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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Urban communities
The story of life in inner-city America and the education of its
people is often recounted as a tragedy; the ending is often
predictable and usually dire, highlighting deficiency, failure, and
negative trends. As with most social problems, children and youth
in the inner cities are hit hardest. But this dismal view is only
half of the full picture. The cities of our nation are a startling
juxtaposition between the despairing and the hopeful, between
disorganization and restorative potential. Alongside the poverty
and unemployment, the street-fights and drug deals, are a wealth of
cultural, economic, educational, and social resources. Often
ignored are the resilience and the ability for adaptation which
help many who are seemingly confined by circumstance to struggle
and succeed "in the face of the odds."
In 1945, Germany's cities lay in ruins, destroyed by Allied bombers that left major architectural monuments badly damaged and much of the housing stock reduced to rubble. At the war's end, observers thought that it would take forty years to rebuild, but by the late 1950s West Germany's cities had risen anew. The housing crisis had been overcome and virtually all important monuments reconstructed, and the cities had reclaimed their characteristic identities. Everywhere there was a mixture of old and new: historic churches and town halls stood alongside new housing and department stores; ancient street layouts were crossed or circled by wide arteries; old city centers were balanced by garden suburbs laid out according to modern planning principles. In the Wake of War examines the questions raised by this remarkable feat of urban reconstruction. Jeffry M. Diefendorf explains who was primarily responsible for the reconstruction, what accounted for the speed of rebuilding, and how priorities were set and decisions acted upon. He argues that in such crucial areas as architectural style, urban planning, historic preservation, and housing policy, the Germans drew upon personnel, ideas, institutions, and practical experiences from the Nazi and pre-Nazi periods. Diefendorf shows how the rebuilding of West Germany's cities after 1945 can only be understood in terms of long-term continuities in urban development. The first comprehensive book in English on Germany's reconstruction, In the Wake of War examines postwar urban reconstruction from many perspectives, including architecture, historic restoration, housing, town planning and law, and it consistently interprets the features of Germanreconstruction within the context of continuous developments in these areas since the 1920s. This study will appeal to architects and urban planners as well as historians.
Worldwide, urbanization is steadily increasing, yet many modern cities are becoming less and less able to accommodate the growth in their population. Congestion, pollution, low-quality housing, social fragmentation, noise, crime and inadequate social services all contribute to a declining quality of urban life. Planners and policy makers are battling to alleviate the problems with a variety of urban renewal initiatives, and energy-environmental policies have become central to their quest for urban sustainability."Sustainable Cities in Europe" gives a comprehensive introduction to the available urban energy and environmental policies. Drawing on a detailed analysis of the CITIES programme of the Commission of the European Communities, the book includes detailed case studies of European cities which are devising and implementing alternative strategies for sustainable growth and development. The cities discussed include: Amsterdam, Besancon, Braganca, Cadiz, Dublin, Esch/Alzette, Gent, Mannheim, Newcastle, Odense, Thessaloniki and Turin.The policy discussions and case studies in this book will be invaluable for all those professionally or academically involved in the pressing issue of city planning development.
Eighteen-year-old white-boy suburbanite Jay Charles receives a crash course on culture in the New Jersey jail system that high school didn't prepare him for. Jay's fast money and notoriety land him in the hands of the police, opening up to him a world that starkly contrasts the difference between the urban and suburban, the good and the bad, and the black and the white. With no way out Jay has to quickly figure out who to associate with and how to survive and defend himself in a world so different than the affluent suburbs he hailed from. Drawing from his trials and tribulations, unique interactions, and a near-death experience, Jay's stripping of the soul testament helps explain the reasons we treat each other the way we do, the misconceptions of the urban youth, and why he believes the suburbs display an emptiness of spirit that supports conformity, control, and a fear of reality, a fear that pillars the unspoken race war still going on today.
