1916–, American-Canadian urbanologist, b. Scranton, Pa. In the 1930s she moved to New York City, where she was (1952–64) an editor of Architectural Forum magazine. Living in Greenwich Village, she also became active in efforts to preserve the neighborhood. Her first book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961), proved to be one of the most influential works in the history of city planning and has been particularly important to America's New Urbanists. In it, Jacobs advocates the free and spontaneous growth of cities, condemns modernist planning, decries urban renewal's wholesale destruction of communities, and argues for high-density neighborhoods and multiple-use buildings as the foundations of vital, socially successful city living. In 1968, Jacobs and her family moved to Toronto, where she again became active in city development. Her subsequent books, largely focused on urban and regional economies, include The Economy of Cities (1969), Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1984), Systems of Survival (1992), and The Nature of Economies (2000).

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