Re-examining Mary Douglas' work on pollution and concepts of purity, this volume explores modern expressions of these themes in urban areas, examining the intersections of material and cultural pollution. It presents ethnographic case studies from a range of cities affected by globalization processes such as neoliberal urban policies, privatization of urban space, continued migration and spatialized ethnic tension. What has changed since the appearance of Purity and Danger? How have anthropological views on pollution changed accordingly? This volume focuses on cultural meanings and values that are attached to conceptions of 'clean' and 'dirty', purity and impurity, healthy and unhealthy environments, and addresses the implications of pollution with regard to discrimination, class, urban poverty, social hierarchies and ethnic segregation in cities.

The world's cities are choking on pollution from traffic and industry. With the health of over 1.6 billion people under threat, poor urban air quality is fast becoming one of them most pressing environmental problems of our times. Smog Alert examines the causes and scale of urban air pollution, identifying who is most at risk, and what particular health risks various pollutants pose. It then considers an effective framework for air quality management, so that national and city authorities can consider what pollution control polices and measures are needed to deliver healthy urban air quality, and to sustain it in the future. Having established the background and framework, the book examines the existing and alternative measures to monitor and combat the declining air quality. It assesses smog alert systems; the potential for cleaner car and fuel technology; sustainable traffic management and public transport policies; and methods of controlling both industrial and residential emissions. Detailed case studies illustrate the severity and breadth of the problem - from the first serious photochemical smogs in Los Angeles to the dire warning offered by Mexico City; and from London (the city which coined the word 'smog') to Athens' pollution phenomenon, the 'nefos'. Drawing on the lessons learned from past experience, Smog Alert provides a comprehensive analysis of how health air quality may yet be achieved in the world's cities.

A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns consists of twenty-four original chapters developed by a network of transport professionals in a coordinated manner. The three parts of the book are: European Mobility Patterns; Dimensions of European Mobility, and National Perspectives. Mobility in fourteen countries is described and ten chapters of analysis compare the major dimensions of travel across Europe, which is seen as a laboratory for transport policies. A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns questions the uniqueness of European travel and transport policies and demonstrates that, in many ways, Europe is different from other developed economies. However, there are side dissimilarities within Europe. The authors take a deep look at the underlying factors which affect travel behavior, with the objective of providing the necessary information for policy making. The comparative chapters of Part II provide an analysis based on national perspectives of the role of the time dimension travel; automobile ownership and use; commuting; public transport; and international travel. They also review the transport policies applied in Europe, explaining why some policies work in some places, while failing in others.

This book makes a significant contribution to the history of placemaking, presenting grassroots to top-down practices and socially engaged, situated artistic practices and artsled spatial inquiry that go beyond instrumentalising the arts for development. The book brings together a range of scholars to critique and deconstruct the notion of creative placemaking, presenting diverse case studies from researcher, practitioner, funder and policymaker perspectives from across the globe. It opens with the creators of the 2010 White Paper that named and defined creative placemaking, Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, who offer a cortically reflexive narrative on the founding of the sector and its development. This book looks at vernacular creativity in place, a topic continued through the book with its focus on the practitioner and community-placed projects. It closes with a consideration of aesthetics, metrics and, from the editors, a consideration of the next ten years for the sector. If creative placemaking is to contribute to places-in-the-making and encourage citizenled agency, new conceptual frameworks and practical methodologies are required. This book joins theorists and practitioners in dialogue, advocating for transdisciplinary, resilient processes.

With more than half the world's population now living in urban areas, 'fairness' and 'justice' within the city are key concepts in contemporary political debate. This book examines the theory and practice of justice in and of the city through a multi-disciplinary collaboration, which draws on a wide range of expertise. By bringing diverse disciplinary and theoretical perspectives into conversation with each other to explore the (in) justices in urban environment, education, mobility and participation the book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of justice and fairness in and of the city. It will be a valuable resource for academic researchers and students across a range of disciplines including urban and environmental studies, geography, planning, education, ethics and politics.

