Endangered City: The Politics of Security and Risk in BogotáSecurity and risk have become central to how cities are planned, built, governed, and inhabited in the twenty-first century. In Endangered City, Austin Zeiderman focuses on this new political imperative to govern the present in anticipation of future harm. Through ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in Bogotá, Colombia, he examines how state actors work to protect the lives of poor and vulnerable citizens from a range of threats, including environmental hazards and urban violence. By following both the governmental agencies charged with this mandate and the subjects governed by it, Endangered City reveals what happens when logics of endangerment shape the terrain of political engagement between citizens and the state. The self-built settlements of Bogotá’s urban periphery prove a critical site from which to examine the rising effect of security and risk on contemporary cities and urban life. |
Common terms and phrases
anticipatory Armero tragedy beneficiaries Biopolitics Bogotá River Caja social workers Caja’s resettlement program catastrophe citizens citizenship city’s Ciudad Bolívar Colombia contemporary critique Culture danger democracy desplazados disaster risk displaced domain DPAE Duke University Duke University Press El Espectador El Tiempo emergency endangered city endangerment families floods Foucault global South governmental guerrillas high risk highrisk zones housing Ibid imperative to protect Joaquín landslides Latin America liberal liberal democracy lives Mayor megacities Millennium Park modern municipal government municipal government’s neighborhood neoliberal Nevado del Ruiz official Omayra Sánchez Palace of Justice paradigms Planning politics of security Popayán potential Prevención y Atención problems relocation responsibility risk in Bogotá risk management security and risk selfbuilt settlements Semana space state’s subsidies technical techniques temporal Tercer Milenio threat Tiempo TransMilenio urban future urban government urban periphery urban politics urban poor violence Vivienda York zones of high