An ambitious and devastating book… this is a critical text, without easy comparison, providing a highly readable and remarkably detailed insight into the global housing crisis. It is critical reading for scholars across urban, housing and ‘development’ studies, planning and geography, offering a rallying manifesto for housing activists the world over. We can only hope our political leadership engage with ... Read moreits provocation’.
Regional Studies
Captivating analysis of the global housing crisis. Based on extensive research on housing, Deborah Potts lays bare the paradoxes of the urban housing crisis – household incomes relative to housing costs.
George Owusu, University of Ghana
An evidence-based, historically informed and incisive analytical voice on one of the crucial issues of twenty-first century urban life. The breadth of insight and scope is remarkable, demonstrating beyond any doubt the value of a comparative perspective on global urbanisation. Superbly well written, accessible and supported with carefully compiled and detailed data, this book is a gift to urban residents, urbanists, scholars, practitioners and politicians. Read it!
Jennifer Robinson, University College London
One of the particular strengths of this book is its breadth of comparative reference. Potts insists that analyses of housing in the Global South and the Global North can be conducted within a common conceptual framework... The result is a series of thought-provoking analogies among housing policies that are usually studied in isolation by specialists in different regions of the world. Any housing expert will come away from this book with new insights and new ideas.
Isaac William Martin, Professor of Sociology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of California – San Diego, in Anthropological Forum
A particular strength of the book is its global reach... the book’s main point is to draw parallels between housing problems across the world, with a close eye on contextual detail and differences, but always searching for structural similarities across local histories and politics. Taken together, Broken Cities is a highly readable and informative book that makes an important contribution to the debate on one of the defining features of current urbanization. It will be of key interest to urban and housing scholars and may also serve well as a teaching resource for courses in geography, planning, housing studies and related fields.
Justin Kadi, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Spatial Planning, Vienna University of Technology in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Broken Cities talks to housing need in the global North and South. While not intended to be published to coincide with COVID-19, the pandemic highlights the significance of housing quality for wellbeing. This is a scholarly text, in terms of the depth of referencing and data analysis. But it is also a publication written for an interested non-expert audience, with multiple examples to illustrate the key points of the argument... What is evident from this volume is that housing is essential to health and wellbeing. Governments are challenged to rethink housing options, and to recognize the centrality of housing to development
Professor Diana Mitlin, Professor of Global Urbanism, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester in Environment and Urbanization
A particular strength of the book is its global reach. Potts convincingly argues that there are common underlying forces that determine housing outcomes under capitalism in both the global South and the global North. ... Taken together, Broken Cities is a highly readable and informative book that makes an important contribution to the debate on one of the defining features of current urbanization.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
One of the particular strengths of this book is its breadth of comparative reference. ... a series of thought-provoking analogies among housing policies that are usually studied in isolation by specialists in different regions of the world. Any housing expert will come away from this book with new insights and new ideas.
Anthropological Forum
This is essential reading ... The book enhances the comparative gesture in urban studies as well as the ‘planetary turn’ in gentrification studies.
Progress in Development Studies 2021
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