The City Authentic

"David Banks pulls back the curtain on the drive for local governments to identify their nostalgic brand and facilitate a new wave of profit at our collective expense, showing how we can challenge it with an alternative vision for cities that centers the people who live and work in them."--Paris Marx, author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation "An unlikely fusion of Marx and Baudrillard, this book explodes the authenticity myth that drives Rust Belt towns to welcome wine bars over factories and use their gritty 'character' to compete for affluent new residents. Banks pushes through the image-influencer nexus of urban branding to expose its tech-financial core."--Sharon Zukin, author of The Innovation Complex: Cities, Tech, and the New Economy "The impact of social media isn't confined to our screens but also changes the places we live. Banks expertly tells a universal story of the new ways cities sell themselves to tourists and sell out to developers. Who wins and who loses when your city wants to be merely a vibe?"--Nathan Jurgenson, author of The Social Photo: On Photography and Social Media