Urban communities / city life Books

Book Synopsis"Condensed yet energetic and substantial history of Chicago. Spinney has a firm sense of historical narrative as well as a keen eye for entertaining and illuminating detail."-Publishers Weekly A city of immigrants and entrepreneurs, Chicago is quintessentially American. Spinney brings it to life and highlights the key people, moments, and special places-from Fort Dearborn to Cabrini-Green, Marquette to Mayor Daley, the Union Stock Yards to the Chicago Bulls-that make this incredible city one of the best places in the world. City of Big Shoulders links key events in Chicago's development, from its marshy origins in the 1600s to today's robust metropolis. Robert G. Spinney presents Chicago in terms of the people whose lives made the city-from the tycoons and the politicians to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over the world. In this revised and updated second edition that brings Chicago's story into the twenty-first century, Spinney sweeps his historian's gaze across the colorful and dramatic panorama of the city's explosive past. How did the pungent swamplands that the Native Americans called "the wild-garlic place" burgeon into one of the world's largest and most sophisticated cities? What is the real story behind the Great Chicago Fire? What aspects of American industry exploded with the bomb in Haymarket Square? Could the gritty blue-collar hometown of Al Capone become a visionary global city?Trade ReviewCondensed yet energetic and substantial history of Chicago. Spinney has a firm sense of historical narrative as well as a keen eye for entertaining and illuminating detail. * Publishers Weekly *A much-needed, brief yet comprehensive analytical history of Chicago. * Journal of Illinois History *Table of Contents1. The Early World of Chigagou, 1600–1750 2. Chigagou Becomes Chicago, 1750–1835 3. Boom, Bust, and Recovery in Early Chicago, 1835–1850 4. Chicago Conquers the Midwest, 1850–1890 5. Life in a City on the Make, 1850–1900 6. The Fire, the Bomb, and the Fair, 1871–1893 7. The New Immigration, 1880–1920 8. Progressivism and Urban Reform, 1890–1915 9. World War I and the Roaring Twenties, 1915–1929 10. The Great Depression, World War II, and Suburban Growth, 1929–1955 11. Richard J. Daley and the City That Works, 1955–1976 12. The Challenges of the Post-Machine Years, 1976–1997 13. Glamorous and Grim: Chicago in the Twenty-First Century

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Book SynopsisBuilding on three decades of comparative research on marginality, ethnicity, and penality in the postindustrial metropolis, Loïc Wacquant offers a novel interpretation of Pierre Bourdieu as urban theorist. He invites us to explore the city through what he calls the trialectic of symbolic space (the mental categories through which we perceive and organize the world), social space (the distribution of capital in its different forms), and physical space (the built environment). On this reading, Bourdieu's topological sociology gives us the tools both to energize and also to challenge the canon of urban studies and to redraw their theoretical landscape. Compact and incisive, Bourdieu in the City will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, anthropology, geography, urban studies, urban planning, architecture, and social theory.Trade Review"In this captivating book, Loïc Wacquant excavates Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory for insights that might illuminate the neoliberal metropolis and its contentious power relations. In so doing, he produces an incisive, if deeply disturbing, portrait of contemporary urban marginality and neighborhood-level 'taint', a remarkable interpretive synthesis of his own illustrious pathway of urban inquiry, and a brilliantly creative application of Bourdieu's key concepts and methods to the field of urban social science."—Neil Brenner, University of Chicago "Loïc Wacquant dissects carefully the conceptual framework of Bourdieu, provides a differentiated view of social space from Bourdieu's understanding of relational sociology, and reminds us that marginalization continues to be a main concern for urban scholars. A must-read for anyone interested to see how Wacquant eloquently combines Bourdieu’s work with an urban perspective as well as draws on his own influential work from over the years to sharpen our theoretical and methodological lenses on urban inequality."—Professor Talja Blokland, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin“[A] significant milestone in enhancing urban theory by introducing fresh perspectives.”Journal of Urban AffairsTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Taking Bourdieu to Town Prologue 1 Bourdieu in the Urban Crucible 2 The Bitter Taste of Territorial Taint 3 Marginality, Ethnicity and Penality in the Neoliberal Metropolis Epilogue Bourdieu in the City, the City in Bourdieu References

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Book SynopsisToday’s urban water managers are faced with an unprecedented set of issues that call for a different approach to urban water management. These include the urgent changes needed to respond to climate change, population growth, growing resource constraints, and rapidly increasing global urbanization. Not only are these issues difficult to address, but they are facing us in an environment that is increasingly unpredictable and complex. Although innovative, new tools are now available to water professionals to address these challenges, solving the water problems of tomorrow cannot be done by the water professionals alone. Instead, the city of the future, whether in the developed or developing world, must integrate water management planning and operations with other city services to meet the needs of humans and the environment in a dramatically superior manner. Water Sensitive Cities has been developed from selected papers from 2009 Singapore Water Week “Planning for Sustainable Solutions” and also papers taken from other IWA events. It pulls together material that supports the water professionals’ need for useful and up-to-date material. Authors: Carol Howe, UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, The Netherlands Cynthia Mitchell, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Table of ContentsContents: Transitioning to the Water Sensitive City; Towards macroscale assessment of sustainability, A Framework for developing sustainable water utilities, Insights from the Australian Experience, Restorative systems – making the transition, The reality of transdisciplinary decisions- lessons from SWITCH and Sweden. Water as part of urban design; Living with Water – the Rotterdam experiment, The Blue-Green Network – Lodz’s optimization of the city’s spatial planning, Water – developing an emotional connection to the city. Sustainability in the city – case studies of cities taking action; SWITCH – 12 cities moving to the future, Water challenges in building a carbon neutral city in the Middle East –The Masdar perspective, Singapore’s Marina Barage – Changing Mindsets in Urban Solutions, Decentralisation? Winning the minds of the community; Water: Nature’s Amazing Reusable Resource, From Zero to Hero: NEWater wins Public confidence in Singapore, Plain speaking about water – experiences from the trenches.

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Book SynopsisDiscover hidden gems around Manchester with 20 walking routes. Featuring 20 walks in and around the city, including lesser-known circuits and details on popular walks. Accompanied by guided walking instructions and written by a local expert, A-Z Manchester Hidden Walks is the perfect way to explore the city in a new light.

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Book SynopsisGet the most out of every bit of balcony space to easily grow your own sustainable, organic, and tasty food.Do you love having a balcony but aren''t sure how you can use it as a space to grow? Do you feel that being a few stories up in a building stops you from growing delicious crops? If the answer is yes, then it''s time you read this book.Instagram sensation Patrick Vernuccio AKA @TheFrenchieGardener is a small-space grower with a big message. Building on his inspirational content, Tomatoes and Basil on the 5th Floor showcases easy and informative ways to grow fresh produce in containers and on a balcony, proving that anyone can enjoy tasty, organic food all year round.From dividing store-bought basil plants, to harvesting vegetables at the best time of year, to letting plants set seed for the benefit of wildlife, Patrick takes his readers through myriad ways to get crops and produce out of very limited space. Working with the seasons and with good-quality seed and compost, he explains all you need to know to ensure every inch of your balcony can give you tasty and beautiful crops to harvest.

