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Cities by Design: The Social Life of Urban Form

ISBN: 978-0-745-68029-3

January 2014

Polity

224 pages

Description

Who makes our cities, and what part do everyday users have in the design of cities? This book powerfully shows that city-making is a social process and examines the close relationship between the social and physical shaping of urban environments.

With cities taking a growing share of the global population, urban forms and urban experience are crucial for understanding social injustice, economic inequality and environmental challenges. Current processes of urbanization too often contribute to intensifying these problems; cities, likewise, will be central to the solutions to such problems. Focusing on a range of cities in developed and developing contexts, Cities by Design highlights major aspects of contemporary urbanization: urban growth, density and sustainability; inequality, segregation and diversity; informality, environment and infrastructure.

Offering keen insights into how the shaping of our cities is shaping our lives, Cities by Design provides a critical exploration of key issues and debates that will be invaluable to students and scholars in sociology and geography, environmental and urban studies, architecture, urban design and planning.

About the Author
Fran Tonkiss is Reader in Sociology and Director of the Cities Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is author, among other books, of Space, The City and Social Theory (Polity, 2005), and Market Society: Markets and Modern Social Theory (Polity, 2001, with Don Slater), and is managing editor of Economy and Society and former editor of the British Journal of Sociology.
Features
Very clearly written textbook that explores the social design of cities
Covers the key aspects of contemporary urbanization that are shaping this field of study, such as sustainability and urban growth
Highlights the crucial role cities play in addressing current concerns such as environmental challenges, economic inequality and social injustice
Uses insightful examples from around the globe to ground the discussion in real-world situations