This book focuses on the emergence of COVID-19 and climate change as twin mega risks to cities of both developed and developing countries. The work analyses how the pandemic has transformed city functions, promoted remote working, and affected socializing, education and learning patterns, recreation, as well as shopping and entertainment. It discusses the lessons learned from these two Mega Risks, the evolution of urban patterns and functions in their wake, and provides visionary thinking for the improvement of cities from the experiences gained. The COVID-19 Pandemic and climate change are both posing serious threats to cities' future. Together, they demand changes in the ways cities' function and operate. The work presents a case for a better understanding of the twin mega risks, the magnitude of their impacts, the responses of cities in combating these issues, and planning strategies for preparing, mitigating and adapting to these and future risks. The book is designed to provide reliable resource materials for a wide audience such as planners, professional practitioners, scientists, students, teachers and researchers working in various fields including geography, environmental sciences, social sciences, policy and planning.
"Buildings and Power" shifts the focus of architectural debate from the dominant themes of art and technology to an analysis of meaning in terms of social relations. Buildings are primarily social objects - their forms provide answers to questions we ask about ourselves, questions of power, order, classification and function. Everything about a building has social meaning - its form, function and spatial structure are each capable of analysis. "Buildings and Power" focuses on the emergence of new building types during the critical period between the Enlightenment and the French and Industrial Revolutions. The range is divided between those which control relations between people directly - schools, institutions of various kinds, buildings for cleaning and hygiene, clubs, assembly rooms and hotels; those which reproduce knowledge - museums, galleries, institutes; and those used for production and exchange - mills, production utopias, markets, shops and exchanges.
While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that educational leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them in utilizing their agency and roles as leaders to identify and challenge institutional and systemic racism and other forms/manifestations of oppression (Stovall, 2004). In the tradition of critical race theory, we are charged with the task of operationalizing theory into practice in the struggle for, and commitment to, social justice. Though educational leaders and leadership programs have been all but absent in this process, given their influence and power, educational leaders need to be engaged in this endeavor. The objective of this edited volume is to draw upon critical race counter-stories and praxis for the purpose of providing leaders in training and practicing K-12 leaders with tangible narratives that demonstrate how racism and its intersectionality with other forms of oppression manifest within K-12 schooling. An additional aim of this book is to provide leaders with a working knowledge of the central tenets of critical race theory and the tools that are required in recognizing how they might be complicit in the reproduction of institutional and systemic racism and other forms of oppression. More precisely, this edited volume intends to draw upon and center the lived experiences and voices of contributors that have experienced racism in K-12 schooling. Through the use of critical race methodology and counter-storytelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), contributors will share and interrogate their experiences while offering current and future educational leaders insight in recognizing how racism functions within institutions and how they can address it. The intended goal of this edited volume is to translate critical race theory into practice while emphasizing the need for educational leaders to develop a critical race praxis and anti-racist approach to leadership.
A behind-the-scenes account of the harsh realities of policing in a segregated city For thirteen months, Daanika Gordon shadowed police officers in two districts in "River City," a profoundly segregated rust belt metropolis. She found that officers in predominantly white neighborhoods provided responsive service and engaged in community problem-solving, while officers in predominantly Black communities reproduced long-standing patterns of over-policing and under-protection. Such differences have marked US policing throughout its history, but policies that were supposed to alleviate racial tensions in River City actually widened the racial divides. Policing the Racial Divide tells story of how race, despite the best intentions, often dominates the way policing unfolds in cities across America. Drawing on in-depth interviews and hundreds of hours of ethnographic observation, Gordon offers a behind-the-scenes account of how the police are reconfiguring segregated landscapes. She illuminates an underexplored source of racially disparate policing: the role of law enforcement in urban growth politics. Many postindustrial cities are increasing the divisions of segregation, Gordon argues, by investing in downtowns, gentrified neighborhoods, and entertainment corridors, while framing marginalized central city neighborhoods as sources of criminal and civic threat that must be contained and controlled. Gordon paints a sobering picture of modern-day segregation, and how the police enforce its racial borders, showing us two separate, unequal sides of the same city: one where rich, white neighborhoods are protected, and another where poor, Black neighborhoods are punished.
