Urban Theory: A critical introduction to power, cities and urbanism in the 21st century

by Alan Harding, Talja Blokland

What is Urban Theory? How can it be used to understand our urban experiences? Experiences typically defined by enormous inequalities, not just between cities but within cities, in an increasingly interconnected and globalised world. This book
Relations between urban theory and modernity in key ideas of the Chicago School, spatial analysis, humanistic urban geography, and 'radical′ approaches like Marxism Cities and the transition to informational economies, globalization, urban growth machine and urban regime theory, the city as an "actor" Spatial expressions of inequality and key ideas like segregation, ghettoization, suburbanization, gentrification Socio-cultural spatial expressions of difference and key concepts like gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity and "culturalist" perspectives on identity, lifestyle, subculture How cities should be understood as intersections of horizontal and vertical - of coinciding resources, positions, locations, influencing how we make and understand urban experiences. Critical, interdisciplinary and pedagogically informed - with opening summaries, boxes, questions for discussion and guided further reading - Urban A Critical Introduction to Power, Cities and Urbanism in the 21st Century provides the tools for any student of the city to understand, even to change, our own urban experiences.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction

310 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 13, 2014

Reviews

[Richie Chan]

I've just begun reading this book this afternoon. 2 chapters in and I must say that the authors have done a brilliant walkthrough in developments of urban theory. As someone who believes in human agency, I found it insightful as I learnt something about structuralist-agency debates, and also how I could perhaps look further into hermeneutics approach, go deeper into post-positive, subjective approaches, which are interrelated. Most importantly, as someone aspiring to do some research in urban futures, I need to be aware and conscious of how I am 'coming in' to my research work. I.e., what is my role, what is my subjectivity, what is my locale, my position, my biases, my values etc., as all these inform how I approach theoretically and how I apply them into future research work. The reading continues after chapter 2...