Contributors from North America and Europe examine ethnic and socio-economic segregation patterns, social polarization and social exclusion in major cities in the Western world. They offer detailed analyses of particular cities, ranging from Johannesburg, Chicago and Toronto to Amsterdam, Stockholm and Belfast, and highlight the social problems in and of cities, indicating differences between nation-states in terms of economic restructuring, migration, welfare-state regimes and ethnic history.

Significant transformations in the spatial organization of European cities have taken place over the past two decades. Social fragmentation, increasingly complex systems of governance, the transformation of relations to public space and the shift of work from the industrial to the communications sectors, have placed increasing importance on a city s position in terms of the global network. This book brings together an interdisciplinary team of European experts to discuss how these transformations have forced a radical reconsideration of the traditional definitions of the city. Comparing a...