Introduction To Cities

Author : Xiangming Chen
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 111916771X
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Introduction to Cities written by Xiangming Chen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-04-30 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The revised and updated second edition of Introduction to Cities explores why cities are such a vital part of the human experience and how they shape our everyday lives. Written in engaging and accessible terms, Introduction to Cities examines the study of cities through two central concepts: that cities are places, where people live, form communities, and establish their own identities, and that they are spaces, such as the inner city and the suburb, that offer a way to configure and shape the material world and natural environment. Introduction to Cities covers the theory of cities from an historical perspective right through to the most recent theoretical developments. The authors offer a balanced account of life in cities and explore both positive and negative themes. In addition, the text takes a global approach, with examples ranging from Berlin and Chicago to Shanghai and Mumbai. The book is extensively illustrated with updated maps, charts, tables, and photographs. This new edition also includes a new section on urban planning as well as new chapters on cities as contested spaces, exploring power and politics in an urban context. It contains; information on the status of poor and marginalized groups and the impact of neoliberal policies; material on gender and sexuality; and presents a greater range of geographies with more attention to European, Latin American, and African cities. Revised and updated, Introduction to Cities provides a complete introduction to the history, evolution, and future of our modern cities.

Author : Anthony M. Orum
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118261283
Total Pages : 596 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Introduction to Cities written by Anthony M. Orum and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete introduction to the history, evolution, and future of the modern city, this book covers a wide range of theory, including the significance of space and place, to provide a balanced account of why cities are an essential part of the global human experience. Covers a wide range of theoretical approaches to the city, from the historical to the cutting edge Emphasizes the important themes of space and place Offers a balanced account of cities and offers extensive coverage including urban inequality, environment and sustainability, and methods for studying the city Takes a global approach, with examples from Berlin and Chicago to Shanghai and Mumbai Includes a range of pedagogical features such as a substantial glossary of key terms, critical thinking questions, suggestions for further reading and a range of innovative textboxes which follow the themes of Exploring Further, Studying the City and Making the City Better Extensively illustrated with maps, charts, tables, and over 80 photographs Accompanied by a comprehensive student companion site featuring a list of relevant journals, a guide to useful web resources, and an annotated documentary film guide, alongside a useful instructor companion site with further examples, case studies, and discussion and essay questions; instructors will find a link to the instructor website on the student website at www.wiley.com/go/cities

Author : Paul L. Knox
Publisher : Prentice Hall
ISBN 13 : 9780321736437
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Urbanization written by Paul L. Knox and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urbanization: An Introduction to Urban Geography, Third Edition captures the changes in the nature and outcomes of urbanization processes for people, as well as the development of new ways of thinking about urban geography. Unraveling the interlocking processes of urbanization, Knox and McCarthy present a vivid and meaningful explanation of constantly changing urban geographies and urban life. This framework supports the discussion of recent changes while addressing much of the "traditional" subject matter of urban geography. The book's dynamic approach also allows for integration of both theories and facts, where key concepts and theories are presented in relation to prior events and ideas--providing a coherent and comprehensive introduction to urban geography that is both a historical and process-oriented approach. With a U.S. focus that also offers global context and comparative international perspectives, the authors examine urban trends and their outcomes in both developed and less-developed countries to understand, analyze, and interpret the landscapes, economies, and communities of towns and cities around the world.

