This major work will change the way experts look at big cities. By
defining a new kind of city (the region-dominating city), The
Metropolis Era offers a new framework for exploring the problems
and future of big cities. What makes a city grow or stagnate? This
two-volume work provides a much-needed assessment of the factors
that influence growth and change. Eminent sociologists, economists,
planners, historians, geographers, political scientists,
demographers, and urban scholars from 16 countries contribute to
this assessment. And The Metropolis Era is the first work of this
type to cover third world cities as well as cities of the
industrialized nations. The Metropolis Era is designed for scholars
and students of the multidisciplinary world of urban studies.
Municipal officials, planners, and policymakers of large cities
will find this book invaluable as they seek ways to improve the
quality of their cities' life. "For those who have been waiting a
long time for a substantive cross-cultural resource in urban
studies, the wait is over. In a two-volume series, Mattei Dogan and
John D. Kasarda have presented what surely is the most
representative and scholarly collection of articles on world
urbanization. The first of the two volumes, which is being reviewed
here, focuses on a cross-cultural comparison of cities
demographically, historically, politically, economically and/or
administratively. The second volume presents descriptions of ten
specific cities selected from both the developed and developing
worlds. . . . The thirteen chapters cover virtually all major urban
regions of the world. . . . The state of the world urbanization is
presented and well documented. . . . Each chapter presents its
unique account of its region's big city growth and the resulting
impacts. . . . While I have yet to read the second volume, this
representative and well chosen collection of papers in Volume I
suggests that I will be equally impressed. All of the articles in
this first volume are easily read by scholar and student alike, and
all those who read this work will be well informed in the
socio-cultural changes being generated, and sometimes festered, by
the development of an increasingly global urban political economic
system." --Journal of Developing Societies "For those who have been
waiting a long time for a substantive cross-cultural resource in
urban studies, the wait is over. In a two-volume series, Mattei
Dogan and John D. Kasarda have presented what surely is the most
representative and scholarly collection of articles on world
urbanization. . . . Easily read by scholar and student alike, and
all those who read this work will be well informed in the
socio-cultural changes being generated, and sometimes festered, by
the development of an increasingly global urban political economic
system." --Journal of Developing Societies "A major contribution
that both addresses the roles that giant cities play worldwide and
provides useful detailed analysis of individual mega-cities. Both
the breadth and depth of analysis are impressive as one would
expect from the list of distinguished contributors. . . .The
Metropolis Era would be of interest to all urban scholars. Those
with a more 'applied' orientation, such as scholars in urban and
regional planning and schools of public affairs should also welcome
the publication of these volumes." --W. Parker Frisbie, University
of Texas, Austin "Libraries supporting programs in urban studies,
urban planning, and comparative urbanization will need these two
volumes in their collections. One special feature of the second
volume is that many of the essays have been prepared by specialists
or coauthors who live in and study the cities whose problems they
analyze. . . (which) gives the essays more credibility." --Choice
"Needless to say, these two volumes will be of universal interest
to municipal officials of large cities who daily face the challenge
of providing their citizens with services and amenities of
incredible breadth and complexity. Further, they will find a ready
audience among scholars and students of urban life. And last but
not least, citizens who live in megalopolises as well as in small
urban settlements and who might wish to know how other cities are
coping with meeting the ever increasing needs of their ever growing
population will find the books a source of stimulating
information." --Planning and Administration "The main virtue of
this collection--and it is an important one--is that it
substantively represents Third World Asian, African, and Latin
American cities, and communist bloc countries, in addition to the
West." --Contemporary Sociology "Anyone interested in learning
about the development of the world's largest cities and regions
from an individual and comparative perspective will want to take a
look at Dogan and Kasarda's two volume assessment of The Metropolis
Era: A World of Giant Cities, Volume 1 and Mega-Cities, Volume 2."
--Cities "The best global overview of urbanization available at
this time." --Future Survey "In terms of facts and ideas per
dollar, these volumes are a bargain. They offer a substantive
information about some of the world's giant cities and provocative
suggestions regarding the ways urbanists might profitably think
about such places, individually and comparatively. An international
marketplace of ideas about cities and metropolitan areas is long
overdue. The editors are t be congratulated on a major and
pioneering contribution to the development of such a marketplace,
and for allowing contributions latitude in selecting material
appropriate to their cities and their perspectives." --Journal of
Regional Science "Well done. Brings to the giant cities an
abundance of information and reflections which are overall...a
contribution of great value in understanding urban affairs as well
as contemporary social evolution. "This large work is without a
doubt the best of its genre that is found on the market. It has
been put together well and unites an enormous mass of information
and ideas on urban development." --Revue Francaise de Science
Politique (translated from the French) "These are remarkable
volumes, well organised, thoughtful and informative, seldom
theoretical, never boring, easy to read and thought-provoking.
Every chapter is somewhat different and has something new to say.
The ills and strengths of large cities are surveyed and analysed
with lucidity....this large work is of exceptional value and worth
reading carefully." --Jean Gottmann in Town Planning Review "A
major contribution to the literature...The overall impact of the
books is an extremely challenging one...(they) deserve to be read
widely." --Urban Studies "...achieve[s] a breakthrough in analyzing
and discussing urban problems within a cross-cultural worldwide
approach....of collections of this kind this one is both more
ambitious and more successful than most. Given the direction in
which urbanists and the world's cities are moving, this book is
helpful for sorting through issues with which we will be dealing
more frequently." --Environment and Planning "It is an interesting
compilation with very much of value..." --Habitat International
"...given the concentration of information in these two volumes,
they will be an important source of information for students
expecially, and to a lesser extent for municipal officials,...They
will, therefore, constitute an important reference work for all
types of students of urban life in large cities." --Canadian
Journal of Latin "Kasarda writes with authority and interest....The
individual city studies that comprise volume II are
useful...surveys of contemporary urban problems." --The Annals of
Regional Science "it is welcome to have comparative and up-to-date
material on the common problems of large cities....The value of
these two volumes lies in collecting together disparate material on
these large cities..." --International Journa
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