This volume, Gender in an Urban World, brings the analysis of gender from the margin to the center of urban theory. Gender in an Urban World examines the influence of gender in shaping relations in urban spaces and places. It represents a "crack" in the landscape of urban sociology, and engages in the discourse of the field from a gendered perspective.

This volume is global in focus and includes empirical and field studies as it relates to structure, politics, policy and everyday life within an urban context. The authors investigate the ways in which the urban world is gendered, and the roles of womens and mens agency in creating and changing urban life. Reconceptualizations of various models, focusing on local, metropolitan, and international environments are also included.

Gender in an Urban World contributes innovative theoretical paradigms to the urban field. It is meant to contribute to an ongoing dialogue with regard to gender within the context of urbanism and urbanization.
* Chapters authored by leading experts from around the world
* Brings the analysis of gender from the margin to the center of urban theory

This volume is about the plurality and complexity of modern urban public spaces. The authors move far beyond the nostalgia of traditional streets, squares and gardens to mobilize contemporary sociological knowledge based on the mediated relations between spatial morphology and everyday life in cities across several continents. Contributions analyse diverse social realities and social interventions within the context of urban public spaces, linking to the broader discussion of urban public policies in European cities and beyond. Sometimes these interventions lead to exclusionary processes; other times they are the object of conflicts and resistances. When we speak about the (re)constructions, the uses and counter-uses of urban public spaces, we are always in the core of the political (city: polis) domain as those places are not fixed and do not have unique representations or immutable configurations - they are networks of relationships and social practices with antagonistic views and flexible uses.

This book discusses more general consideration of marginalized urban spaces and peoples around the globe. It considers the question: Is the formation and later dissolution of the Jewish ghetto an appropriate model for understanding the experience of other ethnic or racial populations?

Most urban growth over the last several decades has been in suburban areas, but research in urban sociology and other urban disciplines has been focused on the city (the global city, the networked city, the post-industrial city). A majority of the world population lives in urban areas, most in suburban regions, including the shanty towns of Asia, favelas of South America, slums of Africa and banileue and inner-city suburbs of the developed nations. "Suburbanization in Global Society" presents new and innovative contributions in comparative suburban studies for urban regions, not just in Europe and the United States but also including emerging metropolitan regions in China, India and other areas of the world. This volume examines the emerging patterns of suburban development in metropolitan regions around the globe. Research is post-1945 with a particular focus upon social and cultural change in suburbanisation processes in developed as well as emerging urban countries.

American cities are today more diverse than at any time in history. The continuing flow of new immigrants has settled in urban and suburban areas that have undergone visible change in population and neighborhoods. While Chicago long served as the convenient and well-studied model for urban sociology, for many Los Angeles has become the focal point for study of the postmodern heteropolis. It is interesting that for sociologists New York City, especially its outer boroughs such as Brooklyn and Queens, has largely remained outside the intense gaze of urban study. As the nation's largest city New York has long had a mosaic of social worlds comparable to that of Chicago, and displays an ethnic diversity comparable to that of Los Angeles. Because New York City presents us with a less easily recognizable mosaic and a more free form scattering of ethnic social spaces, it is seldom thought of as a pre or post-modern "model" for other metropolitan areas. The eight articles presented in this volume represent both older and established ethnic and racial communities as well as new and emerging groups in New York City. These include Italian communities, African American, as well as newer Jewish, Caribbean, and Asian groups.

Examining urban environmental issues at the macro, municipal level down to the micro community and individual level, this volume features cities and metropolitan regions across the global north and south with case studies from the United States, Canada, Eastern and Western Europe to India, Central America, South America and Africa. Contributions on the global north examine: the role of governing processes in sustainable cities; local growth machines and their carbon consequences; tackling climate change adaptation through community participation; climate protection and the participation and engagement of citizens; the importance of networking; and assessing the success of the environmental justice within emissions trading schemes. Case studies on the global south look at such topics as: how resource-constraints shape climate adaptation; the emergence of low-carbon development; urban vulnerability and adaptation to the health impacts of air pollution and climate extremes; global environmental changes and impacts on fishing activities; environmental justice and the social construction of space in urban poor communities; and the inverse connection between gender and climate change.

This volume of "Research in Urban Sociology" is composed of a selection of the papers presented at the conference "Everyday Life in the Segmented City" held in July 2010, Florence. The conference gathered a multiplicity of approaches and points of view dealing with issues of global urbanization. Urbanization is a phenomenon inscribed into the globalization process that has enormous consequences in the transformation of urban space and the everyday life of citizens, and is reflected also in the flourishing of an analytical discourse increasingly transcending the boundaries of established urban disciplines. The progressive extension of the urban domain beyond the limits of the city and across diverse scales has its corollary in the progressive segmentation of the urban dimension along multiple lines of physical, social, economic, cultural and ethnic nature. This volume focuses on the perspective of the everyday to analyze how practices and policy can overcome the spin towards fragmentation and anomie, and reinforce social cohesion for a more just and livable city, endorsing the "right to the city" as presented by the seminal work of Henri Lefebvre.

