Endangered City ― The Politics of Security and Risk in Bogot憳Global Insecurities

Security and risk have become central to how cities are planned, built, governed, and inhabited in the twenty-first century. InEndangered City, Austin Zeiderman focuses on this new political imperative to govern the present in anticipation of future harm. Through ethnographic fieldwork and archival research in Bogota, Colombia, he examines how state actors work to protect the lives of poor and vulnerable citizens from a range of threats, including environmental hazards and urban violence. By following both the governmental agencies charged with this mandate and those governed by it,Endangered City reveals what happens when logics of endangerment shape the terrain of political engagement between citizens and the state. The self-built settlements of Bogota’s urban periphery prove a critical site from which to examine the rising effect of security and risk on contemporary cities and urban life.

Austin Zeiderman is an anthropologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.