Understanding the Urban

ISBN-13: 9780333724286 / Angielski / Twarda / 2001 / 220 str.

David Byrne; D. S. Byrne

Opis

This interdisciplinary book examines the contemporary nature and possible futures of cities in a postindustrial and globalized world. Considering urban plans as complex systems and as products of collective human action, Byrne draws on urban history, geography, sociology, and studies from the developed, developing, and former soviet systems. He describes the crucial processes of the restructuring of urban employment, the creation of the built environment, and the transformation of "culture" in cities.

Spis treści

Introduction.- The City at the Beginning of a New Millennium.- The Genesis and the Implications of the Postindustrial City.- Locality and Community: the Significance of Place.- Grounding the Global: Cities in a World System.- The Divided City: the Ecology of Postindustrial Places.- Culture and the Urban: Commodity, Understanding and Resource.- The Production and Reproduction of the Built Environment.- Politics and Governance in Urban Places.- Conclusion.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.

O autorze

DAVID BYRNE is Reader in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Durham. He has worked both as an academic and in community research and his main intellectual interest is in the development of complexity theory as a method of understanding the social world in order to change it.

Blurb

Cities are changing at a rate unparalleled since the industrial revolution and more than half the population of the world now lives in cities compared with less than a quarter in 1950. Construction is booming in and around cities, but the downside to these developments is that cities of the postindustrial world appear to have greater social divisions.

Understanding the Urban examines the contemporary nature and possible futures of cities in a postindustrial and globalized world. Theoretical debates and empirical research from a range of disciplines are brought together to provide an understanding of cities both as complex systems and as the product of collective human action.

This well structured and lively text draws extensively on political, economic and cultural examples from developing and developed countries to explore key topics such as:
· Restructuring of urban employment;
· The transformation of `culture' in cities;
· Locality and community;
· Cities in a world system;
· Production and reproduction of the built environment
· Politics and governance.

To encourage students to develop a critical understanding of today's cities, innovative references to literary, cinematic and www examples are provided alongside conventional academic resources at the end of each chapter.