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The following review appeared in the January 2015 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.
Social & Behavioral Sciences
Sociology
Hum (urban studies, Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY) presents a compelling analysis of contemporary economic and racial dynamics in the primarily Asian and Latino Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. With a long family history in the neighborhood, she brings a community insider's approach to this primarily qualitative study. Throughout the work, the author is also engaged in a broader theoretical project. Rejecting the traditional scholarly conceptualization of immigrant neighborhoods as ghettos or enclaves, Hum attempts to situate neighborhood formations and social and economic change in Sunset Park in an analytical context that takes in the influences of the postindustrial urban economy, the racialization of immigrant populations, and the neoliberal policy environment that has prevailed in New York City in recent decades. She also attempts to situate the study within the larger social scientific literature pertaining to Asian American studies and the interplay of space and race in urban neighborhoods. Given the academic language and theoretical grounding of much of the analysis, this work will be of strongest interest to undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of Asian American studies, urban studies, and urban planning.
--M. E. Pfeifer, State University of New York Institute of Technology