires, Argentina,…
Peril, privilege, and queer comforts: The nocturnal performative geographies of expatriate gay men in Dubai
This article investigates the intersection of expatriate experiences, queer men’s lives, and nocturnal geographies within the transnational Middle Eastern setting of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Although narrowly focused on cisgender men who self-identify as “Western” and “gay,” the study addresses a lack of research about LGBT+ presence among expatriates globally, and poor coverage of queer residents in Gulf cities generally. Using ethnogr…
Geographies of entitled anger: Revanchist populism in Brazil and beyond
In an age of resurgent populism, emotional geographies play an underexamined yet pivotal role in explaining cross-class alliances that have enabled particularly angry forms of revanchist politics across world regions. This essay delineates the notion of “revanchist populism” and its grounding in “entitled anger,” as well as self-righteous geographical imaginations more broadly, to shed new light on the Brazilian case in recent years, which is fur…
Moving Away, Moving Onward: Displacement Pressures and Divergent Neighborhood Politics in Buenos Aires
This paper focuses on two Buenos Aires neighborhoods that face displacement pressures. Building on research about urban mobilization in a range of cities, this paper highlights how collaboration can vary in its configuration and orientation at the neighborhood level, despite similar circumstances. Data include ethnographic excerpts from the experiences of residents who fight to remain in their homes but ultimately leave, which trace out distinct …
The Everynight Politics of Expatriate Gay Men Across the Global South: Forging Community in Buenos Aires, Flirting with Nonexistence in Dubai
As privileged migrants but also sexual minorities, how do gay expatriates engage in politics in the places they settle? Comparing across transnational hubs of the Global South, this article focuses on expatriate gay men and how politics is a variable part of their nightlife. Socio-legal context shapes the nature of the queer night, engendering distinct forms of everynight politics: informal yet impactful plays of power and practices of conviviali…
Places of Privileged Consumption Practices: Spatial Capital, the Dot–Com Habitus, and San Francisco's Internet Boom
Drawing from interviews and fieldwork with former dot–com workers in San Francisco, this article examines how their spatialized consumption practices formed exclusionary places of privilege during the city's millennial boom of internet companies. I focus especially on the personalized deployment of uneven social power in situations where space is at stake. After considering how this group differed from a history of other urban newcomers, I develo…
Moving Away, Moving Onward: Displacement Pressures and Divergent Neighborhood Politics in Buenos Aires
This paper focuses on two Buenos Aires neighborhoods that face displacement pressures. Building on research about urban mobilization in a range of cities, this paper highlights how collaboration can vary in its configuration and orientation at the neighborhood level, despite similar circumstances. Data include ethnographic excerpts from the experiences of residents who fight to remain in their homes but ultimately leave, which trace out distinct …
Microcitizenships: Fractious Forms of Urban Belonging after Argentine Neoliberalism
To explain cross-class spatial relations in 'post-neoliberal' Buenos Aires, this article develops the notion of microcitizenships, defined as group-specific quasi-legal relationships with the local state, entailing both recognition and service provision in order to grant exclusive yet temporary rights to particularized legitimate uses of urban space. This conceptualization contrasts in particular with prominent theorizations of liberal, insurgent…
Techniques of Absence in Participatory Budgeting: Space, Difference and Governmentality across Buenos Aires
Techniques of absencedescribe some of the potentially anti-deliberative practices that haunt recently widespread participation-based governance schemes. Techniques of absence remove certain kinds of people - on a spatialised basis - from crucial 'democratic' conversations. To illustrate these, I use ethnographic accounts from the implementation of a citywide participatory budgeting programme in three neighbourhoods across Buenos Aires, Argentina,…
On not being Dubai: Infrastructures of urban cultural policy in Istanbul & Beirut
This paper compares how Istanbul and Beirut both attempt to underline their cultural and developmental uniqueness today in contrast to a metonymic menace – Dubai, standing in for spectacular yet supposedly cultureless Gulf cities. Even amid their own speculative construction frenzies that threaten local heritage, Turkish and Lebanese city-shapers assert theirs are ‘real’ cities because they have ‘civilization’ and ‘history.’ By addressing their o…
Peril, privilege, and queer comforts: The nocturnal performative geographies of expatriate gay men in Dubai
This article investigates the intersection of expatriate experiences, queer men’s lives, and nocturnal geographies within the transnational Middle Eastern setting of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Although narrowly focused on cisgender men who self-identify as “Western” and “gay,” the study addresses a lack of research about LGBT+ presence among expatriates globally, and poor coverage of queer residents in Gulf cities generally. Using ethnogr…
Imaginative, Extroverted Havana
Exploring an ever-dynamic, often-struggling city
Geographies of entitled anger: Revanchist populism in Brazil and beyond
In an age of resurgent populism, emotional geographies play an underexamined yet pivotal role in explaining cross-class alliances that have enabled particularly angry forms of revanchist politics across world regions. This essay delineates the notion of “revanchist populism” and its grounding in “entitled anger,” as well as self-righteous geographical imaginations more broadly, to shed new light on the Brazilian case in recent years, which is fur…
Infrastructure, Empire, and Connection in the “American” Pacific
Ryan Centner on an imperial network
The Everynight Politics of Expatriate Gay Men Across the Global South: Forging Community in Buenos Aires, Flirting with Nonexistence in Dubai
As privileged migrants but also sexual minorities, how do gay expatriates engage in politics in the places they settle? Comparing across transnational hubs of the Global South, this article focuses on expatriate gay men and how politics is a variable part of their nightlife. Socio-legal context shapes the nature of the queer night, engendering distinct forms of everynight politics: informal yet impactful plays of power and practices of conviviali…
Sociology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Politics (5 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (5 works) · Law (4 works) · Social science (4 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Art (3 works) · Ethnography (3 works) · Law (3 works)