In recent years, an increasing number of separation walls have been built around the world. Walls built in urban areas are particularly striking in that they have exacted a heavy toll in terms of human suffering. As territorialising devices, walls can be protective, but the protection they grant is never straightforward. This collection invites inquiry into the complexities of the social life of walls, observing urban spaces as veritable laboratories of wall-making - places where their consequences become most visible. A study of the relationship between walls and politics, the cultural meaning of walls and their visibility, whether as barriers or as legible - sometimes spectacular - surfaces, and their importance for social processes, Urban Walls shows how walls extend into media spaces, thus drawing a multidimensional geography of separation, connection, control and resistance. As such, the collection will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, geography, architecture and politics with interests in urban studies and social theory.

This volume embodies a problem-driven and theoretically informed approach to bridging frontier research in urban economics and urban/regional planning. The authors focus on the interface between these two subdisciplines that have historically had an uneasy relationship.
Although economists were among the early contributors to the literature on urban planning, many economists have been dismissive of a discipline whose leading scholars frequently favor regulations over market institutions,
equity over efficiency, and normative prescriptions over positive analysis. Planners, meanwhile, even as they draw upon economic principles, often view the work of economists as abstract, not sensitive to institutional contexts, and communicated in a formal language spoken by few with decision making authority. Not surprisingly, papers in the leading economic journals rarely cite clearly pertinent papers in planning journals, and vice versa.
Despite the historical divergence in perspectives and methods, urban economics and urban planning share an intense interest in many topic areas: the nature of cities, the prosperity of urban economies, the efficient provision of urban services, efficient systems of transportation, and the proper allocation of land between urban and
environmental uses. In bridging this gap, the book highlights the best scholarship in planning and economics that address the most pressing urban problems of our day and stimulates further dialog between scholars in urban planning and urban economics.

A pioneering text which covers the urban society of early modern Europe as a whole. Challenges the usual emphasis on regional diversity by stressing the extent to which cities across Europe shared a common urban civilization whose major features remained remarkably constant throughout the period. After outlining the physical, political, religious, economic and demographic parameters of urban life, the author vividly depicts the everyday routines of city life and shows how pitifully vulnerable city-dwellers were to disasters, epidemics, warfare and internal strife.

A unique insight into desegregation in the suburbs and how racial inequality persists Half of Black Americans who live in the one hundred largest metropolitan areas are now living in suburbs, not cities. In Liberty Road, Gregory Smithsimon shows us how this happened, and why it matters, unearthing the hidden role that suburbs played in establishing the Black middle-class. Focusing on Liberty Road, a Black middle-class suburb of Baltimore, Smithsimon tells the remarkable story of how residents broke the color barrier, against all odds, in the face of racial discrimination, tensions with suburban whites and urban Blacks, and economic crises like the mortgage meltdown of 2008. Drawing on interviews, census data, and archival research he shows us the unique strategies that suburban Black residents in Liberty Road employed, creating a blueprint for other Black middle-class suburbs. Smithsimon re-orients our perspective on race relations in American life to consider the lived experiences and lessons of those who broke the color barrier in unexpected places. Liberty Road shows us that if we want to understand Black America in the twenty-first century, we must look not just to our cities, but to our suburbs as well.

Planning for a City of Culture gives us a new way to understand how cities use arts and culture in planning, fostering livable communities and creating economic development strategies to build their brand, attract residents and tourists, and distinguish themselves from other urban centers worldwide. While the common thinking on creative cities may coalesce around the idea of one goal--economic development and branding--this book turns this idea on its head. Goldberg-Miller brings a new, fresh perspective to the study of creative cities by using policy theory as an underlying construct to understand what happened in Toronto and New York in the 2000s. She demystifies the processes and outcomes of stakeholder involvement, exogenous and endogenous shocks, and research and strategic planning, as well as warning us about the many pitfalls of neglecting critical community voices in the burgeoning practice of creative placemaking. This book is an essential resource in examining the development and sustainability of the global trend of integrating arts and culture in city planning and urban design that has become an international phenomenon. Perfect for students, scholars, and city-lovers alike, Planning for a City of Culture illuminates the ways that this creative city trend went global, with the two case study cities serving as perfect illustrations of the power and promise of arts and culture in current and future municipal strategies. Please visit Shoshanah Goldberg-Miller's website for more information and research: www.goldberg-miller.com

The city of Belfast tends to be discussed in terms of its distinctiveness from the rest of Ireland, an industrial city in an agricultural country. However, when compared with another 'British' industrial port such as Bristol it is the similarities rather than the differences that are surprising. When these cities are compared with Dublin, the contrasts become even more painfully evident. This book seeks to explore these contrasting urban centres at the start of the twentieth century.

