ABSTRACT

For the first time Urban Theory and the Urban Experience brings together classic and contemporary approaches to urban research in order to reveal the intellectual origins of urban studies, and the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives on the city owe to one another.

Both students and urban scholars will appreciate the critical way in which classical and contemporary debates on the nature of the city are presented. Extensive use is made throughout of documentary, literary and cultural sources to bring the different theoretical perspectives to life. Discussion points introduce and explain key concepts and intellectual histories in a jargon free manner. End of chapter further readings have also been annotated to encourage additional study.

chapter 1|7 pages

ENCOUNTERING THE CITY

chapter 2|19 pages

THE FOUNDATIONS OF URBAN THEORY: WEBER, SIMMEL, BENJAMIN

Weber, Simmel, Benjamin and Lefebvre

chapter 3|24 pages

THE CITY DESCRIBED

Social reform and the empirical tradition in classic urban studies

chapter 4|23 pages

VISIONS OF UTOPIA

From the Garden City to the new urbanism

chapter 5|26 pages

BETWEEN THE SUBURB AND THE GHETTO

Urban studies and the search for community in Britain and the United States after the Second World War

chapter 6|20 pages

URBAN FORTUNES

Making sense of the capitalist city

chapter 7|18 pages

THE CONTESTED CITY

Politics, people and power

chapter 8|21 pages

FROM PILLAR TO POST

Culture, representation and difference in the urban world

chapter 9|18 pages

PUTTING THE CITY IN ITS PLACE

Urban futures and the future of urban theory