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Book SynopsisPeter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers London: The Biography, Thames: Sacred River and London Under; biographies of figures including Charles Dickens, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock; and a multi-volume history of England. He has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and the South Bank Prize for Literature. He holds a CBE for services to literature.Trade ReviewAfter his mammoth, shamanic aria London: the Biography, the remarkable writer Peter Ackroyd has produced a nimble, uproarious pocket history of sex in his beloved metropolis -- Alasdair Lees * Independent *Ackroyd has an encyclopaedic knowledge of London, and a poet's instinct for its strange, mesmerising drives and urges ... Queer City contains something to alarm or fascinate on every page -- Craig Brown * The Mail on Sunday *Droll, provocative and crammed to busting with startling facts -- Simon Callow * The Guardian *If there was a prize for the most evocative or salacious chapter headings, then Peter Ackroyd's new book, Queer City, would be the undisputed victor. They capture the rudery and naughtiness, although not the erudition of this entertaining history of the 'queer' experience in London -- Robbie Millen * The Times *Succinct, perceptive and robust -- Rupert Christiansen * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisThe eighth edition of the highly successful The City Reader juxtaposes the very best classic and contemporary writings on the city to provide the comprehensive mapping of the terrain of Urban Studies and Planning old and new. The City Reader is the anchor volume in the Routledge Urban Reader Series and is now integrated with all ten other titles in the series. It has been extensively updated and expanded to reflect the latest thinking in each of the disciplinary areas included and in topical areas such as urban history, place making, sustainable urban development, globalization, resilience, artificial intelligence in planning cities, climate change, the world city network, the impact of technology on cities, cities in Africa, and urban theory. The new edition places greater emphasis on cities in the developing world, globalization, and the global city system of the future. The plate sections have been more than doubled to include 93 plates.The eighth edition includes fifty-eight generous selections: forty-seven from the seventh edition, one from the sixth edition, and ten new selections, including four newly written exclusively for the eighth edition. This new edition retains classic writings by authors such as Ebenezer Howard, Ernest W. Burgess, H.D.F. Kitto, Le Corbusier, Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Louis Wirth, and Peter Hall as well as the best contemporary writings of, among others, David Harvey, Manuel Castells, Michael Batty, Sara Meerow, Fulong Wu, Saskia Sassen, Richard LeGates, Michael Smith, John McWhorter, and a co-authored selection by Xuefei Ren and Roger Keil. The City Reader 8th Edition features general and section introductions as well as individual introductions to the selected articles introducing the authors, providing context, and relating the selection to other selections. The eighth edition includes a greatly expanded bibliography with up-to-date information on books, articles, professional reports, and videos for all the topics covered.

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Book SynopsisLynsey Hanley was born and raised just outside of Birmingham on what was then the largest council estate in Europe, and she has lived for years on an estate in London's East End. Writing with passion, humour and a sense of history, she recounts the rise of social housing a century ago, its adoption as a fundamental right by leaders of the social welfare state in the mid-century and its decline - as both idea and reality - in the 1960s and '70s. Throughout, Hanley focuses on how shifting trends in urban planning and changing government policies - from Homes Fit for Heroes to Le Corbusier's concrete tower blocks, to the Right to Buy - affected those so often left out of the argument over council estates: the millions of people who live on them. What emerges is a vivid mix of memoir and social history, an engaging and illuminating book about a corner of society that the rest of Britain has left in the dark.Trade ReviewA rich, thought-provoking book * Observer *Estates, a journey through the world of British social housing, is both a history and a personal reckoning * Financial Times *A wonderful book ... explains with verve and insight how one's mental landscape is moulded by physical environment ... Simple lessons for planners, architects and developers leap off the pages * Guardian *Lynsey Hanley's vivid, powerful book is about a dream gone sour. Her descriptions of hopelessness, drunkenness and yobbery in Tower Hamlets cry out to be engraved by a new Hogarth * Independent *Hanley's Estates is many things - social history, memoir, mild polemic ... she catalogues her experience in a manner that is honest, informed and never whimsical. A well-timed and truthful book * Daily Telegraph *[A] celebrated slice of myth-busting * Metro *

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Book SynopsisAn abridged edition of Peter Ackroyd''s magisterial biography of the city of London.Prize-winning historian, novelist and broadcaster, Peter Ackroyd takes us on a journey - historical, geographical and imaginative - through the city of London. Moving back and forth through time, Ackroyd is an effortless, exuberant guide to times of plague and pestilence, fire and floods, crime and punishment, and sex and theatre. He brings the ever changing streets alive for the reader and shows us what lies beneath our feet and above our heads. His biography is as rich in detail and fizzing with vitality as the city itself.Trade ReviewPeter Ackroyd is the greatest living chronicler of London * Independent *Peter Ackroyd was born to write the biography of London...a brilliant book * Sunday Telegraph *It would be no exaggeration to say that Peter Ackroyd's 'biography' of our captial is the book about London -- A N Wilson * Daily Mail *You will not find a better, more visionary book about a place we take for granted * Observer *[London] may be several years old but it remains one of the leading narratives as he cleverly weaves through centuries of history to reveal to us the hundreds of different cities within a city. -- Fiona Hamilton * The Times *