This book proposes an alternative strategy to improve and sustain prosperity, through the creation of an entrepreneurial culture in learning cities or city regions. The edited collection provides insights into how entrepreneurship, education, job creation and social inclusion can be aligned through entrepreneurial learning, in the context of territorial development. With rich and varied contributions from a wide field, including policy makers, entrepreneurs, an investment banker, leaders of universities and councils, the voluntary sector, scientists, educators and students, it reviews and assesses how learning cities and regions may become more prosperous by investing in the development of entrepreneurial skills throughout lifelong learning. Reinforced by examples on developing and retaining entrepreneurial people, this book contributes to our understanding of how entrepreneurial learning can be fostered in different city and city-region contexts. It makes an interesting contribution to the field in terms of mapping out complex issues and testing the practical validity of the concept, while also providing rich and insightful case studies centred on the Welsh experience with entrepreneurial learning city regions. The high quality international contributions demonstrate the new worldwide interest in developing an entrepreneurial culture for the benefit of a city or region, rather than an entrepreneurial mind-set for individual benefit. This fascinating subject will be of interest to many social scientists, policymakers, and practitioners. It will be found especially valuable for professionals involved in economic, inclusive and sustainable city or regional development.

This text explores why it is white ethnicity has been rendered invisible, arguing that contemporary people's conceptions of themselves are conditioned by, and derive from, the unknown and forgotten legacy of a colonial past that cannot be confined to the past.

In the global information society, innovation is a highly pervasive process that influences all facets of human life: cultural, economic, political, and institutional. A desire to comprehend the impacts of innovative change on so many areas of urban life prompted the research project that has resulted in the publication of this volume. Our research confirms that we are presently in the midst of an era of rapid and explosive change. The primary engine driving this latest transformation of the post-industrial society is generally thought to be technological. But such an explanation is too narrow. Broadly speaking, the age in which we find ourselves could be more aptly described as a global, knowledge-intensive age. Many of today's knowledge-intensive activities, like research and development (R&D) programs, are being conducted with relative ease on a multinational scale. As well as science having an increasing impact on processes of innovation, R&D activities also have become more complex. We can observe a growing sophistication of learning-by-doing among creative economic agents. This more sophisticated era of global knowledge exchange is facilitated by major advances in our infrastructure networks. In this highly interactive world, many innovations are by-products of collective exchanges between cities far apart, simplified by the ease of transport and communication. Thus, there is a need for us to look more closely at various collective sequences of learning, knowledge exchange and innovation in a spatial setting. This is the primary purpose of this book.

"Williams's past experience as a community organizer for havenots' is clearly apparent in this carefully researched book, as his conviction that neighborhood organizations can play a key role in revitalizing urban life. After examining the setting for neighborhood organizations and discussing how neighborhoods change, he delves into the internal dynamics of those organizations. Chapters are devoted to various problems that neighborhood organizations have defined, such as crime and education; a final section analyzes neighborhood groups as conflict managers and mediators. The book offers a good survey of literature on neighborhood organizations, both theoretical and applied, and provides readers a unique bibliography of selected materials, with brief comments about each major topic; each chapter also has extensive notes and bibliography. Both grass-roots organizers and professionals in social work and city management will find this book useful." Choice

East London has undergone dramatic changes over the last 30 years, primarily as a result of London's large scale de-industrialisation and the rise in its financial sector. Large parts of inner East London remain deprived, but a once overwhelmingly white working class area is now home to a more complex and mobile class and ethnic mix. This topical book focuses on the aspirations of these different groups and the strategies they have pursued about where to live, driven in part by a concern to ensure a good education for their children. The book will be essential reading for students and academics in sociology, urban studies, geography and multicultural studies.

