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The SAGE Companion to the City
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The SAGE Companion to the City

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408 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"This book pulls together an exceptional range of literature in addressing the complexity of contemporary patterns and processes of urbanization. It offers a rich array of concepts and theories and is studded with fascinating examples that illustrate the changing nature of cities and urban life."
—Paul Knox, University Distinguished Professer, Virginia Tech University


This well-organized and up-to-date text is a comprehensive study guide to the city. It explains and evaluates the key ideas informed by the latest research, adding the necessary historical context to situate the student in the literature and the essential debates.

Organized in four sections The SAGE Companion to the City provides a systematic A-Z to understanding the city that explains the interrelations between society, culture, and economy. Each chapter is illustrated with key extracts from the literature:
  • Section One: Histories explains power; religion; science and technology; modernity; and the landscape of the city.
  • Section Two: Economies and Inequalities explains work and leisure; globalization; innovation and the economy; and the role of the state.
  • Section Three: Communities explains migration and settlement; segregation and division; civility; house and home; and housing and homelessness.
  • Section Four: Order and Disorder explains politics and policy; planning and conflict; law and order; and surveillance and terror.
Intended Audience: An accessible guide to all areas of urban studies, The SAGE Companion to the City offers both a contemporary cutting edge reflection and measured historical and geographical reflection on urban studies. It is essential reading for students of any discipline interested in the city as an object of study.
 
PART ONE: HISTORIES AND IDEOLOGIES
Lily Kong
Power and Prestige
Keith Lilley
Faith and Devotion
Colin Chant
Science and Technology
John R. Gold
Modernity and Utopia
Lisa Benton-Short
Monuments and Memories
 
PART TWO: ECONOMIES AND INEQUALITIES
Kevin Ward
Capital and Class
Yeong Kim
Global and Local
Andy C. Pratt
Innovation and Creativity
Angus Cameron
States and Laws
David Bell, Sarah L. Holloway, Mark Jayne and Gill Valentine
Pleasure and Leisure
 
PART THREE: COMMUNITIES AND CONTESTATION
Marie Price
Migration and Settlement
David Wilson
Segregation and Division
Mick Smith and Joyce Davidson
Civility and Etiquette
Sarah Holloway
House and Home
Gerald Daly
Housing and Homelessness
 
PART FOUR: ORDER AND DISORDER
Don McNeill
Politics and Policy
Alan Latham and Derek McCormack
Speed and Slowness
Malcolm Miles
Planning and Conflict
Steve Herbert
Crime and Policing
Jon Coaffee and David Murakami Wood
Terror and surveillance
Stuart C. Aitken
Dreams and Nightmares

This book pulls together an exceptional range of literature in addressing the complexity of contemporary patterns and processes of urbanization. It offers a rich array of concepts and theories and is studded with fascinating examples that illustrate the changing nature of cities and urban life.

Paul Knox
Virginia Tech University

The SAGE Companion to the City is a tour-de-force of contemporary urban studies. At once a stocktake, showcase and springboard for scholarly approaches to cities and city life, the editors have assembled a cohesive and convincing set of lucid, insightful and critical essays of great quality. Eschewing grand theory and deadening encyclopediasm, the contributors refresh both longstanding concerns and explore new themes in ways both brilliantly accessible to newcomers and satisfying to the cognoscenti.

Robert Freestone
University of New South Wales

The book is a very interesting piece of work related to urban designers, planners, landscape architects, architects and geographers, with extra emphasis on cultural geography.
The way the book is divided into sections and chapters offers the reader a diversity of information from different optical angles. Also the chapters offer a multicultural approach on the subjects discussed at each section.
The intention is to use a number of the book's chapters as reading material for the students.

Mr Nicodemos Loizou
School of Planning and Architecture, University of The West of England
October 15, 2015

This book offers an excellent thematic overview of contemporary discussions in urban studies. I teach urban studies as a first year unit. This book is a great resource for my students.

Mr Robert Grimm
Dept of Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University
March 16, 2010

An excellent introduction to urban studies and wider writings about the city. This is recommended reading for all tourism studies undergraduates undertaking a module entitled The Living City at Level 2 and another named Urban Tourism at Level 3. I like the style and the way in which it encourages further reading as well as mapping out where that further reading might be found.

Dr Dan Knox
Tourism - TCF, Liverpool John Moores University
March 2, 2010

A great book to help all, lecturer and student alike on the thorny issues of urban studies. Relevent and up to date.

Mr Simon Gummer
Urban Studies , stratford upon avon college
November 17, 2009

topics not suitable for course

Professor Tam Raymond
Urban Studies , City University of Hong Kong
November 12, 2009

Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction PDF


Timothy Hall

Phil Hubbard

Phil Hubbard is Professor in Urban Studies in the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research.  More About Author

John Rennie Short

Professor, author and renowned public speaker, John Rennie Short is an expert on urban issues, environmental concerns, globalization, political geography and the history of cartography. He has studied cities around the world, and lectured around the world to a variety of audiences.... More About Author

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