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Book Synopsis''A latter-day Canterbury Tales ... Serious Money has a serious mission'' The Times''Eye-opening ... part guide, part indictment of a yawning wealth gap'' Misha Glenny, Financial TimesLondon is a plutocrat''s paradise, with more resident billionaires than New York, Hong Kong or Moscow. Far from trickling down, their wealth is burning up the environment and swallowing up the city. But what do we really know about London''s super rich, and the lives they lead?To find out more about this secretive elite, sociologist Caroline Knowles walks the streets of London from the City to suburban Surrey. Her walks reveal how the wealthy shape the capital in their image, creating a new world of gated communities and luxury developments. Along the way we meet a wide and wickedly entertaining cast of millionaires, billionaires and those who serve them: bankers, tech tycoons, Conservative party donors, butlers, bodyguards, divorce lawyers and many more.By turns jaw-dropping, enraging and enlightening, Serious Money explodes the fiction that wealth is a condition to aspire to, revealing the isolation and paranoia which accompany it when the plutocrat''s recompense - a life of unlimited luxury - ultimately proves hollow. It is a powerful reminder that it is not just the super-rich who get to make the city: we make it too, and could demand something different. Because serious money is good for no one - not even the rich.''An eye-opening, deeply disturbing, fast-moving journey through the lives, homes and affairs of the filthy rich of London'' Danny Dorling, author of All That Is Solid''A wonderful and vital account of a city ruled by, and for, extreme wealth'' Anna Minton, author of Big CapitalTrade ReviewPart guide, part indictment of a yawning wealth gap, Caroline Knowles's eye-opening book reveals how the capital has changed over the decades ... the author's gentle, yet shrewd observations quickly accumulate when seeking out a wide variety of individuals to reveal the quotidian culture of plutocracy. -- Misha Glenny * Financial Times *Knowles' book helps readers to see [London's super-rich] as less secretive, more troubling and a great deal sadder ... Serious Money has a serious mission. These vast fortunes, Knowles argues, do not just make people miserable. They are rotting the ties that hold our society together. -- Edward Lucas * The Times *Knowles's book acted on me like a goad, a stone in the shoe ... The questing sociologist has an agenda. She is our nominated surrogate in occupied territory. And she is persistent ... Among the freakishly perverse bankers and investors, she behaves like Orwell in Wigan. -- Iain Sinclair * London Review of Books *Again and again, Knowles's stories attest to a money machine devoted to nothing but its own perpetuation ... In the tradition of the great literary walkers, from Walter Benjamin to Will Self, her insistence on crossing the city on foot is, in an important sense, an act of resistance, an embrace of urban realities in defiance of the sad confinement of extreme wealth, its smoked-glass segregation. -- Nat Segnit * Times Literary Supplement *A fascinating investigation of plutocratic London ... as gripping as a pulp detective novel in which we glimpse the slimy, far from slummy lives of the morally corrupt. She patrols London's elite enclaves with a sharp eye for telling social and architectural details ... Knowles combines cunning and charm. -- Matthew Beaumont * New Statesman *An eye-opening, deeply disturbing, fast-moving journey through the lives, homes and affairs of the filthy rich of London. -- Danny DorlingFascinating, punchy, thought-provoking. Serious Money exposes the corrosive impact of London's super rich on our economy, society and politics, and comprehensively busts the myth that their wealth trickles down to the rest of us. -- Frances O’GradyA wonderful and vital account of a city ruled by, and for, extreme wealth. -- Anna Minton, author of Big CapitalStartling, spirited ... Knowles is alert to arresting details ... a wry primer to the extravagances of the super rich. -- Alex Diggins * The Critic *Years of footwork through the streets of central London have gone into producing this magnificent but disturbing book on the lives and influence of the super-rich. Knowles writes with enviable lightness and pace about how money, property, birth, breeding, contacts, secrecy, parasites and servants have created a class that owns and milks London, a world away from the city's ordinary citizens. A powerful ethnography of plutocratic power. -- Professor Ash Amin, author of Seeing Like a CityAn innovative and disturbingly entertaining travelogue covering one of the most important issues of our time ... could not have been published at a more critical time. -- Matt Reynolds * LSE Review of Books *Sociologist Caroline Knowles takes you through the neighborhoods of the capital city telling stories of how the ultra-wealthy live and work; how they spend their money, marry and divorce; and why London is one of the best places for those with nefarious intentions to hide money from authorities. * Investopedia - Best Economics Books of 2022 *A guided tour of the spaces and lifestyles of London's super-rich. Written in an engaging and accessible manner that draws the reader into spaces and conversations otherwise out of bounds, Knowles subtly exposes the paradoxes inherent within the life and politics of the super-rich in London. -- Sobia Ahmad Kaker * Soundings *

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Book SynopsisA must-read for anyone who has ever wondered why people do what they do, from the popular author of The Naked Ape.This study concerns the city dweller. Morris finds remarkable similarities with captive zoo animals and looks closely at the aggressive, sexual and parental behaviour of the human species under the stresses and pressures of urban living.Compelling and absorbing...Morris is concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture, as it is expressed in power, sex, status and war games' New York Times Trade ReviewCompelling and absorbing...Morris is concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture, as it is expressed in power, sex, status and war games * New York Times *Having startled, amused, and in some cases infuriated his fellow-men by his bestseller The Naked Ape, Desmond Morris now proceeds to contemplate Homo sapiens as he has transformed his environment. He has offended some people with entrenched views, but he has made millions wonder about themselves. Exceedingly well written, with never a dull moment * Observer *I defy you to stop reading it * Liverpool Daily Post *

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Book Synopsis*According to the Trussell Trust, food bank use between April and Sept 2018 was up 13% on the same period in 2017.* *Every year in the UK 18 million tonnes of food end up in landfill.*Why is this the case and what can we do about it?The relationship between food and cities is fundamental to our everyday lives. Food shapes cities and through them it moulds us - along with the countryside that feeds us. Yet few of us are conscious of the process and we rarely stop to wonder how food reaches our plates.Hungry City examines the way in which modern food production has damaged the balance of human existence, and reveals that we have yet to resolve a centuries-old dilemma - one which holds the key to a host of current problems, from obesity and the inexorable rise of the supermarkets, to the destruction of the natural world.Original, inspiring and written with infectious enthusiasm and belief, Hungry City illuminates an issue that is fundamental to us all.Trade ReviewExuberant, provocative... her desire that we understand better and think more about our food, how much we waste, how much energy it consumes and how we dispose of it... It is - in the real sense of the word - vital -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *Hungry City is a sinister real-life sequel to Animal Farm with the plot turned upside down by time in ways even George Orwell could not have foreseen * Observer *Lively, wide-ranging, endlessly inquisitive... Hungry City is a smorgasbord of a book: dip into it and you will emerge with something fascinating * Independent *Absolutely crammed with eye-opening facts and figures, a hugely readable account of the part we individually play in a global problem. Highly Recommended * Publishing News *She can précis her specialist sources briskly, and her own direct research (e.g. a mega kitchen for cooking ready meals) is lively -- Vera Rule * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisAn internationally renowned architect, urban planner, and scholar describes the major technological forces driving the future of citiesTrade Review"This is different. And it is brilliant. Ratti and Claudel give us a distinctive path to think through technical futures, far removed from the typical exaggerated versions of the present. They start with a fact: we are all enmeshed in distributed sensing ecosystems, and the more complex and intractable those systems, the more technical innovations we can think up. Thus the messy city, not the perfect lab, is ground zero."—Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, author of Expulsions"Ratti and Claudel provide remarkable insights into the city of tomorrow. A book that everyone who is interested in the future—and that is all of us—should explore."—Michael Batty, University College London

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Book SynopsisCan cities solve the biggest problems of the twenty-first century better than nations? Is the city democracy's best hope?Trade Review"Audacious, . . . ambitious . . . Barber’s book should be required reading for New York’s new mayor, Bill de Blasio."—Sam Roberts, New York Times Book Review"If you like cities you will love this wide-ranging book that captures the energy, excitement and importance of what is going on in the world's great urban centers."—Fareed Zakaria, CNN". . . .Makes the intriguing, provocative, and counter-intuitive argument the . . . cities and the mayors who run them are the last best hope for a safer, more prosperous, and more just future. If Mayors Ruled The World is informative and imaginative."—Glenn C. Altschuler, Huffington Post"Barber argues . . . persuasively, that city governments are closer to their people than national ones and as such are better at winning the trust of citizens – though the same goes for rural forms of local government."—Ben Rogers, Financial Times"In an impassioned love letter to cities and their political leaders, Barber (Jihad vs. McWorld) celebrates the diversity and ferment that embody urban life."—Publishers Weekly"A provocative look at how cities can and do lead from the front in addressing the most pressing issues of our time."—Michael R. Bloomberg, 108th Mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg LP"If you care about cities, read If Mayors Ruled the World. It is the most important book on cities, their leadership and how they can make the world a better place to come along in years. Ben Barber has written a tour de force."—Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The Great Reset"Political theorist Benjamin Barber's latest book is more than just theory. Networked governance by the world's cities is actually happening, and If Mayors Ruled the World is the book of the movement. Once again, Barber is ahead of the curve."—Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper "Benjamin Barber shows us how cities are traversed by networks of all sorts and how inter-city networks traverse the world. Both extremes and all that happens in between are brought to life through empirical details and exciting narratives."—Saskia Sassen, Columbia University and author of Cities in a World Economy

