“Improvised Cities is a model exploration of the social, political, and cultural dimensions of construction. Probing and insightful, Helen Gyger is equally at home discussing vanguard architects or community activists, dogmatic economists or policy entrepreneurs. This essential and sobering book draws powerfully on experiences in Peru to address urban questions and professional enthusiasms now debated worldwide.” —Mark Healey, University of Connecticut
“This book is an indispensable resource for studying the problems of rapid urbanization and housing in the later twentieth century. Gyger’s multidisciplinary research—in which midcentury anthropological studies and governmental policies figure prominently—not only offers welcome, new historical perspectives but also informs current efforts to create healthy, safe, and just urban environments.”—Carol McMichael Reese, Tulane University
“[Improvised Cities] moves beyond well-rehearsed endorsements of slum upgrading, bringing needed critical perspectives about the technologies and politics of spatial coproduction among civic, public, and third-sector actors.” —Latin American Research Review