Oral Presentation Session

Reviewed by: Society for Urban, National and Transnational/Global Anthropology

Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Students

Primary Theme: Cities

Secondary Theme: Materiality

(5-1030) High-rise failures: tower block anthropology

This panel will explore how notions of urban success and failure are imagined and materialised in relation to the architecture of high-rise buildings.

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster in London and recent devastating apartment block collapses in cities such as Nairobi, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro, failed buildings have exposed the injustices of austerity politics, the volatility of construction materials, and disregard for regulations and planning. These catastrophic failures have also reanimated debates about 'proper' forms of urban living, the political economy of the city and the widening inequalities and insecurities that seem to characterise contemporary urban life.

Yet, high-rises have also been symbols of modernity, status and aspiration. From UK post-war promises of an inclusive future in the 'cities in the sky' to the edifice complex of skyscraper cities such as New York and Hong Kong, the tower block has been a place of dreams as well as nightmares. Even when they fail, high-rise buildings continue to shape the sociality, politics and materiality of our cities in important ways, influencing the design of future communities, economies of investment and development, and forms of political activism.

Whether as contested symbol, site of collapse or shattered home, high-rise failure exposes the precarity of urban life whilst also acting as a catalyst for its transformation. We invite papers that ethnographically explore this shifting terrain. What would a high-rise anthropology look like? How might it illuminate the sociality, matter and imagination of the city at large?

Organizer(s)

• Saffron Woodcraft

  Senior Research Associate
  Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL

Presenter(s)

• Saffron Woodcraft

  Senior Research Associate
  Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL

Organizer(s)

• Constance Smith

  Hallsworth Fellow
  University of Manchester

Presenter(s)

• Constance Smith

  Hallsworth Fellow
  University of Manchester

• Zoe Goodman

  SOAS, University of London

• Xinyu Guan

  Doctoral Student
  Cornell University

• Elisa Tamburo

  PhD candidate in Social Anthropology
  SOAS, University of London

Chair(s)

• Gillian Evans

  Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies
  University of Manchester

Discussant(s)

• Gillian Evans

  Lecturer, Director of Undergraduate Studies
  University of Manchester

Presentations:

• 4:15 PM - 4:30 PM

  Pin-pointing Failure: The Tower Block as 'Social Void' in London
  Saffron Woodcraft – Institute for Global Prosperity, UCL
• 4:30 PM - 4:45 PM

  Collapse: Grey development and failed high-rises in Nairobi
  Constance Smith – University of Manchester
• 4:45 PM - 5:00 PM

  'We're going vertical!': Aspiration, anxiety and Islamic reform on a Mombasa building site
  Zoe Goodman – SOAS, University of London
• 5:00 PM - 5:15 PM

  Singapore's Megastructures and the 'Asian City of Tomorrow'
  Xinyu Guan – Cornell University
• 5:15 PM - 5:30 PM

  From makeshift settlement to high-rise blocks: high-rise 'social failures' and community disarticulation in Taipei
  Elisa Tamburo – SOAS, University of London
• 5:30 PM - 5:45 PM

  Discussion
  Gillian M. Evans – University of Manchester