May Joseph is Professor of Social Science at the Pratt Institute, where she teaches urbanism, global studies, and visual culture. She is the founder of Harmattan Theater, which produces site-specific outdoor productions exploring the history of New York City through its architecture, design, and natural environment. Joseph is the author of Nomadic Identities: The Performance of Citizenship and a coeditor (with Jennifer Natalya Fink) of Performing Hybridity.

Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Preface xi
Prologue 1
Introduction 7
Part I. Fluid Urbanism 19
1. Water Ecology, Island City 23
2. Transoceanic New York, City of Rivers 35
3. The Maritime Sky of Manhattan 55
4. Thinking Metropolitanism 70
Part II. Cosmopolitan Frugality 93
5. Nomadic Urbanism and Frugality 95
6. Nyerere, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi: Cultures of Frugality 110
Part III. Ecological Expressivity 131
7. Greening Hardscape 133
8. Marathon City, Biking Boroughs 151
Part IV. Maritime Mentalities 167
9. Brooklyn Carnival and the Sale of Dreamland 169
10. Spirits of Necropolis, Planes on the Hudson 179
11. Governors Island: Maritime Pasts, Ecological Futures 189
12. After Hurricane Sandy 204
Conclusion: Toward a Praxis of Cosmopolitan Citizenship 211
Notes 213
Bibliography 231
Index 239