Rivke Jaffe

Rivke is Professor of Urban Geography at the University of Amsterdam. Connecting geography, anthropology and cultural studies, her research focuses primarily on intersections of the urban and the political, and specifically on the spatialization and materialization of power, difference and inequality within cities. She is interested in how urban problems such as poverty, crime and environmental degradation are linked to social differentiation along lines of race, class and gender. How does the (colonial) past shape contemporary urban life? What is the role of popular culture - music, video clips, murals, graffiti - in the ways we experience and communicate urban exclusion and solidarity? How are urban inequalities mediated, reproduced and transformed in more-than-human ways, by non-human entities from digital technologies to security dogs? Rivke's engagement with these concerns is motivated by the conviction that researching everyday life in cities can provide important insights into what divides and what unites us, into the social problems we face and the solutions that are possible.