City Planning: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #655

by Carl Abbott

City planning is a practice and a profession. It is also a set of goals and--sometimes utopian--aspirations. Formal thought about the shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments calls on the same range of disciplines and approaches that we use for understanding cities themselves, from art and literature through the social and natural sciences. Surrounding the core profession of city planning, also known as urban or town planning, are related fields of architecture, landscape design, engineering, geography, political science and policy, sociology, and social work. In addition, the legions of community and environmental activists influence debates and controversies within the field.

This Very Short Introduction is organized around eight key aspects of city planning: street layout; congestion and decentralization; the response to suburbanization; the conservation and regeneration of older districts; cities as natural systems; cities and regions; social class and ethnicity; and disasters and resilience. The underlying assumption throughout is that decisions that we make today about cities and metropolitan regions are best understood as the continuation of past efforts to solve fundamental problems that have shifted and evolved over multiple generations. At its best, city planning utilizes technical tools to achieve goals set by community action and political debate. Carl Abbott's addition to Oxford's long-running Very Short Introduction series is a brief but concentrated look at past decisions about the management of urban growth and their effects on the creation of the twenty-first century city.

ABOUT THE SERIES:
The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Nonfiction, Urban Planning, Cities, Urbanism

160 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2020

Reviews

[Bradley Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good content and information, but it was repetitive and not as engaging as some other books in this series.

[Sneha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely not a well written introduction. It felt chaotic and scattered, jumping through hundreds of examples of cities and parks and malls and transportation systems through history without simply explaining key concepts involved thoroughly, as an introductory book should do. It crams examples without any depth or explanation, leaving you feeling like you read a bunch of random city names and dates without really having any take aways.

[Harry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping to understand the city planning from a more holistic point of view and see how the decisions were made ok n general. But instead, the book is organized more like a collection of loosely connected essays for specific cities.

[Victoria Le]

The first that I've finished in its entirety in the last 8 years LMFAO #itsgivingacademic #booktokgirlyera #wheresmymotorcycleguytho
I like how it constantly references Toronto LOL shoutoutttt~~~~

Note to self: Learn about Hannah Beachler

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a quest to read 20 non-fiction books this year. This one felt a little out of my comfort zone, but mostly due to the broad scope this story took. As a student interested in Civil Engineering, I was hoping this book would have some cool history of how city planners choose a layout. It was more about specific cities and the history of legislation.

All in all, it was okay. I wish it had more pictures and diagrams.

[Matthew Emery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps it's my own ignorance speaking, but I still have little understanding of a city planner actually does. This book reads more like a series of loosely connected essays on the ethics of designing urban spaces. The essays themselves are interesting enough, but not why I picked up this book.

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

City Planning : A Very Short Introduction (2020) by Carl Abbott is a very worthwhile outline of city planning through history and around the world. Abbott is an Emeritus Professor of Urban Studies.

The book starts by describing how new street layouts were done historically and in the growing cities of the US. The rise of suburbs is covered next. Then the role of the centre of the city and how it’s being revitalised. A chapter on contested communities and how well off people often drive city planning is next. The rise of ever larger cities and mega-regions such as the Boston to Washington megaregion and new megaregions in China are next. Getting more nature and parks to absorb water and make cities better is next described. Oddly the chapter on Nature also describes the vital part of city planning that involves getting water nd energy to residents. There is then a chapter on disasters and their impacts on cities. Finally Abbott discusses how city planning will be part of what forges future cities.

Abbott knows his subject intimately and describes cities all over the world and the people who built them.

City Planning gives a quick overview of how cities have had plans and planners that have sometimes shaped them. It’s a good Very Short Introduction book.

[Xingqi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a non-fiction and introductory text, it does not do a very good job at stating clearly the extent of the field's subject matter, the scope of practice, and often (in my perception) attempts to encapsulate too much in a very limited writing space, the end result of which being that it fails to delineate anything very clearly, with information from different themes, different eras, different schools of thought entangled together in an inextricable mixture. Trying to summarise the key messages, key events, key thoughts in this book has been more difficult than most non-fiction books I've read, as one sentence often serves both as a key message as well as a transitional point from one message to the next, making the main messages very elusive. Now with that said I have not read the other books in this series so I cannot comment on the calibre of those. Overall not an excellent introductory text, but I was still able to learn some key ideas/concepts with supplementation from my own research.

[Mary L · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped reading City Planning: A Very Short Introduction for a bit because I was dismayed to discover that modern urban planning has roots in colonialism (I know, I shouldn't have been surprised at this point). Once I started reading the book again, I realized that the book is full of valuable considerations about urban planning in general. For instance, the book posits that current urban planning disproportionally disadvantages minorities, the elderly, children, people with disabilities, and, to some extent, women, who are often in charge of running errands and chauffeuring family members. Other interesting topics include environmentalist urban plannning, bottom-up led urban planning, and urban planning in preparation of natural disasters (thanks to climate change).

In summary, City Planning: A Very Short Introduction is a nice intro to urban planning though sometimes the book is a bit boring/dry.

[Danny Huang · Rating 3 out of 5]

was ok.

[Sheldon · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. Some interesting parts, but kind of read like a disjointed group project instead of cohesive work.