"Arjun Appadurai has fathered yet another intellectually luxuriant book."-Achille Mbembe, University of Witwatersrand "Appadurai's meditations open up foundational questions about culture and economy in the social sciences. Introspective and far-sighted, these insightful essays will consolidate and enhance Appadurai's reputation as a brilliant contemporary theorist of the present."-Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago "A book for our times. Appadurai outlines the ethics of the future through his own speculative investment in how humans manage uncertainty through crisis-driven markets, turbulent emotions and the careful crafting of versions of the good life. For anyone interested in understanding the spirit of modern capitalism, this is the book to read."-Henrietta L. Moore, University of Cambridge "One of the most original thinkers of our global present, Arjun Appadurai shines a brilliant new light on the everyday processes of risk, prediction, design and violence that allow us to partake of urban life from Mumbai to New York.

Highly perceptive and deft, this book fulfils the potential in all writing, but realised so rarely, permitting us to see the world anew."-Faisal Devji, University of Oxford.