Concrete Dreams

“Concrete Dreams is a beautifully written ethnography that focuses on how the specific everyday practices of lay investors, real estate analysts, and architects produce divergent forms of value in the volatile political and economic landscape of recent Argentine history. The ethnographic narratives show exactly how ‘buildings’ emerge as partially connected conceptual and concrete entities that hold value as investments, as objects of design, and as homes. The power of the analysis lies in the combination of a deep understanding of dominant economic modes of valuation with a sensitivity to the fragile relational spaces where alternative possibilities are kept alive.” - Penny Harvey, University of Manchester

“Nicholas D’Avella has managed to take a topic central to the historical sweep of Argentine political economy and written an intimate, engaging portrait of quotidian life amid economic uncertainty. He makes real estate markets and municipal zoning understandable at the macro-scale with which they crash economies and at the micro-scale that causes people to strap money to their bodies. Ambitious and weighty, subtle and intimate, Concrete Dreams is an exceptional urban ethnography.” - Kregg Hetherington, editor of Infrastructure, Environment, and Life in the Anthropocene

“...Concrete Dreams is a welcome contribution to the study of contemporary urban transformation in Latin America.... At a time when Buenos Aires is confronting the growth of high-rise luxury developments and mega real estate projects, D’Avella offers a glimmer of hope amid the threats to green spaces, heritage and barrio life.” - Cecilia Dinardi, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research

“The book develops an innovative approach to comprehending broad historical shifts in political economy from an ethnographic perspective. D’Avella’s writing is eloquent and engaging.... [Concrete Dreams] is definitely a rewarding read for a broad interdisciplinary social science audience.” - Virág Molnár, American Journal of Sociology

“Concrete Dreams is an engaging and rigorous ethnographic exploration of built environments within post-crisis Buenos Aires.... Any reader ... who wishes to know more about the built environments of Buenos Aires, the people in them, and the history of them, would do well to pick it up.”
  - Jeremy R. Grossman, Journal of Cultural Economy

“Taking an anthropological approach to everyday life in post-crisis Buenos Aires, Concrete Dreams does not reduce practices to a market-centered matrix.... D’Avella’s book allows us to avoid oversimplifying ways of living in the city.” - Gonzalo Saavedra, American Anthropologist

“Concrete Dreams is a worthwhile and engaging ethnography that has much to offer to those interested in methodological innovations in anthropology and in refreshing perspectives on the built environment in the city of Buenos Aires and beyond.”
  - Adriana Premat, Anthropos

“With Concrete Dreams, D’Avella brings an opportunity to renew methodological and disciplinary discussions about the way we know the city, its ecology and its economy.” [Translated from Spanish]

“[Concrete Dreams] one of the best and most nuanced studies on Buenos Aires, Argentina, and urban Latin America.... [D’Avella’s] examination of the prelude and aftermath of the 2001 crisis is dexterous, insightful, and relevant in cultural, political economy, and affective terms.” - Juan M. del Nido, Bulletin of Latin American Research

“D’Avella brings to life the everyday experiences of residents of single-floor homes as high-rise buildings blocked the sun, casting shadows over urban gardens.” - Denisa Jashari, Latin American Research Review