Product Review

Turf Wars: Discourse, Diversity, and the Politics of Place is the fascinating story of an urban neighborhood undergoing rapid gentrification.

• Explores how members of a multi-ethnic, multi-class Washington, DC, community deploy language to legitimize themselves as community members while discrediting others.
• Discusses such issues as public toilets and public urination, the "morality" of co-ops and condos, and characterizations of "good" girls and "bad" boys.
• Draws on linguistic anthropology and discourse analysis to provide insight into the ways that local activity shapes larger urban social processes.
• Draws also on cultural geography and urban anthropology.