On cities and the politics of development.

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Ben Bradlow, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton, talks to Alex about his book Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg.

If our future is urban – and it is – why is it different to what we imagined?

Are Johannesburg and São Paulo representative of what is going on in cities?

How did democratic promise and neoliberal disappointment go together in the 1990s, through to today?

What has been the role of social movements (e.g. for housing) in transforming cities and municipal government?

Is the radical right in the global North and South fundamentally different? What is the urban dimension?

What does China's lead in industries like electric vehicles mean for countries like Brazil?

Is industrial upgrading possible under post-neoliberalism?

Links:

Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg, Benjamin Bradlow, Princeton UP

A processual framework for understanding the rise of the populist right: the case of Brazil (2013–2018), Tomás Gold and Benjamin Bradlow, Social Forces

Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, Peter Evans, Princeton UP