Other Cities, Other Worlds

II [ and so did father.And mother, in i her tears, responded in Igbo?even , though she was not one of their 1 own. Many times they pointed at , me and I just sat still, listening to 1 all the strange words being hurled i about and feeling so out of place [ and helpless. I didn't share their i language with them." [ The anthology is grounded in i a sense of recognition of thehuman , condition, one that transcends the 1 boundaries of race, language, and i ethnicity and acknowledges the 1 "human" experience. The variety of i stories here is commendable. Many [ stories focus on the very "local" i ("Honor of a Woman," "Grow , ing My Hair Again," "Ishwari's ' Children," "The Rich People's i School"), and yet all the stories in 1 the collection deal in some way i with relationships, which makes [ forengaging and poignant reading, i One World captures a moment in , history representing the changing ' and evolving world thatwe are, i while reminding us of theenduring 1 nature of thehuman condition, i Emma Dawson 1 Keele University IJ Other Cities, Other Worlds: Urban Imaginaries in a Globalizing Age. , Andreas Huyssen, ed. Durham, North 1 Carolina. Duke UniversityPress. 2009. i viii + 327 pages, ill. $24.95. isbn978-0 [ 8223-4271-7 [ With the increasing development i of the city as the primary focus , of a new global landscape, urban 1 studies have become a main field i of study for scholars and writers 1 from multiple disciplines. Cities i have gained importance as they ' have become a symbolic stage that i prominently displays relationships [ between multiple subjects and social groups. Furthermore, cities , can be inclusive or exclusive to the 1 extent that they comprise a collec S22EEEEIII3] NfwIntffMtieMlitt tive memory and past and their inhabitants adhere to a concrete identity grounded in their urban experience. As a result, Andreas Huys sen's collection of essays focuses on the idea of the city from an interdisciplinary standpoint. The contributors to this collective work range from urban theorists, anthro pologists, sociologists, and political economists to cultural critics and writers. As Huyssen explains in his introduction, these contribu tions form part of a vibrant new literature that aims to capture the "emerging thrust of urban devel opment in [its] changing relation to nations and regions, to social movements, and to the effects of a globalizing economy and world culture." A major point of interestin this collection is the idea of "Other," from which stems the title "Other Cities, Other Worlds." For Huyssen, most "citizens in the Western academy and criticsof theneoliberal triumpha lism of globalization" often "do not know enough about deep histories and currentdevelopments of urban areas elsewhere in the world." Con sequently, Huyssen's collection of essays seeks both to shed some light onto these histories and to uncover a = "deeper knowledge about theways = inwhich modernity has historically = evolved in cities of thenon-Western = world." While Huyssen failstodefine = what he understands by "non-West- = ern" worlds, this definition can be = deduced by theplaces chosen to rep- = resent this perspective: these urban = territoriescomprise Latin America, = Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In = otherwords, the"Other" citieshe has = chosen consist of everything that is = not European or North American. = To define Latin America as a = non-Western world denotes a brand = of ignorance thatonly a Eurocentric = view could support.Nobody would = dispute thatLatinAmerica was large- = lyfoundedby Europeans who sought = to implement their values in the New = World. On theother hand, to create = such an arbitraryand radical distinc- = tion between the European "West" = and non-Western cities begs the ques- = tion, How would Huyssen label those = contemporaryEuropean citieswhere = Western and non-Western values = and realities coexist? It is surprising = that someone of Huyssen's caliber = does not acknowledge that most cities = todayoperatewithin thisglobal land- = scape where the West and the non- = West overlap tosuch a degree thatthe = very categoriesHuyssen deploys risk = distortingurban realitiesby oversim- = plifying them. = Despite Huyssen's frustrating = reification and exotic perspective = toward these "other" territories, = this collection isnot without merit. = It is geographically sweeping, cov- = ering cities from Johannesburg to = Seoul, from Mumbai to Mexico = City. Topics covered include the = relation between city and country, = the

Active listening · Feeling · Honor · Igbo · Linguistics · Media studies · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology