Culture Works: Space, Value, and Mobility Across the Neoliberal Americas
"Culture Workslooks deeply into and beyond the current rhetoric on art with an acuity and sense of irony and understanding of the realpolitiks that are all too rare in the cultural policy literature. Professor Dávila has given us a brilliant introduction and guide to the complex interactions of art, markets, politics, and community in the first part of the 21st century."-Paul DiMaggio,author ofNonprofit Enterprise in the Arts"Culture Workschallenges us to think critically about Latino/a culture and the men and women who create it every day. From shopping malls in Puerto Rico to art galleries in East Harlem and tango palaces in Bueños Aires, Arlene Dávila shows us the underbelly of a global political economy that gorges itself on authentic cultural forms and grinds them down into commodities. Dávila’s understanding of these complex forces illuminates the connections between all creative landscapes and the elites who try to mold them to their political will."-Sharon Zukin,author ofNaked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places"The author effectively dissects the contradictory and often deleterious impact of neoliberal development in promoting inequalities of race, class, and nationality, while at the same time encoding and keying the value of Latin American folk art traditions and cultural economies...highly recommended for all academic levels/libraries."-CHOICE,