Read complete books and articles on: Urban Sociology

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Urban Sociology

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Being Urban: A Sociology of City Life » Read Now
by David A. Karp, Gregory P. Stone, William C. Yoels. 273 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Being Urban examines the dynamic interplay between what theoretical perceptions tell us about urban life and how ordinary people interpret and respond to the actual experience of living in cities. Major focuses are the primacy of social interaction for an understanding of urban life, and the...
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Being Urban examines the dynamic interplay between what theoretical perceptions tell us about urban life and how ordinary people interpret and respond to the actual experience of living in cities. Major focuses are the primacy of social interaction for an understanding of urban life, and the strategies people use to create "community" in environments which, many theorists believe, promote only alienation and social disintegration. This new edition incorporates a strongly interdisciplinary perspective and includes new chapters on significant topics that have received little critical attention in the field.
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2.

Social Theory and the Urban Question » Read Now
by Peter Saunders. 394 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
3.

Urban Theory and the Urban Experience: Encountering the City » Read Now
by Simon Parker. 210 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

For the first time Urban Theory and the Urban Experience brings together classic and contemporary approaches to urban research in order to reveal the intellectual origins of urban studies, and the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives on the city owe to one...
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For the first time Urban Theory and the Urban Experience brings together classic and contemporary approaches to urban research in order to reveal the intellectual origins of urban studies, and the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives on the city owe to one another.Both students and urban scholars will appreciate the critical way in which classical and contemporary debates on the nature of the city are presented. Extensive use is made throughout of documentary, literary and cultural sources to bring the different theoretical perspectives to life. Discussion points introduce and explain key concepts and intellectual histories in a jargon free manner. End of chapter further readings have also been annotated to encourage additional study.
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4.

The Promise of the City: Space, Identity, and Politics in Contemporary Social Thought » Read Now
by Kian Tajbakhsh. 229 pgs.

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"The Promise of the City proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of cities and urban life. Finding the contemporary urban scene too complex to be captured by radical or conventional approaches, Kian Tajbakhsh offers a threefold, interdisciplinary approach linking agency, space, and...
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"The Promise of the City proposes a new theoretical framework for the study of cities and urban life. Finding the contemporary urban scene too complex to be captured by radical or conventional approaches, Kian Tajbakhsh offers a threefold, interdisciplinary approach linking agency, space, and structure. First, he says, urban identities cannot be understood through individualistic, communitarian, or class perspectives but rather through the shifting spectrum of cultural, political, and economic influences. Second, the layered, unfinished city spaces we inhabit and within which we create meaning are best represented not by the image of bounded physical spaces but rather by overlapping and shifting boundaries. And third, the macro forces shaping urban society include bureaucratic and governmental interventions not captured by a purely economic paradigm.
Tajbakhsh examines these dimensions in the work of three major critical urban theorists of recent decades: Manuel Castells, David Harvey, and Ira Katznelson. He shows why the answers offered by Marxian urban theory to the questions of identity, space, and structure are unsatisfactory and why the perspectives of other intellectual traditions such as poststructuralism, feminism, Habermasian Critical Theory, and pragmatism can help us better understand the challenges facing contemporary cities.
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5.

Urban World/Global City » Read Now
by David Clark. 235 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book identifies and accounts for the characteristics of the contemporary city and of urban society. It analyses the distribution and growth of settlements and explores the social and behavioral characteristics of urban living.The latest theoretical and empirical developments and insights are...
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This book identifies and accounts for the characteristics of the contemporary city and of urban society. It analyses the distribution and growth of settlements and explores the social and behavioral characteristics of urban living.The latest theoretical and empirical developments and insights are synthesized and presented in an accessible and engaging way.This second edition has been extensively updated and referenced. Each chapter includes sets of learning objectives, annotated readings and topics for discussion. Well-illustrated throughout, it will be essential reading for students of Geography, Sociology and Development Studies and all who seek an understanding of how the urban world has evolved and how it will change in the twenty-first century.
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6.

Urban Movements in a Globalising World » Read Now
by Pierre Hamel, Henri Lustiger-Thaler, Margit Mayer. 229 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This collection deals with the transformation of urban movements in these new social, economic and political environments.
7.

Urban Futures: Critical Commentaries on Shaping the City » Read Now
by Tim Hall, Malcolm Miles. 228 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

'Urban Futures' brings together commentaries from a wide range of contemporary disciplines and fields relevant to urban culture, form and society.
8.

Reason in the City of Difference: Pragmatism, Communicative Action, and Contemporary Urbanism » Read Now
by Gary Bridge. 178 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

In the modernist city rationality ruled and subsumed difference in a logic of identity. In the postmodern city, reason is abandoned for an endless play of difference. Reason in the City of Difference poses an alternative to these extremes by drawing on classical American philosophical pragmatism...
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In the modernist city rationality ruled and subsumed difference in a logic of identity. In the postmodern city, reason is abandoned for an endless play of difference. Reason in the City of Difference poses an alternative to these extremes by drawing on classical American philosophical pragmatism (and its contemporary developments in feminism and the philosophy of communication) to explore the possibilities of a strengthening and deepening of reason in the contemporary city. This is a transactional rationality based on communication, rather than cognition, involving bodies as much as minds, and non-discursive, as well as discursive competences. It is a rationality that emerges out of difference and from within the city, rather than over and above it.Using pragmatist philosophy and a range of suggestive examples of urban scholarship, this fascinating book offers a new, alternative reading of the city.
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9.

