ABSTRACT

Urban anthropologists have studied the relationship between economic production and consumption, cultural meaning-making and social differentiation in the context of urban landscapes. This chapter approaches urban life through a focus on urban economies, and specifically on production. It starts with a discussion of the major shifts in economies worldwide that have occurred since the Second World War, from national developmental models to neoliberal reforms and globalization, and from Fordism to post-Fordism. In urban contexts, such shifts have led to theorizations ofneoliberal cities.