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"Seeking a Future for the Past: Space, Power, and Heritage in a Chinese City" by Philipp Demgenski delves into the intricate socio-political landscape of urban renewal in Qingdao, China. Through extensive ethnographic research, the book explores the transformation of Dabaodao, an inner-city neighborhood, into a historical district for tourism and cultural consumption. The text sheds light on the challenges faced by residents, migrants, and preservationists in the midst of China's urban development efforts, offering valuable insights into the complexities of balancing heritage preservation with economic growth. Despite some shortcomings, the book provides a solid and structured analysis of the urbanization process in contemporary China, making it a valuable resource for professionals, academics, and students interested in the changing dynamics of urban renewal in the country. [Extracted from the article]

"The Comitán Valley: Sculpture and Identity on the Maya Frontier" by Caitlin C. Earley is a significant contribution to the fields of art history and Mesoamerican studies. The book explores the visual culture of the Comitán Valley, an area that has been largely ignored by art historians due to its location on the western frontier of the Maya cultural sphere. Earley argues that the region had a sophisticated and inventive visual culture, where artists fused influences and constructed monuments to create a sense of site histories and local civic identities. The book examines four sites in the valley, highlighting the unique visual languages and iconography found at each location. Earley also explores the transition from the Late Classic to the Early Postclassic periods and challenges traditional understandings of Maya spaces after the end of the Classic period. Overall, "The Comitán Valley" is a valuable resource that fills a gap in the literature and lays important groundwork for future research. [Extracted from the article]

George C. Galster, an economist, alone applauds the sophistication of neoclassical economics and its effort to achieve greater contextual awareness in the study of the Black Ghetto. Equally if not more important, economics and psychology rose in authority because their individualistic disciplinary orientations put them in accord with - and in the case of economics to some degree aided - the broad political shift to the right. Philippe Fontaine and Jefferson Pooley have edited a remarkably well-integrated and informative collection of essays on the intersection of the social sciences and public policy in the United States. [Extracted from the article]

Referencing psychotherapist Mary Pipher ([7]), pastoral theologian Robert C. Dykstra ([2]) reflects on how ministers and pastoral theologians might "respond to the quandaries of finding ourselves lost in an age of overwhelm" (p. 2). Though explicit self-disclosures throughout the book are minimal, Hinds, consistent with his identity as a pastoral theologian, does not evade introspective reflection. For at least three decades, pastoral theologians in the North American context have encouraged us to reflect on the systemic dimensions of care (see, for example, Graham, [3]; Miller-McLemore, [6]). [Extracted from the article]

Traditionally, many historians of the Holocaust have been rather skeptical of oral history methods and of the value of survivor testimonies. Radu Ioanid called Pechera "the most horrific site of the Jewish internment in all of Transnistra."[5] Goldenshteyn aptly summarizes the role of Romania in the Holocaust. [Extracted from the article]

Teichgräber also reminds us that church personnel very often lived with their families and engaged in domestic economic activities apart from their churches. Case in point: Teichgräber investigates the sources of church revenue from the literary evidence extending into the early 5th century (he assumes a smooth merger of Donatist and Catholic assets, and there is scant mention of ecclesiastical finances after 411). Africa's economic evidence beyond ecclesiastical sources is rarely tapped by church historians, and Teichgräber is no exception. [Extracted from the article]

"Authoritarians", Welch explains, "perceive the world as a threatening place", in which community and values are ostensibly periled by change and diversity (p. 13). Social entrepreneurship, Welch concludes, may motivate diverse publics to act, developing "a concern with the integrity of good work (work that is socially equitable and ecologically sustainable) and the discovery of a larger good - the joy of being a part of a wider human community" (p. 114-115). An example that maybe best highlights this generative mutual work approach in the book is the Choice Employment Services described in chapter 3: Reacting to her son's difficulties in finding decent employment due to his disability, the woman portrayed has started the employment services that help with job placement and engage with a "consumer" (p. 107) to determine abilities, strengths, interests, and preferences. While existing research often differentiates between the limited community commitment of authoritarianism and the stress of emancipated individualism in liberalism, Welch argues for an intrinsic diversity, interdependence, and mutual responsibility within liberal communities that can be harnessed for social transformation (pp. 16-17). [Extracted from the article]

In September 2019, a report from Pittsburgh's Gender Equity Commission highlighted the disparities between genders and races in the legacy Rust Belt city (Howell et al. [4]). The Rust Belt is the center of the political realignment of America, which Hackworth notes throughout the work. I Manufacturing Decline i suggests that in the post-1970s Rust Belt city, urban policy was largely dictated by a conservative movement pushing images of racialized urban decline as a natural outcome of government largesse. [Extracted from the article]

On giving cosmopolitanism a chance: Temporary cities: resisting transience in Arabia. Yasser Elsheshtawy's I Temporary Cities: Resisting Transience in Arabia i is, a decade after its landmark predecessor I Behind an Urban Spectacle i (Elsheshtawy [3]), a must read for urbanists. Yasser rightly takes on what he calls a "bland cosmopolitanism" (177) that presents sites like Nasser/Baniyas Square in Dubai as "melting pots" but is simply market-driven branding to cover up what is an essentially segregated society. [Extracted from the article]