Have you ever been told that you're too girlish or too boyish? We are all potential targets of the gender police, some more so than others. And how did you respond? Did you hide or change or rebel or hurt or gleefully celebrate your style? Tomboys and Other Gender Heroes is a study that brings together gender stories from approximately 600 children and youth. Set in both urban and rural contexts, these young people show how their schools and communities respond to their bodies, passions, and imaginations. As one 13-year-old student expresses, "My flowered jeans make me feel happy because they represent the sort of feminine side to me and at the same time show my masculine side. They also make me feel like I'm a part of a large force that stands up to bullying and criticism, to express themselves and to show the world that our lives have meaning." In this book, student writings are framed by teaching strategies and gender theory, featuring themes of sports, film, media, landscape, joyfulness, and gender creativity. The research will be of great interest to university students in the fields of education, gender, sexuality and women's studies, sociology, social work, psychology, counseling, and child development. This book is ideal for teachers, professors, parents, and community members who hope to create accepting environments for gender diversity.
This is the first book in Polity's new 'Urban Futures' series. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, proclamations rang out that gentrification had gone global. But what do we mean by 'gentrification' today? How can we compare 'gentrification' in New York and London with that in Shanghai, Johannesburg, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro? This book argues that gentrification is one of the most significant and socially unjust processes affecting cities worldwide today, and one that demands renewed critical assessment. Drawing on the 'new' comparative urbanism and writings on planetary urbanization, the authors undertake a much-needed transurban analysis underpinned by a critical political economy approach. Looking beyond the usual gentrification suspects in Europe and North America to non-Western cases, from slum gentrification to mega-displacement, they show that gentrification has unfolded at a planetary scale, but it has not assumed a North to South or West to East trajectory the story is much more complex than that. Rich with empirical detail, yet wide-ranging, Planetary Gentrification unhinges, unsettles and provincializes Western notions of urban development. It will be invaluable to students and scholars interested in the future of cities and the production of a truly global urban studies, and equally importantly to all those committed to social justice in cities.
This book traces the history of urbanization in China and discusses major problems and challenges the country is facing as it undergoes a profound social transformation. The author argues that as China tries to build not just more but also better cities, i.e., cities that are not only economically competitive but also people- and environment-friendly, it should adopt urbanization strategies and policies that promote integrated development for both rural and urban areas, and coordination among otherwise disparate objectives - such as industrialization, ecological modernization, informatization and cultural heritage preservation - nationwide and at various scales.
London has its social problems - this is evident from the increasingly unpleasant experience of daily life in the capital, from homelessness and unemployment to frustrating transport facilities and the general bad quality of the environment. However it is not only citizens of London who are suffering but the business community as well. London is having to face increasing competition from other European cities. There is growing appreciation and debate about these problems from companies, political parties, local government and community organisations. This book provides a solid analysis of what has gone wrong and explores policy directions that could make the city a more humane and livable place. Beginning with a discussion of the basic elements of a home, a job and a means of travelling around, it becomes clear that even in these essential aspects London is failing. A feature of the crisis is an increasingly divided city with conditions for the poorer citizens worsening all the time. The author's consider the quality of the environment. They examine issues such as the greening of the city and the need for sustainability, and the privatization and dehumanization of public spaces.
This book presents an interplay of imaginative memoir-telling, action research data and future projection that reminds and inspires experiences academics, researchers, professionals, as well as a wider public to recognize the fundamental importance and the impellent need for more and better work in favour of true political and societal recognition of the needs and rights of children to play freely, to participate, to live fully and enjoy their neighbourhoods and cities, and to imagine and construct alternative futures, together with adults. The book's abundant spoken dialogue is, in effect, storytelling between children (and youth) on their own and with adults (especially the elderly). It conveys an appreciation of children's special capacities to think critically about their everyday places-and the greater world around them-and to develop solutions (or 'projects') for the problems they identify. This book serves an effective catalyst for stimulating rich discussion of the theoretical and practical bases of the many themes, or areas of study, which are treated in the story.
Michael Peter Smith is distinguished research professor in Community Studies at the University of California, Davis. He is co-author of the award-winning book Citizenship across Borders, and is the series editor of Transaction's Comparative Urban and Community Research book series.
