The Urban Experience provides a fresh approach to the study of metropolitan areas by combining economic principles, social insight, and political realities with an appreciation of public policy to understand how U.S. cities and suburbs function in the 21st century. The new edition will feature a new cohesive framework called the Metropolitan Area Dynamic introduced in the first chapter of the book, then incorporated into every chapter, to demonstrate the demographic, economic, political, social, and public policy forces that impact metropolitan areas. The narrative of the book is grounded in the real life experiences of students and their families on the premise that there is a fascination about one's own surroundings to engage the students in their study. It uses a great deal of historical and comparative data to explore the wide variation in how we experience urban and suburban communities and will include greater discussion of cities worldwide to engage with large scale global issues like climate change, immigration/migration, and inequality. It addresses the changing role and function of U.S. metropolitan areas in an age of growing global competition and focuses on key contemporary problems facing cities and suburbs. Providing an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, the book introduces analyses from economics, sociology, and political science, urban studies, and public policy as useful tools to understand the evolution and current status of the nation's urban areas. The book will be a valuable text for urban scholars, public officials, and all those interested in understanding urban dynamics.

The immediate impact of deindustrialization—the suffering inflicted upon workers, their families, and their communities—has been widely reported by scholars and journalists. In this important volume, the authors seek to move discussion of America's industrial decline beyond the immediate ramifications of plant shutdowns by placing it into a broader social, political, and economic context. Emphasizing a historical approach, the authors explore the multiple meanings of one of the major transformations of the twentieth century.The concept of deindustrialization entered the popular and scholarly lexicon in 1982 with the publication of The Deindustrialization of America, by Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison. Beyond the Ruins both builds upon and departs from the insights presented in that benchmark study. In this volume, the authors rethink the chronology, memory, geography, culture, and politics of industrial change in America.Taken together, these original essays argue that deindustrialization is not a story of a single emblematic place, such as Flint or Youngstown, or a specific time period, such as the 1980s. Nor is it limited to the abandoned factory buildings associated with heavy industry. Rather, deindustrialization is a complex process that is uneven in its causes, timing, and consequences. The essays in this volume examine this process through a wide range of topics, from worker narratives and media imagery, to suburban politics, environmental activism, and commemoration.

It is no secret that corporate America is in trouble--as are labor unions--and a principal reason is our archaic system of labor-management relations, which excludes labor from participating in, and sharing responsibility for, the growth and profitability of the enterprises for which it works. In a book sure to arouse controversy in both management and labor circles, Barry and Irving Bluestone propose a New Enterprise Compact under which labor becomes co-responsible with management for all strategic business decisions--pricing, investment, plant location, and more.

This devastating critique by the authors of The Deindustrialization of America documents how the economic policies of the Reagan era have damaged the American standard of living and suggests how this trend may be reversed.

""Growing Prosperity "could well be as important in shaping our future as Keynes' "General Theory." . . . A work as meticulous as it is powerful, as promising as it is persuasive."--Robert Heilbroner, author of "The Worldly Philosophers"

"Bluestone and Harrison have alerted us to the key issue confronting America: how to achieve growth with equity. This country needs a powerful dialogue on how to continue growth while deepening its benefits to all Americans. This is the blueprint for the terms of that debate."--U.S. Representative Richard Gephardt