Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change

by Sharon Zukin, David Harvey (Foreword by)

.

Genres: Urban Studies, Nonfiction, Cities, Sociology, Urbanism, New York, Urban Planning

249 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1982

About the author

Sharon L. Zukin (born September 7, 1946) is a professor of sociology who specializes in modern urban life. She teaches at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. As of 2014, she was also a distinguished fellow in the Advanced Research Collaborative at the CUNY Graduate Center and chair of the Consumers and Consumption Section of the American Sociological Association. Zukin was a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam in 2010–11.

Zukin's research interests and analytical framework place her in the broad category of Neo-Marxist social thinkers. She began teaching urban sociology just as the “new urban sociology” was emerging, partly in response to a series of urban riots (many of which involved African-Americans reacting to police brutality or other manifestations of systemic racism) that took place in U.S. cities in the late 1960s. Widespread urban unrest in the U.S. and Europe prompted worried governments and agencies to increase the funding for urban research. Sociologist Manuel Castells and geographer David Harvey were two of the theorists influential in developing the new urban sociology.

Reviews

[Jing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Urban-political economics
How did the loft living take its legitimacy, then evolved into a commodity.

[Michelle Skowronek · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Frankfurt School of social critique warned back in the 1940s that capitalism eventually transmutes all ideas into commodity fetishes."
While I did not intend to read a book about how loft preservation and the artist grassroots efforts acted as a mask for patrician elites to force non-productive conversion on cities, I am happy I did. For those more knowledgable about real estate investment strategies and the 1960's NYC art movement, this book will be a breeze. I myself, however, will need to become more articulate on these two topics, and then re-read "Loft Living" once more in the near future. This book is worth the read - it is a classic for urbanists and necessary knowledge for those who are not urbanists.

[B3K]

Such a joyous read! Zukin is as insightful today, as 25 years ago. Prophetic, she really understands how the artist or 'creative' in our world today has gone from digging flowerbeds to make things grow to digging their own graves and throwing themselves into it.

[Katelin Penner · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book, rlly interesting context

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Zukin's tone is, at times, one of extreme condemnation, her examination into the revalorization of urban loft spaces is compelling. Still, as one who agrees with much of the consternation that Zukin exhibits around urban redevelopment in the 1960s - 1980s, it was gratifying to read such a heavy-handed critique of the real estate developer-driven loft market that was born out of a desire to re-integrate the middle class into urban centers following the tragic mishaps of post-ware urban renewal. I also appreciated Zukin's in-depth look at the rise of state-funded arts practice in the U.S. and the corresponding artistc movements that grew out of such structures (ie: NEA; city, state and federal arts councils) being put in place.

[Jw · Rating 5 out of 5]

so good. i was skeptical due to its publishing date, but this book couldn't be more relevant. zukin goes to the core of urban renewal, government, artists and real estate developers to show how the game was changed after World War II in American cities and now globally. just when you though gentrification was something new, she argues the roots go way back to 1945 and the policies put into places by banks and governments, and then culturally by artists and people seeking an urban bohemia. all of this later morphoed into the one pill fits all IKEA aesthetic of apartment building and culture we are still dealing with today.