Full Description
This textbook of essays by leading critical urbanists is a compelling introduction to an important field of study; it interrogates contemporary conflicts and contradictions inherent in the social experience of living in cities that are undergoing neoliberal restructuring, and grapples with profound questions and challenging policy considerations about diversity, equity, and justice. A stimulant to debate in any undergraduate urban studies classroom, this book will inspire a new generation of urban social scholars.
- Alison Bain, York University
"Stages a lively encounter with different understandings of urban production and experience, and does so by bringing together an exciting group of scholars working across a diversity of theoretical and geographical contexts. The book focuses on some of the central conceptual and political challenges of contemporary cities, including inequality and poverty, justice and democracy, and everyday life and urban imaginaries, providing a critical platform through which to ask how we might work towards alternative forms of urban living."
- Colin McFarlane Durham University
What is the city? What is the nature of living in the city? This new textbook provides students with an in-depth understanding of the central issues associated with the city and how living in a city impacts its inhabitants. Theoretically informed and thematically rich, the book is edited by leading scholars in the field and contains an eminent, international cast of contributors and contributions. It provides a critical analysis of the key thinkers, themes and paradigms dealing with the relationship between the built environment and urban life. It includes illustrative case studies, questions for discussion, further reading and web links.
Examining the contradictions, conflicts and complexities of city living, the book is an essential resource for students looking to get to grip with the different theoretical and substantive approaches that make up the diverse and rich study of the city and urban life.
Contents
Section 1: Theorising the City
Chapter 1: Encountering the City - Multiple Perspectives on Urban Social Change - Ronan Paddison and Eugene McCann
Chapter 2: Representing and Imagining the City - Regan Koch and Alan Latham
Section 2: Experiencing the City
Chapter 3: The 'New' Middle Class, Lifestyle and the 'New' Gentrified City - Loretta Lees
Chapter 4: Being Poor in the City - Geoff De Verteuil
Chapter 5: Living with Difference : Geographies of Encounter - Gill Valentine
Chapter 6: The Everyday City of the Senses - Monica Degen
Section 3: The Liveable City
Chapter 7: Dis/Order and the Regulation of Urban Space - Steven Herbert and Tiffany Grobelski
Chapter 8: Walling the City - Gordon Macleod
Chapter 9: Health and the City - Robin Kearns and Graham Moon
Chapter 10: Cities, Nature and Sustainability - Eric Swngedouw and Ian Cook
Chapter 11: Just Cities - James de Filipis and Juan Rivero
Section 4: Reflections on Cities and Social Change
Chapter 12: The Good City - Ananya Roy
Chapter 13: Conclusions: Engaging the Urban World - Ronan Paddison and Eugene McCann