Rendón's account revisits two arguments about the urban underclass and Mexican second-generation immigrant incorporation with refreshing new evidence urban experiences between 2007 and 2012. Rendón also refutes arguments about immigrant work ethics and upward assimilation of second-generation children. Through a longitudinal ethnographic study of two Los Angeles neighborhoods and their young adult Latino residents, María Rendón systematically collected and analyzed compelling evidence to render an important argument for reframing social science perspectives about the social mechanisms shaping life trajectories of second-generation immigrants. [Extracted from the article]

The two phases of slavery and feudalism in Europe were accompanied by severe and prolonged abuse of the Jewish community there. In this regard comes Al-Khalidi's book "Sionisme", which Professor Hroub urged to address it "out of a sense of scientific and national responsibility as well" (p. 8) as Khalidi's book cannot be silenced about. [Extracted from the article]

Arnold Hirsch's I Making the Second Ghetto i , established now as a classic, is celebrating its fortieth anniversary. A shelf-ful of other books and articles deserve mention - a testament to Hirsch's enduring centrality to our understanding of postwar Chicago and the American city. [Extracted from the article]

In 1958 Ray Davies, their lead singer, chief lyricist, and usual spokesman, was transfixed by an atmospheric documentary of the blues musician, Big Bill Broonzy, performing in a Belgian night club. Doyle quotes Davies again: "The American ban had a profound effect on me ... driving me to write something particularly English in a way which made me look at my own roots rather than my American inspirations" (p. 70). Doyle shows how Davies's historical and social context shaped his outlook and writing and, above all, how he responded to it. [Extracted from the article]

However, his approach is flexible enough to admit, by way of illustration, towns such as Ennis, Newry, Wexford and Carrick-on-Suir, as well as the small cathedral city of Armagh. In the largest, too, notably Dublin, but also Cork, Waterford and Belfast, suburban villages were favoured for the residences of the well-to-do, wishing both for easy access to urban amenities and for greater space and more salubrious air. David Dickson, The First Irish Cities: An Eighteenth-Century Transformation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021, 336 pp., £25 hardback) David Dickson focuses on ten Irish "cities". [Extracted from the article]

He toggles between Christian attitudes toward contemporary Jews and biblical Jews (whether in the past or in future redemption), arguing that during this period, the two intersected in the eyes of Christian thinkers. Although the presence of Jews was deemed necessary for economic reasons, given the tensions inherent in relating to Jews during this period of "religious sensitivity", Christian authorities did not want to furnish the Jews with "free reign" (p. 72). In a book entitled I The Jews and the Reformation i , one might have expected the Jews' role as actors, rather than as mere subjects of Christian policies to have been given greater primacy. [Extracted from the article]

Reviews the book "No Shame in My Game: The Working Poor in the Inner City," by Katherine S. Newman.

Reviews the book "The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy," by William Julius Wilson.

Devastating famines and events of collective trauma such as the Black Death encouraged greater suspicion, and Rubin introduces intriguing research avenues about the extent to which interaction with foreigners reflected what went on within. Rubin examines the conditions of women and Jews as lifelong residents who in some way adopted the form of "familiar strangers" - a frequent formula in this book. [Extracted from the article]

However, it is the world of the alleyways, "backlands" and the block, White notes, where the now worldwide musical phenomenon of Grime originated. Another key theme in White's study is the relationship between loss and survival for the Black working-class young people of Forest Gate. Joy White's latest book I Terraformed i - inspired by conversations with four young Black people born in 1991, whom White calls the 'class of '91' (p. 1) - is a timely, incisive, highly accessible and powerful intervention into how austerity has exacerbated long-embedded racial injustices in the lives of young Black people in Forest Gate, Newham, UK. [Extracted from the article]

In chapter 2, "Hypermasculinity and Ghetto/Gangster Authenticity", Armstrong discusses the significant number of hip-hop artists in Kansai and elsewhere who are known or believed to be involved with Yakuza. In the afterword, Armstrong discusses, among other issues, the possibility of Shingo's and Anarchy's career success in the United States. But one naturally wonders whether the racial heritage of Japanese hip-hop artists might be seen as a "barrier" to Shingo's and Anarchy's success, given the few prominent artists of East Asian ancestry on the national stage. [Extracted from the article]

Rather than asking what the ghetto means to America - a common starting point for scholars - Freeman raises a far more provocative question: what does the ghetto mean to Black America? Particularly novel in approach, Freeman links the historic Black urban ghetto with the New Negro Movement, emphasizing the newfound pride sweeping through turn-of-the-century Black urban communities like Harlem. Freeman observes how old ghettos have become repositories of Black culture, which can spur middle-class Black gentrification and a rekindling of Black pride. [Extracted from the article]

An English teacher documents life in the Warsaw ghetto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alice Goffman's On the Run has become one of the most controversial books published in sociology in many years. Her moving account of several young Black men and their legal entanglements has raised questions about how whites represent Blacks in their research, what obligations researchers have to avoid illegal activities of their own, and, most importantly, about the character of truth in ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapters eight through eleven recount Sheppard's time as Bishop of Woolwich and Bishop of Liverpool. I Batting for the poor i is the authorised biography of David Sheppard, a man who was both bishop and sportsman. The first four chapters of the book look at David Sheppard's early life and recount Sheppard's formative experiences. [Extracted from the article]