Outside the Outside

One can no longer talk about the urban centre and the suburban periphery, and in Outside the Outside, Matt Hern argues that we must rethink the entire identity of the city itself. Today, the majority of the Western world lives in suburbs. Yet these neighbourhoods, which once offered security and respite from the perceived dangers of the city centre, have been radically transformed in the last few decades.

While there is much talk about how gentrification displaces communities, there is little focus on where these communities are moved to. Outside the Outside maps these changes and also proposes solutions on how to revive the social life of the city in the face of rabid financialisation. In particular, Hern highlights the rapid peripheralisation of racial poverty.

With on-the-ground reportage in cities such as Portland, Vancouver, London, Ferguson, and St Louis, he illustrates how we need to challenge our misconceptions and see the suburbs as vibrant places of resistance and regeneration. He encourages us to celebrate the movement, circulation, and difference that make so many suburbs so alive.