Jennifer Mack is Associate Professor at Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan in Sweden and author of The Construction of Equality: Syriac Immigration and the Swedish City. Michael Herzfeld is Ernest E. Monrad Research Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He is author of numerous books, most recently, Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok.

"Life Among Urban Planners deserves a place on planning school reading lists. It offers valuableviews into the diverse contexts of planning practice globally and raises many provocative questions.Moreover, it suggests the importance of advancing the conversations between social scientists whostudy urban development, and planners who work to improve the future of cities." (Journal of Urban Affairs) "[A] welcomed contribution to the study of the contemporary planning profession in times of questioned legitimacy of techno-scientific expertise as the sole basis for urban interventions, and of plans as blueprints of the future. Its focus on the less spectacular dimensions of planning work across different cities speaks to debates in the planning literature about continuous tendencies to propose universalized theories that fail to account for how context matters" (Anthropology Book Forum) "Raising important questions about the complex web of relationships among technocrats, administrators, and residents in the making of urban space, Life Among Urban Planners will initiate productive conversations about cities as fluid social, cultural, and political artifacts. Urban anthropologists as well as planners and architects will find it interesting and provocative." (Emanuela Guano, Georgia State University)

Jennifer Mack is Associate Professor at Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan in Sweden and author of The Construction of Equality: Syriac Immigration and the Swedish City. Michael Herzfeld is Ernest E. Monrad Research Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He is author of numerous books, most recently, Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok.

"Life Among Urban Planners deserves a place on planning school reading lists. It offers valuableviews into the diverse contexts of planning practice globally and raises many provocative questions.Moreover, it suggests the importance of advancing the conversations between social scientists whostudy urban development, and planners who work to improve the future of cities." (Journal of Urban Affairs) "[A] welcomed contribution to the study of the contemporary planning profession in times of questioned legitimacy of techno-scientific expertise as the sole basis for urban interventions, and of plans as blueprints of the future. Its focus on the less spectacular dimensions of planning work across different cities speaks to debates in the planning literature about continuous tendencies to propose universalized theories that fail to account for how context matters" (Anthropology Book Forum) "Raising important questions about the complex web of relationships among technocrats, administrators, and residents in the making of urban space, Life Among Urban Planners will initiate productive conversations about cities as fluid social, cultural, and political artifacts. Urban anthropologists as well as planners and architects will find it interesting and provocative." (Emanuela Guano, Georgia State University)