Where to put the price tag or, to put it in a more academic way, where value is stored is one of the central quandaries in the City Authentic, a term I use not only to title this book but to describe a set of policies, practices, and ideas that leverage our modern desires for meaning and belonging to drive economic development.

Perhaps because the imperatives of the market so often come into direct conflict with the values associated with the care of others, the systems have not operated in perfect symmetry. Instead, because a profit-driven commercial sphere cannot accommodate the values of nurturance and care associated with the intimate sphere, aesthetic values—for exam

In what circumstances can a ‘something’ be of economic value without being commodified, objectified, exploited? Can we imagine an economy that does not commodify life?