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Book SynopsisFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author, a dazzling, globe-spanning history of humankind's greatest invention: the city.'Brilliant...enchanting' Evening Standard 'Exhilarating' New York TimesThe story of the city is the story of civilisation. From Uruk and Babylon to Baghdad and Venice, and on to London, New York, Shanghai and Lagos, Ben Wilson takes us through millennia on a thrilling global tour of the key urban centres of history.Rich with individual characters, scenes and snapshots of daily life, Metropolis is at once the story of these extraordinary places and of the vital role they have played in making us who we are.'Panoramic...entertaining and rich in wondrous detail' Tom Holland'A towering achievement... Reading this book is like visiting an exhilarating city for the first time' Wall Street JournalTrade ReviewBrilliant... Enchanting... This is a history of the world told through its most buccaneering units... And it is full of quirky facts about London. -- Arjun Neil Alim * Evening Standard *Compendious and fascinating... Metropolis is crammed with local colour; and what gives the historical schema its real flavour is the deviations it allows... It makes you understand why we opted for cities in the first place, and why, despite the doom and gloom, I doubt we will be quitting them any time soon. -- Tim Smith-Laing * Daily Telegraph *Wilson [is] an erudite, creative guide to the history of civilization through its great urban areas... He broadens the book's focus beyond the usual Western suspects... An excellent account. -- Eben Shapiro * Time Magazine *Wilson sets out to match Mumford's sweep in Metropolis, and he brilliantly synthesises the forces that make cities hum. -- John Gapper * Financial Times *Capacious, entertaining and rich in wondrous detail, this is a work of history that pulls off the startling feat of measuring up to the immensity of its subject matter. -- Tom Holland * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisNo metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together." To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it." To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias.In City of Quartz, Davis reconstructs LA's shadow history and dissects its ethereal economy. He tells us who has the power and how they hold on to it. He gives us a city of Dickensian extremes, Pynchonesque conspiracies, and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West - a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity.Trade ReviewAbsolutely fascinating. -- William GibsonFew books shed as much light on their subjects as this opinionated and original excavation of Los Angeles from the mythical debris of its past and future. * San Francisco Examiner *A history as fascinating as it is instructive. -- Peter Ackroyd * The Times *As central to the L.A. canon as anything that Carey McWilliams wrote in the forties or Joan Didion wrote in the seventies. -- Dana Goodyear * New Yorker *Angelenos, now is the time to lean into Mike Davis's apocalyptic, passionate, radical rants on the sprawling, gorgeous mess that is Los Angeles. -- Stephanie Danler, author of Stray and SweetbitterCity of Quartz deserves to be emancipated from its parochial legacy...[It is] a working theory of global cities writ large, with as much to teach us about multiculturalism as it does racial apartheid in Los Angeles. -- David Helps * Los Angeles Review of Books *A wildly original analysis of the city on the threshold of the new millennium, the book synthesized knowledge about Los Angeles's history, politics, culture, architecture, policing, immigration, and more, painting a dark picture that embodied a kind of American urban dystopia on steroids after the nightmare of Reaganism and the "developers' millennium." -- Micah Uetricht * The Nation *Dazzling * Counterfire *

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Book SynopsisBorn in Lubbock, Texas, Kimberly King Parsons won the 2020 National Magazine Award for fiction. Her debut collection, Black Light (2019), was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Story Prize, and her fiction has been published in The Paris Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her partner and children. We Were the Universe is her first novel.

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Book SynopsisBelow Scotland's capital, hidden for almost two centuries, is a metropolis whose very existence was all but forgotten. For almost 250 years, Edinburgh was surrounded by a giant defensive wall. Unable to expand the city's boundaries, the burgeoning population built over every inch of square space. And when there was no more room, they began to dig down . . . Trapped in lives of poverty and crime, these subterranean dwellers existed in darkness and misery, ignored by the chroniclers of their time. It is only in the last few years that the shocking truth has begun to emerge about the sinister underground city.

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Book Synopsis''Divide is well written and thought-provoking'' - Sunday Telegraph''A lively guide through the thorny challenges of rural life in an urban world. Essential reading for both incomer and local. Anna Jones is insightful but above all sensitive: we walk in everybody''s shoes'' - Tom Heap''This book, by farmer''s daughter and now-journalist and media presenter Anna Jones, is one of the most enjoyable and interesting books I have read this year'' - Mark AveryThis book is a call to action. It warns that unless we learn to accept and respect our social, cultural and political differences as town and country people, we are never going to solve the chronic problems in our food system and environment. As we stare down the barrel of climate change, only farmers - who manage two thirds of the UK''s landscape - working together with conservation groups can create a healthier food system and bring back nature in di

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Book SynopsisThe economic and political situation of cities has shifted in recent years in light ofrapid growth amidst infrastructure decline, the suburbanization of poverty and inner city revitalization.At the same time, the way that data are used to understand urban systems has changed dramatically. Urban Analyticsoffers a field-defining look at thechallenges and opportunities of using new and emerging data to study contemporary and future cities through methods including GIS, Remote Sensing, Big Data and Geodemographics. Written in an accessible style and packed with illustrations and interviews from key urban analysts, this is a groundbreaking new textbook for students of urban planning, urban design, geography, and the information sciences.Trade ReviewThis is a comprehensive and timely consolidation of current thinking about urban analytics. The book is fizzing with new ideas, and brimming with practical examples of the science of doing. Compulsive student reading. -- Paul LongleyUrban analytics is fast emerging as the core set of tools employed to deal with problems of big data, urban simulation, and demographics. This book is essential reading to all those involved in this newly emergent field, providing a new arsenal of analytic tools to make sense of how cities are being restructured. -- Michael BattyUrban Analytics neatly interweaves an introduction to this emerging field, with an accessible discussion of enduring themes and new approaches in quantitative geography. An engaging text that will appeal to students in a range of disciplines. -- David O′SullivanThis excellent starter text captures the excitement and enthusiasm of a new kind of urban research: one that exploits the vast new data resources that are becoming available, from social media, crowdsourcing, and sensor networks; and makes use of the unprecedented power of today′s computer technology. It fills an important gap, and will be an essential text for students in a wide range of disciplines, from civil, infrastructure, and transportation engineering to geography, planning, and urban studies. -- Michael GoodchildUrban analytics has come of age! This textbook by three leading scholars in data-driven and computational urban science is needed and welcome. It is a fantastic resource for educating the next generation of urban scholars. -- Harvey J. MillerUrban Analytics is a great introductory text for getting familiar with logics and perspectives characterising the analysis, interpretation and representation of urban data. It is a highly valuable work for urban scholars who are familiar with qualitative approaches, but would like to gain a deeper understanding of the ways data and computational techniques allow us to understand and gain meaningful knowledge of cities and urban phenomena. -- Alberto VanoloUrban analytics is integral to city infrastructure, and it is hugely important that people understand the implication and uses of City data. This book accessibly explains the underlying concepts of urban analytics for students and interested professionals. I believe this book will be very helpful, and will recommend it for my students and (business) partners in city data projects. -- Nanda PiersmaTable of ContentsQuestioning the City through Urban Analytics Sensing the City Urban Data Infrastructure Visualizing the City Differences within Cities Explaining the City Generative Urban Systems Cities as Networks and Flows The Future of Urban Analytics

