{"product_id":"city-of-speculation-courtney-t-wittekind-9781503647664","title":"City of Speculation: Unsettled Futures in Urban Myanmar","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 2018, amidst a celebrated political transition, Myanmar's first democratically elected government since 1962 proposed a built-from-scratch \"new city\" just outside Yangon, the country's former colonial capital and current economic center. 20,000 acres of once-barren rice fields became the site of extraordinary developmental dreams. Farmers on Yangon's outskirts traded cultivation for speculation on land and property, betting on uncertain futures and weighing what, exactly, was worth risking for a chance at transformation. As plans for the new city stalled amid political turmoil, economic liberalization, a pandemic, and a military coup, speculation became both a source of hope and a means of survival when urban dreams faded.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Drawing on three years of site-based fieldwork and digital ethnography, Courtney T. Wittekind shows how speculation reshapes citizens' contemporary demands and forward-looking dreams--for themselves as well as their country--in times of crisis. Adopting the lens of \"vernacular speculation,\" she reveals how ordinary people create value, interpret ambiguity, and act on possible futures, even as the promises of democracy and development collapse around them. A powerful account of how hope, anticipation, and uncertainty reconfigure everyday life, \u003ci\u003eCity of Speculation\u003c\/i\u003e captures what it means to imagine--and gamble on--the future in the wake of profound upheaval.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Courtney T. Wittekind\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1503647668\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781503647664\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 272\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Courtney T. Wittekind","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48460362318079,"sku":"9781503647664","price":110.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_5da57d74-14cc-4e75-a37a-8e5ad7116c96.jpg?v=1777414249","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/city-of-speculation-courtney-t-wittekind-9781503647664","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}