“Deftly combining insights from political and urban sociology with scholarship on symbolic boundaries and morality, The Patchwork City sheds new light on the intersections and interactions between class, space, and politics. The lessons learned in this carefully researched ethnography travel well beyond Philippine politics: those interested in understanding the puzzles and paradoxes of the populist appeal among the dispossessed, and, more generally, the on-the-ground tensions between democracy and exorbitant inequality, should read this book.”

Javier Auyero, University of Texas at Austin

“In what promises to be a milestone in urban ethnography, The Patchwork City provides an illuminating picture of the dynamic relations among the poor, the middle classes, and political elites in a struggling, troubled democracy where political mobilization along populist lines becomes the main avenue for demanding and delivering scarce goods and services. Among the merits of this work is that it reveals the authoritarian temptation latent in populism that may eventually surface in the form of a Rodrigo Duterte or Jair Bolsonaro.”

Walden Bello, University of the Philippines

“The Patchwork City is a major contribution to the field; it is a timely book that enhances sociological understandings of space, politics, and urban experiences in the Global South.”

Social Forces

“An essential read for scholars of urban politics, Southern cities, and contemporary populism, and it nicely complements the recent revival of scholarship on political articulation. Garrido’s clear writing and careful organization will also make this book of interest to ethnographers, development scholars, and indeed, to sociologists of all stripes.”

City and Community

“This is a good book, one which addresses an important topic.”

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies