Ordinary Cities : Between Modernity and Development

ISBN-13: 9780415304870 / Angielski / Twarda / 2005 / 224 str.

Jenny Robinson; Jennifer Robinson

Opis

With the urbanization of the world's population proceeding apace and the equally rapid urbanization of poverty, urban theory has an urgent challenge to meet if it is to remain relevant to the majority of cities and their populations most of which are outside the West.
"Ordinary Cities" establishes a new framework for thinking about urban development across a longstanding divide in urban scholarship and also in the realm of urban policy, between Western and other kinds of cities, especially those labeled third world. The book will consider the two framing axes of urban modernity and urban development which have been important in dividing the field of urban studies between Western and other cities. Tracking paths across previously separate academic literatures and policy debates, the book attempts to trace the outlines of a cosmopolitan approach to cities. It draws on evidence from Rio, Johannesburg, Lusaka and Kuala Lumpur to ground the theoretical arguments and provide examples of policy approaches and urban development interventions.
"Ordinary Cities" argues that if cities are to be imagined in equitable and creative ways, urban theory must overcome these axes of theorization with their Western bias. The resources for theorizing cities need to become at least as cosmopolitan as cities themselves, drawing inspiration from the diverse range of contexts and histories that shape cities everywhere.

Recenzje

"All cities are ordinary, argues Robinson, and categorizing them as Western, Third World, developed, developing, world, or global ascribes prominence to certain cities and to certain features of cities. Instead, she starts from the fact that all cities are dynamic and diverse, if conflicted, arenas for social and economic life and anchors on that notion a new post-colonial framework for thinking about cities that avoids the underlying assumption of urban scholarship that Western cities are exemplary and Third World cities more or less poor imitations." --Reference & Research Book News

Spis treści

Introduction  1. Dislocating Modernity: Primitivism in Urban Theory  2. On (Not) Being Blasé: In the Tracks of Comparative Urbanism  3. Ways of Being Modern: Towards a Cosmopolitan Urban Studies  4. Re-Inscribing Hierarchies: Global and World Cities  5. Developing Ordinary Cities: Bringing the City Back in  6. Mobilising Diverse Economies.  Conclusion

O autorze

Jennifer Robinson is Professor of Urban Geography at the Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.