Description
Book SynopsisThis timely text provides a comprehensive overview of the dramatic and rapidly evolving issues confronting the cities of North America. Metropolitan areas throughout the United States and Canada face a range of dynamic and complex concernsincluding the redistribution of economic activities, the continued decline of manufacturing, and a global growth in services. The contributors provide compelling examples: Inner cities have experienced both gentrification and continued areas of segregation and poverty. Downtown revitalization has created urban spectacles that include festivals, marketplaces, and sports stadiums. Older, inner-ring suburbs now confront decline and increased poverty, while the outer-ring suburbs and exurbs continue to expand, devouring green space. The book explores how the combined processes of urbanization and globalization have added new responsibilities for city governments at the same time leaders are grappling with planning, economic development and finance, justic
Trade ReviewThis ambitious volume . . .tackles the multitude of issues facing the 21st century North American city including economic restructuring, globalisation, changing urban governance, growing and emerging inequalities, changing demographics and identities, the new challenges of the suburbs, pollution, hazards and sustainability, as well as how the ways in which urban geographers study cities has changed. . . . An ideal text for any undergraduate urban studies class, particularly those in geography or sociology. . . . This is a great book and I will certainly use it in my urban sociology classes and I encourage other urbanists to do so as well. * Urban Studies *
A sparkling contribution to our knowledge of the urban issues facing the United States and Canada in this second decade of the twenty-first century. The editor has assembled a team of leading scholars, masterfully integrating their highly accessible chapters to maximize students' understanding of the rapidly changing metropolitan scene. Among the cutting-edge topics covered are changing approaches to urban geography, the latest impacts of globalization on cities and suburbs, the emergence of new social identities on the urban landscape, and the troubling effects of the ever-widening income gap. Especially valuable is the emphasis given to urban dimensions of the natural environment, which points toward the next big thing in researching and teaching about North American cities—urban sustainability. I wholeheartedly recommend this volume to anyone teaching courses in the urban-related social and environmental sciences as well as planners and policymakers concerned with the forces that continue to reshape the American metropolis. -- Peter O. Muller, University of Miami
North America became a majority-urban realm early in the twentieth century. The world became a majority-urban planet early in the twenty-first century. Urbanization has re-arranged populations everywhere, forced the creation of new living environments, overworked the networks of transportation and communication, and challenged local governments to provide jobs and services. None of this has happened without problems of continental proportion, and there is no better way to get a handle on those issues than by delving into Cities of North America. -- Donald J. Zeigler, Old Dominion University
Table of ContentsChapter 1: An Introduction to Cities of North America Lisa Benton-Short Chapter 2: Changing Approaches to Urban Geography Katie Wells Chapter 3: An Urban History Robert Lewis Chapter 4: Border Cities Lindsey Sutton Part I: Urban Economies Chapter 5: Urban Economic Restructuring David Wilson and Matthew Anderson Chapter 6: Globalization and the City Yeong-Hyun Kim Part II: Urban Governance Chapter 7: Urban Governance Thomas J. Vicino Chapter 8: Planning and Politics Amanda Huron Part III: Urban Social/Cultural Challenges Chapter 9: Urban Inequities Deborah G. Martin Chapter 10: Urban Demographics and Identities Nathaniel M. Lewis Chapter 11: Suburban Challenges Bernadette Hanlon Part IV: The Urban Environment Chapter 12: Cities and Pollution Lisa Benton-Short and Christopher DeSousa Chapter 13: Cities and Hazards John P. Tiefenbacher Chapter 14: Urban Sustainability Geoff Buckley
