Kigali: A New City for the End of the World (1) (Atelier: Ethnographic Inquiry in the Twenty-First Century)

By: Samuel Shearer

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Synopsis: A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the government of Rwanda hired American and Singaporean design firms to transform the image of Kigali from a wounded city into a competitive destination for foreign investment. The firms produced promotional images of a post-conflict tabula rasa waiting to be rebuilt by foreign investors as an urban solution to climate change. However, to make this marketing image real, much of the actual city would need to be destroyed and its residents converted to consumers of green housing and service delivery systems. Kigali is an ethnography of a city that is being destroyed so that it can be rebuilt for the end of the world. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork with Kigali residents as they navigate the catastrophes induced by sustainable urbanism, this book offers a searing critique of capitalist solutions to climate change and an account of the city’s popular alternatives to sustainable urbanism.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 238 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780520409989
Related ISBNs:: 9780520409972, 9780520423183
Publisher:: University of California Press
Date of Addition:: 10/28/25
Copyrighted By:: Samuel Shearer
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: Nonfiction, Outdoors and Nature, Social Studies, Politics and Government, Sociology
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.