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Book SynopsisUntil 1969, the City of Winnipeg had undertaken only two public housing projects even though the failure of the market to provide adequate housing for low-income Winnipeggers had been apparent since the beginning of the century. By 1919, providing housing was a significant issue in municipal politics that was embraced by civic officials, professionals, reformers, labour leaders and social democratic politicians. It also became a proxy issue for refighting the 1919 General Strike at city hall. However, Winnipeg's business community proved effective opponents of public housing.The struggle for public housing was also a struggle for democracy. Up until the 1960s, public housing required approval by a referendum in which only the city's property owners could vote. This rule deprived close to half the city's voters - and virtually everyone who might qualify to live in public housing - of the right to vote. Over decades that barrier to democracy was whittled away. An NDP provincial government elected in 1969 added 11,144 units of public housing to the existing 568 units.Today public housing is once more under attack. Rather being treated as valued public assets, they are considered embarrassing encumberments that should be sold as part of a process of turning public housing over to the private sector. The struggle to protect and expand the provision of non-profit housing is undermined by the rupture in political memory of the long struggle to build public housing and the current political situation.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThis book challenges current thinking about youth violence and gangs, and their racialisation by the media and the police. It highlights how the street gang label is unfairly linked to Black (and urban) youth street-based lifestyles/cultures and friendship groups.Trade Review"A colossus of a book..... should become the handbook for anyone attempting to address issues around young people and violence." Charlie Parker, Hiphology Ltd“A much needed and valuable addition to the literature on youth 'gangs', written in a sensitive manner informed by the author’s extensive and close up research.,. A must read for anyone interested in youth crime or in youth issues more generally." Tracy Shildrick, University of LeedsTable of ContentsIntroduction; Global perspectives on urban youth violence; The 2011 English riots; Gangs in the UK?; Policing the gang crisis; Policy, prevention and policing into practice; Road life realities and youth violence; Youth, social policy and crime; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisSusan Fainstein's concept of the "just city" encourages planners and policymakers to embrace a different approach to urban development, combining progressive city planners' earlier focus on equity and material well-being with considerations of diversity.Trade Review[Fainstein's] work deepens, enriches, and extends deliberative planning theory in complementary rather than antagonistic ways. Like the idea of justice itself, The Just City is not the last word concluding a debate. More important, it is a trenchant, penetrating, and reasoned contribution to precisely that discursive and contested, but necessary and fruitful deliberative process that fuels the hope for progress toward realization of the just city. -- Sarah J. Peterson * Journal of Planning Education and Research *The just city is one in which equity, democracy, and diversity are important considerations. This is in contrast with the city as growth machine. Fainstein examines three cities: New York, London, and Amsterdam. She provides a history of post–World War II planning and then focuses on fairly recent cases of development in each. Her goals, though modest, are important if growing inequality in urban areas is to be reversed. Recommended. * Choice *Susan Fainstein's book is the result of some 20 years of intense research and thinking on the subject of the 'just city,' and it seems likely to me to become something of a classic.... Fainstein's slightly deadpan style serves only to make her accounts more compelling. A recent history of planning in London, written with equality, democracy and diversity in mind, is really useful as a teaching tool. Here the Docklands development, Coin Street and the 2012 Olympics are placed under scrutiny, with the last of those three, perhaps not surprisingly, receiving poor marks on the grounds of equity not least because the 'huge expenditure involved took away resources from other parts of London and the country more widely without providing them any benefits beyond the glory of hosting the Games.'... She notes that there are two possible responses to the injustices illustrated by the book. The first is to recognize the impossibility of achieving even small amounts of justice within the dominant system of global capitalism. The second, which is one that Fainstein herself adheres to, is that much can be achieved through incremental change. The book's final chapter is therefore devoted to a discussion of policies that are conducive to social justice in cities. Her vision is of a world where market forces no longer dominate decisions about city planning and justice drives the world of policy. -- Flora Samuel * Times Higher Education Supplement *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Toward an Urban Theory of Justice 1. Philosophical Approaches to the Problem of Justice 2. Justice and Urban Transformation: Planning in Context 3. New York 4. London 5. Amsterdam: A Just City? 6. Conclusion: Toward the Just City References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Admirably thorough. . . . Anyone curious about the impact of migration on the history and culture of London could do worse than read the chapter on food in this exhaustive history.”—Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times“Panayi’s wonderfully detailed study is a glorious celebration of how migrants have contributed to London’s rich and many-stranded cultural identity: ‘cosmopolitanism has characterized the evolution of London since the arrival of the Romans who founded this city of immigrants.’”—PD Smith, The Guardian, “This Month’s Best Paperbacks”“This book convincingly argues that, more than in any other city in Europe, let alone the world, migrants have shaped the destiny of London.”—Francis Ghiles, Esglobal“Panayi’s superb study demonstrates how migrants have been crucial in the flourishing of skills, labour, and knowledge that have made London a cosmopolitan city.”—Charlotte Faucher, Journal of Contemporary History“An interesting and rewarding book. . . . You can be familiar with the facts of everyday life in a cosmopolitan, multicultural city but still be surprised and enriched by Panayi’s scholarly analysis.”—James Evans, Spectator“Said to be the first history of London to show how immigrants have built, shaped and made a great success of the capital city, Migrant City by Panikos Panayi is a fascinating and revealing book.”—John Singleton, Methodist Recorder“Migrant City, an invaluable and scholarly resource, chronicles multi-shaded, multi-ethnic London in all its glory.”—Ian Thomson, Evening Standard“[A] compendious and illuminating survey of London.”—Boyd Tonkin, Arts Desk“A love letter to the UK’s capital and its history of immigration.”—Maya Goodfellow, Prospect“Detailed and well-referenced. . . . A valuable resource.”—Jad Adams, Who Do You Think You Are?“This worthwhile and sensitive survey looks at the history of virtually every immigrant community to have settled in London since the eighteenth century, and in turn assesses almost every facet of that experience.”—Mike Berlin, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society“This book celebrates London, its uniqueness, and its influence. It also acknowledges the drive, struggle and fortitude of the myriad migrants who call London their home. They and London have made a dynamic accommodation delivering a vibrant, if at times, fractious multicultural mega city.”—Barry Coidan, London Society“Whilst Migrant City will undoubtedly become a key text for students of migration, it will be of great use to anyone interested in urban history generally or the interplay between economic, political, and cultural change in Britain.”—Daniel Renshaw, Cultural and Social History“This is a brave and powerful book. . . . Migration is always present and is always at the heart of local histories. . . . We thus need more work such as the astonishing achievement of Migrant City to test out its wider claims. In the meantime, we should recognise the book as simply one of the finest contributions to the historical study of migration to Britain in recent decades.”—Tony Kushner, Immigrants & Minorities“Migrant City is a substantial achievement and is relevant to those interested not only in the history of migration, but also urban, economic, and social history. It makes clear in glorious and often surprising detail the myriad ways that migrants have contributed to the making of London.”—Jean P. Smith, Reviews in History“Immigrants from near and far are the lifeblood of any great city, none more than London. This is a masterly and invaluable history of a neglected topic.”—Simon Jenkins, author of A Short History of London“An eclectic integration of interviews, personal stories, case-studies and historical analyses, Migrant City: A New History of London tells a powerful story about London’s reliance on immigration. Its potency comes from its incontrovertibility; without immigration, London would not exist as we know it. Panayi bravely confronts the lazy and often arbitrary distinction between immigrant and native to boldly showcase what it really means to be a Londoner in the modern world.”—David Lammy, MP for Tottenham and campaigner for the Windrush generation“The history of London book I’ve been waiting a London lifetime for—Panayi delivers modern and ancient truths about this city through a personal, heartfelt style that beats from the page. In these divisive times, this is an urgent and necessary history of our capital city.”—Sabrina Mahfouz, contributor to The Good Immigrant

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Book SynopsisA powerful critique of urban development in greater Johannesburg since the end of apartheid in 1994.Trade Review“In this meticulously researched account of Johannesburg’s socio-spatial history, Martin J. Murray gets beneath the surface of the city’s chaotic present to discover the inertia of long-term deployments. He finds that ingrained habits of urban planning and real estate entrepreneurship have always been mobilized in the city as twin mechanisms of change and renewal across moments of territorial mutation. This exposes post-apartheid transformation as a rearticulation of old orders and habits and makes an important contribution to revising the idea of a decisive historical rupture at the end of apartheid.”—Lindsay Bremner, Professor of Architecture, Tyler School of Art, Temple University“Martin J. Murray navigates the slippery interfaces where mega-development, social progress, dystopian dread, racial enclaving, and mobilities of all kinds intersect, revealing both the alarming disposition of Africa’s most heterogeneous city and a rough-hewn humanity despite the odds. At each step, Murray is precise and impassioned in this no-holds-barred analysis of the lengths to which politicians, business people, planners, entrepreneurs, and developers will go to hold a city down.”—AbdouMaliq Simone, author of For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities“This is a book that should be read with attentiveness. It traces the lines of a city in which profound daily violence and suffering coexist with theatrical excess. It shows in convincing breadth that although the living conditions of suburban enclaves and those who dwell in abandoned buildings of the inner city may be ‘worlds apart,’ they are also closely connected to one another, and part of the same historical and economic processes.” -- Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon * Mail & Guardian *“The political, economic, and social tensions that have accompanied the city’s everchanging urban landscape are on display in this well-researched and penetrating work. . . . City of Extremes is a significant and helpful resource for the study of cities in an era of globalization and urbanization.” -- Travis Vaughn * International Bulletin of Missionary Research * “[A]n excellent addition to the literature on Johannesburg, and a must-read book for all serious scholars with an interest in the City of Gold.” -- Keith Beavon * Comparativ *Table of ContentsList of Maps vii List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xxvii Abbreviations xxxi Introduction. Spatial Politics in the Precarious City 1 Part I 23 Making Space: City Building and the Production of the Built Enivronment 1. The Restless Urban Landscape: The Evolving Spatial Geography of Johannesburg 29 2. The Flawed Promise of the High-Modernist City: City Building at the Apex of Apartheid Rule 59 Part II 83 Unraveling Space: Centrifugal Urbanism and the Convulsive City 3. Hollowing out the Center: Johannesburg Turned Inside Out 87 4. Worlds Apart: The Johannesburg Inner City and the Making of the Outcast Ghetto 137 5. The Splintering Metropolis: Laissez-faire Urbanism and Unfettered Suburban Sprawl 173 Part III 205 Fortifying Space: Siege Architecture and Anxious Urbanism 6. Defensive Urbanism after Apartheid: Spatial Partitioning and the New Fortification Aesthetic 213 7. Entrepreneurial Urbanism and the Private City 245 8. Reconciling Arcadia and Utopia: Gated Residential Estates at the Metropolitan Edge 283 Epilogue. Putting Johannesburg in Its Place: The Ordinary City 321 Appendix 333 Notes 337 Bibliography 423 Index 463

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Book SynopsisThis is the most comprehensive guide ever written on renewables technology and engineering, intended to cater for the rapidly growing numbers of present and future engineers who are keen to lead the revolution. All the main sectors are covered - photovoltaics, solar thermal, wind, bioenergy, hydro, wave/tidal, geothermal - progressing from the fundamental physical principles, through resource assessment and site evaluation to in-depth examination of the characteristics and employment of the various technologies. The authors are all experienced practitioners, and as such recognise the cross-cutting importance of system sizing and integration. Clear diagrams, photos, tables and equations make this in invaluable reference tool, while worked examples mean the explanations are well-grounded and easy to follow - essential for students and professionals alike.Table of ContentsPreface * Energy and development * Renewable energy utilization * Review of basic scientific and engineering principles * The solar energy resource * Solar photovoltaic technology * Solar thermal engineering * Elements of passive solar architecture * Wind energy resources * Introduction to wind turbine technology * Small hydro: resource and technology * Geothermal energy, tidal energy, wave energy, and ocean thermal energy * Bio-energy resources * Thermochemical conversion of biomass * Biochemical methods of conversion * Liquid fuels from biomass: fundamentals, process chemistry, and technologies * Index

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Book SynopsisSmall Spaces recasts the history of the British empire by focusing on the small spaces that made the empire possible. It takes as its subject a series of small architectural spaces, objects, and landscapes and uses them to narrate the untold stories of the marginalized peoplethe servants, women, children, subalterns, and racialized minoritieswho held up the infrastructure of empire. In so doing it opens up an important new approach to architectural history: an invitation to shift our attention from the large to the small scale. Taking the British empire in India as its primary focus, this book presents eighteen short, readable chapters to explore an array of overlooked places and spaces. From cook rooms and slave quarters to outhouses, go-downs, and medicine cupboards, each chapter reveals how and why these kinds of minor spaces are so important to understanding colonialism. With the focus of history so often on the large scale - global trade networks, vast regions, and archiTrade ReviewThis brilliantly provocative study provides an alternative, micro-scalar history of colonial and middle-class domiciles, along with an extraordinary archaeology of objects and bodies that mediated the intimacy of the rulers and the ruled—taking us on an exhilarating journey from the cellars, kitchens, dining rooms and verandahs of the imperial mansions of Calcutta to the streets, bazars and bungalows of the Bengal and north-Indian countryside. * Sudipta Sen, University of California, Davis, USA *In this erudite yet eminently accessible volume, Chattopadhyay imaginatively stitches together the overlooked worlds of fragmented and seemingly minor spaces underpinning the workings of everyday life and better regarded practices, inspiring readers, by example, to recognize their indispensability and resilience. * Zeynep Kezer, Newcastle University, UK *An original examination of empire from marginal spaces in the built environment. This book unites subalterns with the spatial medium of their agency during colonial rule. It brilliantly reveals the hidden infrastructure of empire through an architectural and social history of service, separation, and subordination. * K. Sivaramakrishnan, Yale University, USA *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Part I. Small Spaces 1. Of Small Spaces 2. Empire of Small Spaces Part II: Trade and Labor 3. Dependency 4. Locating the Bottlekhana 5. Potable Empire 6. Europe Goods 7. Strange Tongues 8. Making Invisible Part III: Land Imagination 9. Vantage 10. Connective Spaces 11. Anomalous Spaces 12. An Aesthetic Episode 13. Roofscape Part IV: A Geography of Small Spaces 14. Collections and Containment 15. Portable Geographies 16. A Good Shelf 17. A Box of Medicine 18. Epilogue Appendix A Index

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Book Synopsis''A deeply evocative, highly descriptive and thoroughly enjoyable plunge into Britain''s urban wildlife with an authentically hopeful message'' Geographical MagazineCity-dwellers, it''s time to meet your neighbours.In Wild City Florence Wilkinson takes us on a fascinating journey into why we should engage with our fellow urban species, from the badgers of central Brighton, to tunnel-dwelling Black Country bats to the mosquitoes found on the London Underground and nowhere else on earth.She shares what we might see - if we only take the time to look - and how nature is adapting to human-engineered environments in unexpected and ingenious ways.This gorgeously lyrical book invites us to celebrate the natural world, while also offering a clear-eyed glimpse into the challenges faced by urban plants and animals as cities grow and sprawl.Florence proposes a compelling manifesto for city wildlife, suggesting how we might take actio

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Book SynopsisHave 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, Trade Review«This book should be required reading for future and current teachers.» (Kimberly Fairchild, Sex Roles 2017)

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Book SynopsisHow public history can be a catalyst for stronger relationships between universities and their communitiesTrade Review“Through a collection of compelling scholarship, Bachin and Howard have shown the importance of universities for correcting discrimination and its legacies. Consider this book more than a compendium of inventive campus-community partnerships; it’s an indispensable guide for the future of urban justice.”—N.D.B. Connolly, Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and author of A World More Concrete: Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida“Robin Bachin and Amy Howard have compiled a powerful case for publicly engaged scholarship not only as a vitally important modus operandi for urban historians but also for universities writ large. The composite picture they have pieced together from public history case studies drawn from cities across the nation compellingly illustrates how the ‘lens of the past’ provides a foundation for reciprocal engagement between universities and their communities. Engaging Place, Engaging Practices vividly demonstrates the value of urban universities collaborating with local partners to heal historical wounds, co-create knowledge of who we are today, and put our universities and communities jointly on a path to racial equity and justice.”—Nancy Cantor, Chancellor and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University–Newark, and coeditor of Our Compelling Interests: The Value of Diversity for Democracy and a Prosperous Society"A real strength of this collection is the range of university–community partnerships highlighted.... Engaging Place, Engaging Practices is an excellent addition to the literature on public history, public humanities, and university–community partnerships. The range of projects included in the book make it an appealing read for anyone already doing university–community partnership work and for those who want to join in it.... [T]he volume is convincing in its call for historians and the broader university to truly partner with surrounding communities in order to collectively analyze and engage in pressing social, economic, and environmental problems." —Teachers College Record"In nearly all the chapters, the authors demonstrate that sustained collaboration and committed university leadership are essential to ensure that the potential and power of urban universities can be leveraged to promote positive change.... [C]hapters demonstrate how instructors and individual courses can make a difference in the lives of students and residents. As such, the collection provides examples at a variety of scales—from the block, neighborhood, city, and regional school-of '...colleges and universities [striving] to matter'. In doing so, the editors make the case that the engaged university can and should do more to shape 'inclusive, equitable, and sustainable' communities—and that universities need to assume a heightened leadership role in a post-COVID-19 world."—Economic Development Quarterly

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Book SynopsisThe third edition of this long-established guide offers an invaluable, authoritative and concise introduction to community development. Fully updated to reflect changes in policy, practice, economics and culture it will equip readers with an understanding of the history and theory of community development, as well as practical guidance.Trade Review"It's an extremely useful publication, which presents some refreshingly straightforward observations, whilst acknowledging the complexity of the politics and the practice. I will recommend it to students". Mae Shaw, Institute of Education, University of Edinburgh "Great book. I really relied on it in class as language was accessible and practical examples connected with the students." Sharon Mallon, Staffordshire University"A great resource — so well written and informative." Sarah Banks, Professor of Community and Youth Work at Durham University"The Short Guide to Community Development is a valuable and concise contemporary account of community development." Community Development Journal"An extremely useful introductory text, which covers all of the essential building blocks for an up-to-date understanding of the practice of community development work in the United Kingdom" Dr Rosemary Moreland, University of UlsterTable of ContentsIntroduction What is community development? The changing context of community development Theoretical concepts Effective and ethical community development: what’s needed? Applying community development in different service areas Challenges for practice Current and future trends

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Book SynopsisIn this book urban gardening is critically discussed as socio-political action which addresses spatial justice as well as social cohesion, inclusiveness, social innovations and equity in cities. -- .

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Book SynopsisAccording to the United Nations, more than one billion people now live in the slums of the cities of the South. In this brilliant and ambitious book, Mike Davis explores the future of a radically unequal and explosively unstable urban world. From the sprawling barricadas of Lima to the garbage hills of Manila, urbanization has been disconnected from industrialization, and even from economic growth. Davis portrays a vast humanity warehoused in shantytowns and exiled from the formal world economy. He argues that the rise of this informal urban proletariat is a wholly unforeseen development, and asks whether the great slums, as a terrified Victorian middle class once imagined, are volcanoes waiting to erupt.Trade ReviewA profound enquiry into an urgent subject . a brilliant book. -- Arundhati RoyWith cool indignation, Davis argues that the exponential growth of slums is no accident but the result of a perfect storm of corrupt leadership, institutional failure, and IMF-imposed programs leading to a massive transfer of wealth from rich to poor . Like the work of Jacob Riis, Ida Tarbell, and Lincoln Steffens over a century ago, this searing indictment makes the shame of our cities urgently clear. -- Michael SorkinThe Raymond Chandler of urban geography . In Planet of Slums, Davis's genre is the global disaster movie, as directed by the chroniclers of Victorian poverty: Engels, Booth and Dickens. The scale of modern squalor revealed in his brilliant survey dwarfs its predecessors . a coruscating tragedy. * Independent *The astonishing facts hit like anvil blows . Davis has produced a heartbreaking book that hammers the reader a little further into the ground with the blow of each new and shocking statistic. * Financial Times *A terrifying, magisterial work. * Harper’s *There can be no doubt about the achievement of Planet of Slums . it forces us, angrily, to confront the deplorable realities of slum existence and the limitations of slum policies in many developing countries. * Times (London) *While many case studies have described what it means to reside in a favela, basti, kampung, gecekondu or bidonville, Davis provides a properly global portrait . And whereas urban specialists have focused on questions of space and land use in their discussions of slums, and developmentalists on the issue of their 'informal economies', Planet of Slums commands our attention as a broader historical synthesis of the two. * New Left Review *Davis's descriptions of the conditions endured by slum-dwellers provide reason enough to read this book. His analysis is full of gripping stories from globalization's frontline. * New Statesman *Packed with rigorous analysis and heart-stopping facts, this is a brilliant exploration of how millions of poor city-dwellers worldwide are being driven to the squalid periurban shadowlands of today's megaslums . Davis's book is absolutely vital reading. * Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisFrom Hackney, With Love is both a unique love letter to one of the most vibrant parts of London and a warning that its very existence is in jeopardy.

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Book SynopsisA new edition of Britain's Changing Towns (1967), introduced, edited and updated by Owen Hatherley: "These essays show him writing about cities and towns as wholes rather than as collections of individual buildings. In each of them, there are several things happening at once - assessments of historic townscape, capsule reviews of new buildings, attempts to find the specific character of each place - "Table of ContentsCONTENTS Well worth a boggle - an introduction to Ian Nairn 1 Birmingham 2 Superlative Newcastle-upon-Tyne 3 Canterbury: the happy city 4 Patrician Manchester 5 Glasgow and Cumbernauld New Town 6 Llanidloes, the Pocket Metropolis 7 Exciting Possibilities of Modern Sheffield 8 Friendly Plymouth 9 The Borough of St Marylebone 10 The wise city of Chester 11 Proud Derry 12 Brighton: model for affluence 13 Cardiff, the Welsh Enigma 14 Liverpool: world city 15 Norwich: regional capital 16 The burghs of Fife Europe's Reconstructed Cities: Introduction 17 Cologne and its Churches 18 Regimented Rotterdam 19 Comfortable Munich 20 Good-natured Milan 21 Three French Towns - Caen, St Malo, Le Havre 22 Zurich

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Book SynopsisWith this book is completed a trilogy of works begun in 2005 with This City Now: Glasgow and its Working Class Past, and continuing with Clydeside; Red Orange and Green in 2009. The three books have all had similar aims in trying to raise the profile of forgotten or neglected areas and aspects of Glasgow and its history, in a small way trying to boost the esteem in which such places are held by the people who live in there and by those who visit. Moving away slightly from the working class focus, this third instalment presents a broad view of Glasgow’s industrial, social and intellectual history. From public art to socialist memorials, and from factories to cultural hubs, Ian Mitchell takes the reader on a guided tour of Glasgow, outlining walking routes which encompass the city’s forgotten icons.

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Book SynopsisOver the past decade, Ethiopia has had one of the world's fastest growing economies, largely due to its investments in infrastructure, and it is through building dams, roads, and other infrastructure that the Ethiopian state seeks to become a middle-income country by 2025. Yet most urban Ethiopians struggle to meet their daily needs and actively oppose a ruling party that they associate with corruption and mismanagement. In Under Construction Daniel Mains explores the intersection of development and governance by examining the conflicts surrounding the construction of specific infrastructural technologies: asphalt and cobblestone roads, motorcycle taxis, and hydroelectric dams. These projects serve as sites for nation building and the means for the state to assert its legitimacy. The construction process-as well as Ethiopians' experience of living with the disruption of construction zones-reveals the tension and conflict between the promise of progress and the possibility of failure. Mains demonstrates how infrastructures as both ethnographic sites and as a means of theorizing such concepts as progress, development, and the state offer a valuable contrast to accounts of African abjection and decline.Trade Review“Based on years of ethnographic research, Under Construction is a magnificent and thorough exposition that describes the ambivalence and hope invested in construction projects in Ethiopia. Construction, Daniel Mains demonstrates, is a vital location at which relationships between states and citizens are grounded. While they are powerful gatherings of technology and finance, construction projects are also precarious and full of danger. In exploring the tensions that are intrinsic to construction projects, Mains effortlessly brings together theorizations of historical materialism, vital materialism, and affect theory to produce a dazzling and clear account of how construction is incrementally and yet fundamentally transforming the political landscape of cities of the global South.” -- Nikhil Anand, author of * Hydraulic City: Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai *“Under Construction stages urgent interventions into development and governance, citizen and state, Afro-optimism and neoliberal pessimism in order to depict the complexities of infrastructure in Africa. Daniel Mains's work makes clear that the relationships between infrastructure, state, labor, and modernity are variable and contingent—sometimes smooth, often sticky and fraught—while making a compelling case for Ethiopia as a rich site for theoretical and ethnographic attention.” -- Charles Piot, author of * The Fixer: Visa Lottery Chronicles *"This study by Mains should be accepted with gratitude, and welcomed as a huge contribution to Ethiopian studies of urban development." -- Fasika Gedif * African Studies Quarterly *"Under Construction makes an important contribution not only to the field of the anthropology of development but also to urban development, at a time when many studies in Ethiopia have been placing more emphasis on rural communities. Daniel Mains, while basing his empirical evidence on the selected urban projects which appear to be perpetually under construction, shows that the process of construction has changed the relationship between citizens and the state, and not always for the better." -- Gemechu Admassu Abeshu * African Studies Review *"The book represents an important contribution to the field of infrastructure within anthropology and beyond. . . . Under Construction represents a seminal contribution to this field of study." -- Felipe Fernandez * Anthropologica *“Offering a much-needed ethnographic investigation into the lives, livelihoods and labour relations that inhabit construction work in contemporary urban Africa, Under Construction contributes significantly to current debates and scholarship in urban studies, infrastructure, international development, and African Studies.” -- Pauline Destrée * Anthropological Notebooks *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Foundations for Development: Infrastructure, the State, and Construction 1 1. Constructing a Renaissance: Hydropower and the Temporal Politics of Development 29 2. Asphalt Roads, Regulating Infrastructures, and Improvised Lives 58 3. Feeling Change through Dirt and Water: The Affective Politics of Urban Development of Jimma, 2009–2015 92 4. Governing the Bajaj: States, Markets, and Multiple Materialisms 121 5. What Can a Stone Do? Cobblestone Roads, Governance, and Labor 151 Conclusion. The Time of Construction 181 Notes 193 References 203 Index 217

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“We don’t know as much about affluent people as we think we do. Caricatures abound, but the socioeconomically lucky don’t often offer themselves up for study. That all changed with Rachel Sherman’s Uneasy Street. . . . With each reading, I’m a little more unsettled, in the best possible way.”—Ron Lieber, New York Times“There have been many cogent analyses of income inequality. Sociologist Rachel Sherman’s welcome addition probes the psychology and socio-economics of affluence.”—Barb Kiser, Nature“Sherman takes a dispassionate approach to find out how those who are `benefitting from rising economic inequality’ experience `their own social advantages.’ She elicits her subjects’ thoughts about work and productivity, charitable giving, marital discord and more. Worthwhile humanizing ensues, as do plenty of squirm-inducing moments.”—John Williams, New York Times Book Review“Sherman offers something new and surprising: a look inside the 1 per cent’s minds. . . . She shifts our understanding of today’s dominant class.”—Simon Kuper, Financial Times

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