Our Urban Spaces in Peril

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 20, 2007 – Urban space is being colonized and gentrified by invisible forces such as urbanism and white domination according to a new Wiley-Blackwell publication –“Cities of Whiteness”.

The book tackles the phenomenon of the erosion of diverse urban and how indiscernible factors such as racialism, white superiority and urban politics can work to enhance existing beliefs in entitlement to postcolonial urban spaces.

Author of Cities of Whiteness, Wendy S. Shaw, presents a foray into the range of the ‘racialization’ processes that have manifested with the re-colonization of inner Sydney. By challenging the existing notion of urban change, ‘racialization’ and cosmopolitan urbanism, she contends for better understanding of the power of whiteness. She argues that whiteness is a process of privileging rather than an ethnicity or race.

A senior lecturer in Geography at the University of New South Wales, Ms. Shaw said, “My aim is to unearth specific processes of whiteness that marginalize and exclude the Aboriginal community from its privileging capacities.”

Cities of Whiteness traces the rise of a culture of besiegement in the Aboriginal neighborhood to unveil some of the damage already wrought by activations of whiteness and encourage more positive engagements between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in inner Sydney and beyond.

Chapters in Cities of Whiteness include:

Outlines the theoretical debates that underpin the arguments throughout the book.
Traces the rise of a culture of the defensiveness of urban spaces and its link to white besiegement
Details key types of urban transformation that exemplifies a historical geography of ‘racialization’
Details recent and subtler processes of whiteness
Demonstrates Sydney as one of many ‘cities of whiteness’.


“The new formations have engaged strategies of exclusivity regardless of Sydney’s ‘multiculturalism’. The acts of defensiveness and aggression couples with denial and indifference are characteristic of these new urbanisms”, said Ms. Shaw.



She added, “By exposing moments that highlight the capacities of whiteness as it occurs allow new ways of untangling the processes of ‘racialized’ empowerment that inhibit the evolving city”.



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Media wishing to receive more information, obtain a review copy or schedule media interviews with the author should contact Alina Boey, PR & Communications Manager at alina.boey@asia.blackwellpublishing.com or phone 613-83591046.





About the Author:

Wendy S. Shaw is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of New South Wales. Her research interests include the meanings of heritage in Australia and other Pacific places, the impacts of high-rise developments, and the status of Indigenous peoples in Australia and around the world.



About Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the merger between Blackwell Publishing Ltd. and Wiley’s Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal.