Description
Book SynopsisThis insightful book explores smaller towns and cities, places in which the majority of people live, highlighting that these more ordinary places have extraordinary geographies. It focuses on the development of an alternative approach to urban studies and theory that foregrounds smaller cities and towns rather than much larger cities and conurbations.
Comparative case studies from Australia, Cambodia, India, Korea, the UK and US provide a rich collection of theoretically informed investigations into smaller urban centres that are connected in complex ways to regional, national and international flows of people, goods, ideas and materials. The book further examines policy development and implementation in smaller towns and cities. Chapters analyse core societal challenges, including economic restructuring, urban decline and renewal, and ageing populations.
This is a timely and important book for students of human geography, urban studies, planning, and economic geography, particularly those focusing on cities and economic development. It will also appeal to policymakers and planners seeking insights on current debates reframing urban theory to embrace more ordinary towns and cities.
Trade Review'Ordinary Cities, Extraordinary Geographies
is a call for a more inclusive research agenda centering overlooked places often perceived as less important because they are not exceptionally large, or wealthy, or confronted by exceptional circumstances. Bryson, Kalafsky, and Vanchan have assembled both a compelling argument for studying ordinary places and a collection of international empirical examples. The result is an illustration of how and why studying ordinary places is essential to building a more inclusive research agenda for geography (and more broadly social science).' -- Jennifer Clark, The Ohio State University, US
Table of ContentsContents: Preface: ordinary cities – place, space, time and biographical narratives xii Acknowledgements xvi 1 Ordinary cities, extraordinary geographies: parallax dimensions, interpolations and the scale question 1 John R. Bryson, Ronald V. Kalafsky and Vida Vanchan 2 The progressive city in the neighborhood context 23 George R. Frantz 3 The mechanics of small metropolitan labor markets in the U.S. South: does job growth always drive population growth? 43 Jonathan Kozar and William Graves 4 Examining the exports of smaller southern cities and assessing “borrowed size” 67 Ronald V. Kalafsky 5 (Extra) Ordinary Geelong: state-led urban regeneration and economic revival 84 Louise C. Johnson, Sally Weller and Tom Barnes 6 The infraordinary or the ordinary as extraordinary? Expertise (and not global) production networks and ordinary towns and cities 106 Stephen Williams and John R. Bryson 7 An ordinary but extraordinary city: Siem Reap Angkor, Cambodia 133 Vida Vanchan 8 Resilience and development of a small city in India: Dholpur, Rajasthan 151 Suparna Soni 9 Interconnection between ethnic enclaves in a small city and globalization 164 Kamyoung Kim and Ju-Hyun Bae 10 Beside the seaside: vertical dis-integration, demographic imbalance and adaptation in UK coastal communities 190 Jacob Salder 11 Reframing urban theory: smaller towns and cities, forms of life, embeddedplasticity and variegated urbanism 210 John R. Bryson, Vida Vanchan and Ronald V. Kalafsky Index