Urbanization in History: A Process of Dynamic Interactions » Read Now
by A. D. van der Woude, Akira Hayami, Jan de Vries. 376 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

These papers represent a series of important contributions on the history of urbanization. As well as offering a clear and instructive discussion of fundamental concepts, processes, and measurement problems, the introduction summarizes findings in the latest research and proposes new topics. The...
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These papers represent a series of important contributions on the history of urbanization. As well as offering a clear and instructive discussion of fundamental concepts, processes, and measurement problems, the introduction summarizes findings in the latest research and proposes new topics. The papers focus on four principal areas of contemporary research on urbanization: urban networks, town-country economic links, migration, and demographic patterns. New areas of analysis, such as the study of migration flows by age, gender, or social group, and the comparative east/west approach of several of these papers will serve to broaden the international scope of research and stimulate further work in this field.
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10.

Good Neighborhoods: A Study of In-Town & Suburban Residential Environments » Read Now
by Sidney Brower. 214 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

What makes a "good neighborhood"? Can one neighborhood be good for all people? Brower's study examines the variable image of the ideal residential area in contemporary and earlier writings, from utopian visions and popular media to historical records and the findings of social science research...
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What makes a "good neighborhood"? Can one neighborhood be good for all people? Brower's study examines the variable image of the ideal residential area in contemporary and earlier writings, from utopian visions and popular media to historical records and the findings of social science research. Brower identifies four common "ideal" neighborhood types, each providing a distinct and specific residential experience that suits a particular way of life. He details the characteristics of each of these "good neighborhoods," and argues that their coexistence in a single urban environment is not only possible, but desirable; it creates a healthy variety of residential areas that, together, suit the needs and desires of different urban dwellers. This absorbing and timely study will be of interest to scholars and professionals in urban studies, urban design and planning, environmental studies, environment psychology, and sociology.
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11.

Urban Danger: Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers » Read Now
by Sally Engle Merry. 278 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...URBAN DANGER Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers URBAN DANGER Life in a Neighborhood of Strangers SALLY...Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Merry, Sally Engle. Urban...
12.

Urban Ethnic Encounters: The Spatial Consequences » Read Now
by Freek Colombijn, Aygen Erdentug. 256 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This new study attempts to answer the two leading questions of how urban space structures the life of ethnic groups and how ethnic diversity helps to shape urban space.
13.

Cities in World Perspective » Read Now
by Ivan Light. 468 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

...bibliographies and index. 1. Sociology, Urban. 2. Cities and towns. 3. Urbanization...urbanism are the subject matter of urban sociology. Cities in World...
14.

Cities and Citizenship » Read Now
by James Holston. 262 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Cities and Citizenship is a prize-winning collection of essays that considers the importance of cities in the making of modern citizens. For most of the modern era the nation and not the city has been the principal domain of citizenship. This volume demonstrates, however, that cities are especially...
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Cities and Citizenship is a prize-winning collection of essays that considers the importance of cities in the making of modern citizens. For most of the modern era the nation and not the city has been the principal domain of citizenship. This volume demonstrates, however, that cities are especially salient sites for examining the current renegotiations of citizenship, democracy, and national belonging.
Just as relations between nations are changing in the current phase of global capitalism, so too are relations between nations and cities. Written by internationally prominent scholars, the essays in Cities and Citizenship propose that "place" remains fundamental to these changes and that cities are crucial places for the development of new alignments of local and global identity. Through case studies from Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America, the volume shows how cities make manifest national and transnational realignments of citizenship and how they generate new possibilities for democratic politics that transform people as citizens. Previously published as a special issue of Public Culture that won the 1996 Best Single Issue of a Journal Award from the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers, the collection showcases a photo essay by Cristiano Mascaro, as well as two new essays by James Holston and Thomas Bender.
Cities and Citizenship will interest students and scholars of anthropology, geography, sociology, planning, and urban studies, as well as globalization and political science.
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15.

City against Suburb: The Culture Wars in an American Metropolis » Read Now
by Joseph A. Rodriguez. 144 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The culture wars continue to rage across the United States. Clashes over hate speech regulations, affirmative action, abortion, immigration, art, history, and lifestyle questions suggest that America is more polarized than ever before. This study looks at the rapid changes occurring in cities and...
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The culture wars continue to rage across the United States. Clashes over hate speech regulations, affirmative action, abortion, immigration, art, history, and lifestyle questions suggest that America is more polarized than ever before. This study looks at the rapid changes occurring in cities and suburbs in order to understand these cultural conflicts which, according to Rodriguez, have arisen in part because Americans continue to view themselves as city people or suburbanites in a time when the two areas are converging. As suburbs draw more businesses and residents, they produce new forms of art and cultural events which longtime residents resist as undermining the essentially residential quality of suburbs. Similarly, in cities, new parking structures, highways, and downtown malls produce suburban landscapes that urbanites reject, seeing those changes as evidence of the intrusion of suburban culture. Four community conflicts in the Bay Area from the 1960s to the 1990s illustrate these changes.
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