2011 Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association Community and Urban Section's Robert E. Park Book Award The color of clothing, the width of shoe laces, a pierced ear, certain brands of sneakers, the braiding of hair and many other features have long been seen as indicators of gang involvement. But it's not just what is worn, it's how: a hat tilted to the left or right, creases in pants, an ironed shirt not tucked in, baggy pants. For those who live in inner cities with a heavy gang presence, such highly stylized rules are not simply about fashion, but markers of "who you claim," that is, who one affiliates with, and how one wishes to be seen. In this carefully researched ethnographic account, Robert Garot provides rich descriptions and compelling stories to demonstrate that gang identity is a carefully coordinated performance with many nuanced rules of style and presentation, and that gangs, like any other group or institution, must be constantly performed into being. Garot spent four years in and around one inner city alternative school in Southern California, conducting interviews and hanging out with students, teachers, and administrators. He shows that these young people are not simply scary thugs who always have been and always will be violent criminals, but that they constantly modulate ways of talking, walking, dressing, writing graffiti, wearing make-up, and hiding or revealing tattoos as ways to play with markers of identity. They obscure, reveal, and provide contradictory signals on a continuum, moving into, through, and out of gang affiliations as they mature, drop out, or graduate. Who You Claim provides a rare look into young people's understandings of the meanings and contexts in which the magic of such identity work is made manifest.
Hundreds of millions of tenants live in Third World cities. In many
cities, they constitute the majority of households. Despite the
numerical importance of this segment of the population, there
exists only limited information on who these people are and their
living conditions. Information is even more limited on those who
provide rental accommodation.
The city is the most distinctive product of modernity, but it is also its most unruly. How do we approach a culture that is both physical and imaginary, that has moulded concrete and asphalt as well as movies and novels? Cityscapes provides an innovative approach to the modern city. By arguing that the most distinctive aspect of urban life is the varied, and often conflicting, rhythms of the city, this book sets out to find ways of registering the dynamic complexity of the city. Using a range of cultural forms Cityscapes spans the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, finding vivid examples of urban movements in Edgar Allan Poe's London, in Parisian departments stores, in colonial and anti-colonial Algiers, in the North American cities of recent detective fiction, and in the virtual city of The Matrix.
First published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Studies of government and politics in Africa are dominated by a focus on the national and are typically set apart by anglophone, francophone and lusophone historical influences, with South Africa as an exception. This volume departs from a different set of questions and employs a novel approach in discussing them: cities in sub-Saharan Africa provide the pivot around which issues of policy and practice, planning and service delivery turn, at different scales and both from the top down as well as from the bottom up. Party politics, for example, is discussed at city level and urban security both within a state and a non-state context. The novelty of the approach is found in thematic rather than single-city chapters written by multiple authors each of whom displays depth knowledge of one of three or more cities treated in each case. This volume will interest scholars of African and of urban studies as well as urban policy-makers and practitioners.
This book is about containment, life, work, and restart regions affected by COVID 19, using selected empirical case studies. This book presents the spread of coronavirus spatially and temporally, analyses containment strategies and includes recommended strategies. Further, it analyses how life and work get transformed during the lockdown, and gradual opening up, and presents the future of work and life in cities impacted by COVID-19. This book discusses the concept of smart life and works in cities post-COVID-19 such that they do not reduce the quality of work and life and cannot create adverse economic and living consequences called the restart of a city after COVID-19. Selected Regions of special interest are studied. Special interest is because Kerala and Maharashtra got the worst affected in India by COVID 19 pandemic and the book focus on that.
This book focuses on the transition towards net-zero carbon built environments to deliver on the climate emergency. It provides an evidence-based roadmap and proposes guidelines to achieving targets covering emerging technologies, materials, innovative design, regulations and policies.
The present book highlights studies that show how smart cities promote urban economic development. The book surveys the state of the art of Smart City Economic Development through a literature survey. The book uses 13 in depth city research case studies in 10 countries such as the North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to explain how a smart economy changes the urban spatial system and vice versa. This book focuses on exploratory city studies in different countries, which investigate how urban spatial systems adapt to the specific needs of smart urban economy. The theory of smart city economic development is not yet entirely understood and applied in metropolitan regional plans. Smart urban economies are largely the result of the influence of ICT applications on all aspects of urban economy, which in turn changes the land-use system. It points out that the dynamics of smart city GDP creation takes 'different paths,' which need further empirical study, hypothesis testing and mathematical modelling. Although there are hypotheses on how smart cities generate wealth and social benefits for nations, there are no significant empirical studies available on how they generate urban economic development through urban spatial adaptation. This book with 13 cities research studies is one attempt to fill in the gap in knowledge base. |
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