The searches by European Union major states for "joined up" approaches to inner city regeneration are examined thematically through a focus on policy evolution since the mid-1970s. Key issues addressed include the physical, social, employment, and urban security agenda. The product of long-term research, drawing on extensive qualitative and quantitative sources at the national level, backed by in-depth case study investigation of five large cities, the book assesses how contemporary urban rejuvenation is being regulated, including the increasing contribution of the European Union.

Urban refugees now account for over half the total number of refugees worldwide. Yet to date, far more research has been done on refugees living in camps and settlements set up expressly for them. This book provides crucial insights into the worldwide phenomenon of refugee flows into urban settings, repercussions for those seeking protection, and the agencies and organizations tasked to assist them. It provides a comparative exploration of refugees and asylum seekers in nine urban areas in Africa, Asia and Europe to examine issues such as status recognition, international and national actors, housing, education and integration. The book explores the relationship between refugee policies of international organisations and national governments and on the ground realities and demonstrates both the diverse of circumstances in which refugees live, and their struggle for recognition, protection and livelihoods.

This book aims at meeting the growing demand in the field by introducing the basic spatial econometrics methodologies to a wide variety of researchers. It provides a practical guide that illustrates the potential of spatial econometric modelling, discusses problems and solutions and interprets empirical results.

A wide range of books on urban systems models are available today for the student of urban planning, geography, and economics. There are few, if any, books, however, that deal with integrated urban systems modeling from the operational viewpoint. The term "integrated" is used here in the same sense as the "general equilibrium," in contrast to such approaches as "sequential" or "partial equilibrium." In fact, the main thesis of this book is that the characteristics of ur ban activity that best distinguish it from rural activity are (1) the intensive use of urban land and (2) urban congestion. On this basis, models that are introduced in this book are three- dimensional in character and produce urban land use configurations with explicit optimal density of urban pro duction activities along with optimal levels of transportation congestion. It is also assumed that both public and private sectors play significant roles in shaping urban forms, structures, and functions in mixed economic systems. From this viewpoint, models developed in this book address two integrated decision-making procedures: one by the public sector, which provides urban infrastructure and public services, and the other one by the private sector, which uses provided infrastructure and public services in pursuing parochial interests."

Across European cities the use of urban space is controversial and subject to diverging interests. On the one hand citizens are increasingly aware of the necessity for self-organising to reclaim green spaces. On the other hand local authorities have started to involve citizens in the governance of urban green spaces. While an increased level of citizen participation and conducive conditions for citizens' self-organisation are a desirable development per se, the risk of functionalising civil society actors by the local authority for neoliberal city development must be kept in mind. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected in 29 European cities from all four European geographic regions, this book examines the governance of urban green spaces and urban food production, focusing on the contribution of citizen-driven activities. Over the course of the book, Schicklinski identifies best practice examples of successful collaboration between citizens and local government. The book concludes with policy recommendations with great practical value for local governance in European cities in times of the growth-turn. This book will be of great relevance to students, scholars, and policy-makers with an interest in environmental governance, urban geography, and sustainable development.

Research in Community Sociology

This book offers a new theoretical basis for urban studies and for historical studies in general by addressing one of the main problems that confronts contemporary historians. How is it possible to process and synthesize an increasingly overwhelming amount of specialist research in the face of the theoretical deadlock caused by postmodernism? How can we move beyond its claim that the past is unknowable? Jansen’s approach - in which he claims there is a reality that is accessible to our cognitive capacities - is based on Systems Theory, which has already been applied so successfully in the fields of management and organization.
While focusing his attention on urban historiography, Jansen argues that an integrative systems approach can be used in any field of historical enquiry to create a meaningful picture of the past. He illustrates the importance of structuring data in this way by looking at the profound complexity of the urban environment. This book is therefore important reading not only for urban historians and geographers but also for all social scientists interested in the future study of the European city.