Full Description
This timely text provides a comprehensive overview of the dramatic and rapidly evolving issues confronting the cities of North America. Metropolitan areas throughout the United States and Canada face a range of dynamic and complex concerns—including the redistribution of economic activities, the continued decline of manufacturing, and a global growth in services. The contributors provide compelling examples: Inner cities have experienced both gentrification and continued areas of segregation and poverty. Downtown revitalization has created urban spectacles that include festivals, marketplaces, and sports stadiums. Older, inner-ring suburbs now confront decline and increased poverty, while the outer-ring suburbs and exurbs continue to expand, devouring green space.
The book explores how the combined processes of urbanization and globalization have added new responsibilities for city governments at the same time leaders are grappling with planning, economic development and finance, justice, equity, and social cohesion. Cities have become the stage upon which new forms of ethnic, racial, and sexual identities are constructed and reconstructed. They are also connected to wider ecological processes as urban spaces are compromised by manmade and natural disasters alike.
Introducing contemporary spatial arrangements and distributions of activities in metropolitan areas, this clear and accessible book covers economic, social, political, and ecological changes. It is also the only text to include the physical geography of urban areas. Bringing together leading geographers, it will be an ideal resource for courses on urban geography and geography of the city.
Contributions by: Matthew Anderson, Lisa Benton-Short, Geoff Buckley, Christopher DeSousa, Bernadette Hanlon, Amanda Huron, Yeong-Hyun Kim, Nathaniel M. Lewis, Robert Lewis, Deborah Martin, Lindsey Sutton, John Tiefenbacher, Thomas J. Vicino, Katie Wells, and David Wilson.
Contents
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Cities of North America
Lisa Benton-Short
Chapter 2: Changing Approaches to Urban Geography
Katie Wells
Chapter 3: An Urban History
Robert Lewis
Chapter 4: Border Cities
Lindsey Sutton
Part I: Urban Economies
Chapter 5: Urban Economic Restructuring
David Wilson and Matthew Anderson
Chapter 6: Globalization and the City
Yeong-Hyun Kim
Part II: Urban Governance
Chapter 7: Urban Governance
Thomas J. Vicino
Chapter 8: Planning and Politics
Amanda Huron
Part III: Urban Social/Cultural Challenges
Chapter 9: Urban Inequities
Deborah G. Martin
Chapter 10: Urban Demographics and Identities
Nathaniel M. Lewis
Chapter 11: Suburban Challenges
Bernadette Hanlon
Part IV: The Urban Environment
Chapter 12: Cities and Pollution
Lisa Benton-Short and Christopher DeSousa
Chapter 13: Cities and Hazards
John P. Tiefenbacher
Chapter 14: Urban Sustainability
Geoff Buckley
