The Sociological Review is pleased to announce that the 2017 Annual Lecture will be given by Rivke Jaffe, University of Amsterdam

Cities and the Political Imagination: The Sociological Review Annual Lecture 2017

Keynote Speaker: Rivke Jaffe (University of Amsterdam)

The Manchester Museum

Friday 28th April 2017

17.45-20.00, followed by wine reception at 20.00

Cities and the Political Imagination

How can we recognize the political in the city? How might social scientists engage with forms of politics outside of established sites of research such as those associated with representative democracy or collective mobilizations? This presentation suggests that new perspectives on urban politics might be enabled by revisiting the connections between sociology and cultural studies, and specifically by combining long-term urban ethnography and cultural analysis. Reading forms of creative expression in relation to power struggles in and over urban space can direct our attention towards negotiations of authority and political belonging that are often overlooked within the social sciences. I explore the possibilities of such an approach by focusing on the idea of the political imagination, and in particular on how everyday practices are informed by imaginations of urban rule and citizenship. Expressive culture generates both analytical and normative frames, guiding everyday understandings of how power works, where and in whose hands it is concentrated, and whether we see this as just or unjust. Such frames can legitimize or delegitimize specific distributions of resources and risks, and can normalize or denaturalize specific structures of decision-making. Through a discussion of popular music (hiphop, reggae and dancehall) and visual culture, I consider how these forms of the imagination allow new political subjectivities and actions to emerge and consolidate.

Rivke Jaffe

Rivke Jaffe is Professor of Cities, Politics and Culture in the Department of Human Geography, Planning and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses primarily on intersections of the urban and the political, and includes an interest in topics such as organized crime, popular culture and environmental pollution, drawing on fieldwork in Jamaica, Curaçao and Suriname. She is currently leading a major research program on public-private security assemblages in Kingston, Jerusalem, Miami, Nairobi and Recife, studying transformations in governance and citizenship in relation to hybrid forms of security provision. Her publications include Concrete Jungles: Urban Pollution and the Politics of Difference in the Caribbean (Oxford, 2016) and Introducing Urban Anthropology (with Anouk de Koning, Routledge, 2016).

If you have any enquiries about this event, please contact Jenny Thatcher: events@thesociologicalreview.com

This event is free, but registration is required. Please give sufficient notice of cancellation. To cancel your ticket, please email Jenny Thatcher: events@thesociologicalreview.com

Cities and the Political Imagination: The Sociological Review Annual Lecture 2017 with Rivke Jaffe