{"product_id":"the-cities-we-need-essential-stories-of-everyday-places-9780262049030","title":"The Cities We Need: Essential Stories of Everyday Places","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn expressive book of prose and photographs that reveals the powerful ways our everyday places support our shared belonging.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhere would you take someone on a guided tour of your neighborhood? In \u003ci\u003eThe Cities We Need\u003c\/i\u003e, photographer and urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani introduces us to the complex, political, and eminently personable stories of residents who answered this question in Brooklyn, New York, and Oakland, California. Their universal stories and Bendiner-Viani's evocative images illuminate what's at stake in our everyday places--from diners to churches to donut shops. In this culmination of two decades of research and art practice, Bendiner-Viani intertwines the personal, historical, and photographic to present us with \u003ci\u003eplacework\u003c\/i\u003e, the way that unassuming places foster a sense of belonging and, in fact, do the essential work of helping us become communities. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this unique book, Bendiner-Viani makes visible how seemingly unimportant places can lay the foundation for a functional interconnected society, so necessary for both public health and social justice. \u003ci\u003eThe Cities We Need\u003c\/i\u003e explores both what we gain in these spaces and what we risk losing as they are threatened by gentrification, large-scale development, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, Bendiner-Viani shows us how to understand ourselves as part of a shared society, with a shared fate; she shows us that everyday places can be the spaces of liberation in which we can build the cities we need.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGabrielle Bendiner-Viani is a visual urbanist and cofounder of the interdisciplinary studio Buscada. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eContested City\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist and honoree for the Brendan Gill Prize. A widely exhibited photographer, she holds a doctorate in environmental psychology from the Graduate Center, CUNY.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50892346294546,"sku":"9780262049030","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f0c2886d-5fc7-41d9-89ee-58f6489e56e6.jpg?v=1738187614","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-cities-we-need-essential-stories-of-everyday-places-9780262049030","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}