Book review: Nicholas D'Avella 2019: Concrete Dreams: Practice, Value and Built Environments in Post‐crisis Buenos Aires. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 45, Issue 2

With a promising title that brings together urban futures, material presents and economic crises, Concrete Dreams is a welcome contribution to the study of contemporary urban transformation in Latin America. Important themes that shape life in cities lie at the centre of this book––from the production of urban space and its privatization to participatory urban planning and environmental activism. Using a sharp ethnographic focus and writing from the intersection of anthropology and architecture, Nicholas D’Avella collects everyday stories about how people interact with buildings, examining the politics of the built environment in Buenos Aires. By narrating a compelling story of urban life and urban struggle, so common in many other places, he exposes the tensions, exclusions and inequalities surrounding urban planning and the use of public land.