Urban Rage: The Revolt of the Excluded

 A timely and incisive examination of contemporary urban unrest that explains why riots will continue until citizens are equally treated and politically included

In the past few decades, urban riots have erupted in democracies across the world. While high profile politicians often react by condemning protestors' actions and passing crackdown measures, urban studies professor Mustafa Dikec shows how these revolts are in fact rooted in exclusions and genuine grievances which our democracies are failing to address. In this eye-opening study, he argues that global revolts may be sparked by a particular police or government action but nonetheless are expressions of much longer and deep seated rage accumulated through hardship and injustices that have become routine.

Increasingly recognized as an expert on urban unrest, Dikec examines urban revolts in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Greece, and Turkey and, in a sweeping and engaging account, makes it clear that change is only possible if we address the failures of democratic systems and rethink the established practices of policing and political decision-making.

Review: "Mustafa Dikec begins with the compelling puzzle that in some of the world's most developed and prosperous cities, in stable democratic societies, we are seeing mass-based violent uprisings [. . .] The book is an enjoyable and enlightening read" -Emma Elfversson, Policing

"Urban Rage lays out in compelling detail an argument for understanding urban unrest in the contemporary era. Anyone interested in the fate of cities, and especially the people in them, needs to read this book. Excellent, highly accessible, and at times humorous even as it is always deadly serious."-Don Mitchell, author of The Right to the City

"These comparative case-studies, richly detailed and attentive to local conditions, overthrow the hoary stereotype of the irrational mob. Read carefully and you'll begin to understand the rationality of urban revolts"-perhaps even their necessity in our gilded world."-Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

"An excellent transatlantic contextualization of recent urban protest."-Goeran Therborn, University of Cambridge, author of Cities of Power

"Brilliantly cutting across the North Atlantic, Mustafa Dikec repositions the cities of the West within the long histories of colonialism and imperialism and reminds us that these wars are not over. Urban Ragethus raises profoundly important questions about the urgent aspirations of our time: emancipation, justice, and humanity. A beautiful book."-Ananya Roy, author of Poverty Capital