Post-Cosmopolitan Cities

Many of the essays in this book are about the city of Odessa; an equal number are not. Most but not all of them are about cities in the former Soviet Union. What unites all the essays in this thoughtful volume is that the cities they describe were once part of cosmopolitan empires which have now disappeared, leaving diverse communities to redefine for themselves and the world who they are. Though the topic could be the subject of a highly theoretical book, most of the essays here are highly accessible to general readers; they describe Jews, Iranians, Arabs, and Pakistanis in Odessa, Muslims in Tbilisi, struggles to figure out appropriate building styles for one's city, the public face of Venice created for the Venice Bienniale. The book will be of interest to both scholarly and general readers who care about how diverse cities define themselves in terms of what they look like, what events happen there, and who belongs there. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Vera Skvirskaja is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Anthropology at Copenhagen University. She has worked in arctic Siberia, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Her recent research interests include urban cosmopolitanism, educational migration in Europe and coexistence in the post-Soviet city.