{"product_id":"the-aesthetics-of-belonging-indigenous-urbanism-and-city-building-in-oil-boom-luanda-paperback-softback-9781469682181","title":"The Aesthetics of Belonging; Indigenous Urbanism and City Building in Oil-Boom Luanda (Paperback \/ softback) 9781469682181","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Aesthetics of Belonging\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eIndigenous Urbanism and City Building in Oil-Boom Luanda\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eClaudia Gastrow (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781469682181\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 29 October 2024\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e240 pages, 18 halftones, 3 maps\u003cbr\u003e23.5 x 15.5 x 2 cm, 0.453 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eAfter centuries of colonial rule, the end of Angola's three-decade civil war in 2002 provided an irresistible opportunity for the government to reimagine the Luanda cityscape. Awash with petrodollars cultivated through strategic foreign relationships, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos rolled out a national reconstruction program that sought to transform Angola's capital into what he considered to be a modern, world-class metropolis. Until funds dried up in 2014, the program—in conjunction with sweeping private investments in real estate—involved mass demolitions of vernacular architecture to make way for high-rise buildings, large-scale housing projects, and commercial centers. The program thus underestimated the values enshrined in the materials and designs of Luanda's existing \"\"informally\"\" constructed neighborhoods, or \u003ci\u003emusseques\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Aesthetics of Belonging\u003c\/i\u003e explores the political significance of aesthetics in the remaking of the city. Claudia Gastrow's archival and ethnographic work, which includes interviews with city planners, architects, nonprofit leaders, and urban dwellers, shows how government infrastructure projects and foreign-inspired designs came to embody displacement and exclusion for many. This, Gastrow argues, catalyzed a countermovement, an aesthetic dissent rooted in critically reframing informal urbanism as Indigenous—a move that enabled the possibility of recognizing the political potential of informal settlements as spaces that produce belonging.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"The University of North Carolina Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52523092541720,"sku":"9781469682181","price":21.56,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-aesthetics-of-belonging-indigenous-urbanism-and-city-building-in-oil-boom-luanda-paperback-softback-9781469682181","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}