This is the fifth volume in a series which studies research in urban sociology, this work is an analysis of race and ethnicity in urban areas.

Too often the term "ghetto" is simply applied to any African American community, to the inner city as a whole, or recently to anything that is degraded or unrefined. But what is a ghetto? Does it arise organically from cities, or is it a consequence of social conflict and government policy? Are the banlieues, barrios, favelas, shantytowns, and slums of Europe, South America, and other continents similar to the American ghetto?"The Ghetto" invites us to reexamine our assumptions by addressing these and other critical questions. Concise, original essays from top scholars around the world clearly describe essential arguments and discoveries, making the current discussion of marginalized urban spaces accessible for all readers and students of urban studies and sociology.

The United Nations estimates that by 2030, more than two-thirds of the total world population will live in urban areas. Most of this increase will take place not in Europe or in the United States but in the megacities and newly emerging urban regions of what used to be called the developing world.

Urban studies is an expansive and growing field, covering many disciplines and professional fields, each with its own schedule of conferences, journals, and publication series. These two volumes address the specific theories, key studies, and important figures that have influenced not just the individual discipline but also the field of urban studies more generally. The Encyclopedia of Urban Studies is intended to present an overview of current work in the field and to serve as a guide for further reading in the field.

Key FeaturesIncludes important work and traditions from each of the urban disciplines, including urban anthropology, urban economics, urban geography, urban history, urban politics, urban psychology, and urban sociologyAddresses both the growth and expansion of urban areas (urbanization) and the nature and quality of urban life (urbanism)Demonstrates the international and interdisciplinary nature of the field with contributions from scholars in many different countriesConfronts a number of important issues, ranging from individual problems of poverty to societal problems of provision of adequate housing and social exclusionProvides entries on a number of cities, including those in different historical periods and regions of the world and those that have been important in the development of urban studies

Key ThemesDisciplinary Approaches in Urban StudiesUrban Studies Topical AreasUrban IssuesUrban PlanningUrban TheoryUrban TransportationUrban CulturePlacesCitiesPersons

The Encyclopedia of Urban Studies serves as an introduction to topics of significance in urban studies for an audience that includes undergraduate students, beginning graduate students of urban studies and the related urban disciplines, a broader public that has an interest in the new urban world, and even established teachers and scholars who are exploring new areas of study."

Groundwater represents an important supply source for municipal and irrigation uses in Far West Texas. The City of El Paso receives about 50 percent of its municipal water supply from surface water and 50 percent from local groundwater. Groundwater pumping in El Paso is from the Hueco Bolson and the Mesilla Bolson. Historic groundwater pumping in the Texas portion of the Mesilla Bolson has not resulted in significant changes in groundwater levels or groundwater quality in existing wells. Historic pumping in the Hueco Bolson has resulted in lowered groundwater levels and brackish groundwater intrusion. The groundwater level declines have resulted in the intrusion of brackish groundwater into areas that historically pumped fresh groundwater. A 1979 assessment concluded that El Paso would deplete fresh groundwater in the Hueco Bolson by 2030 if groundwater pumping continued to increase. Partly as a result of the 1979 assessment, El Paso reduced its groundwater pumping from the Hueco Bolson by increasing surface water diversions from the Rio Grande, increasing conservation efforts, and increasing reclaimed water use. As a result, groundwater levels in many parts of the Hueco Bolson have stabilized. Brackish groundwater intrusion remains an issue, and is being addressed with a brackish groundwater desalination plant, currently under construction. The new wells and existing wells that will supply this desalination plant will also assist in the management of brackish groundwater intrusion by intercepting the brackish groundwater before it can flow towards existing fresh groundwater wells. The 2006 Far West Texas Regional Water Plan contemplates a groundwater transfer project to meet increasingdemands in El Paso County beginning about 2030, mostly from the Dell City area in Hudspeth County, Texas. Groundwater management in the Dell City area is governed by a groundwater conservation district that has established limits on groundwater pumping based on existing and historic uses. Groundwater pumping for irrigation began in the Dell City area in 1948, and groundwater levels have been essentially stable for since the 1980s. Future planning for a groundwater transfer project will require a detailed understanding of the hydrogeology of the groundwater in the Dell City area.