Author : Luis M. A. Bettencourt
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262366436
Total Pages : 497 pages
Book Rating : 4.34/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Introduction to Urban Science written by Luis M. A. Bettencourt and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel, integrative approach to cities as complex adaptive systems, applicable to issues ranging from innovation to economic prosperity to settlement patterns. Human beings around the world increasingly live in urban environments. In Introduction to Urban Science, Luis Bettencourt takes a novel, integrative approach to understanding cities as complex adaptive systems, claiming that they require us to frame the field of urban science in a way that goes beyond existing theory in such traditional disciplines as sociology, geography, and economics. He explores the processes facilitated by and, in many cases, unleashed for the first time by urban life through the lenses of social heterogeneity, complex networks, scaling, circular causality, and information. Though the idea that cities are complex adaptive systems has become mainstream, until now those who study cities have lacked a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding cities and urbanization, for generating useful and falsifiable predictions, and for constructing a solid body of empirical evidence so that the discipline of urban science can continue to develop. Bettencourt applies his framework to such issues as innovation and development across scales, human reasoning and strategic decision-making, patterns of settlement and mobility and their influence on socioeconomic life and resource use, inequality and inequity, biodiversity, and the challenges of sustainable development in both high- and low-income nations. It is crucial, says Bettencourt, to realize that cities are not "zero-sum games" and that knowledge, human cooperation, and collective action can build a better future.

Author : Mark Abrahamson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317814282
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Studying Cities and City Life written by Mark Abrahamson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-12-08 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Studying Cities and City Life is a textbook designed to provide an introduction to the major methods of obtaining data for use when analysing cities and social life in cities. Major chapters focus upon best practices in: field studies (participant observation) natural experiments and quasi-experiments surveys employing probability and non-probability samples secondary analyses of previously published documents. A separate chapter examines a full range of questionnaires and interviews. Each chapter includes discussion of several case studies, and recently published research employing the method being discussed. This discussion highlights the issues and choices made by investigators in actual studies conducted in cities throughout the world. This unique book is designed for use in research methods courses that primarily enroll students majoring in Urban Sociology, Urban Studies, Urban Geography, Urban Planning, and related areas.

Author : Peter J. Taylor
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1839100133
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Advanced Introduction to Cities written by Peter J. Taylor and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-26 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This insightful Advanced Introduction explores the key attributes of cities, identifying their five basic characteristics; innate complexity, the agglomeration of activities, inter-city connectivities, the projection of power, and relations to states. Peter J. Taylor gives a broad and engaging overview of how these characteristics work and relate to each other, supplemented by ten short city insights which offer readers specific examples of cities and themes.

Author : Vítor Oliveira
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319320831
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Urban Morphology written by Vítor Oliveira and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about cities or, more precisely, about the physical form of cities. It starts presenting the main elements of urban form – streets, urban blocks, plots and buildings – structuring our cities and the fundamental actors and processes of transformation shaping these elements. It then applies this analytical framework to describe the evolution of cities over history as well as to explain the functioning of contemporary cities. After the initial focus on the ‘object’ (cities) the book describes how different researchers and different schools of thought have been dealing with this object since the emergence of Urban Morphology, as the science of urban form, in the turning to the twentieth century. Finally, the book tries to identify what are the most important (and specific) contributions that Urban Morphology has to offer to contemporary cities, societies and economies.

Author : Alan Harding
Publisher : SAGE
ISBN 13 : 1473905354
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Urban Theory written by Alan Harding and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2014-05-13 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 explains: 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 Theory: 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.

Author : Germaine Halegoua
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262538059
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.53/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Smart Cities written by Germaine Halegoua and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-02-18 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key concepts, definitions, examples, and historical contexts for understanding smart cities, along with discussions of both drawbacks and benefits of this approach to urban problems. Over the past ten years, urban planners, technology companies, and governments have promoted smart cities with a somewhat utopian vision of urban life made knowable and manageable through data collection and analysis. Emerging smart cities have become both crucibles and showrooms for the practical application of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and the integration of big data into everyday life. Are smart cities optimized, sustainable, digitally networked solutions to urban problems? Or are they neoliberal, corporate-controlled, undemocratic non-places? This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers a concise introduction to smart cities, presenting key concepts, definitions, examples, and historical contexts, along with discussions of both the drawbacks and the benefits of this approach to urban life. After reviewing current terminology and justifications employed by technology designers, journalists, and researchers, the book describes three models for smart city development—smart-from-the-start cities, retrofitted cities, and social cities—and offers examples of each. It covers technologies and methods, including sensors, public wi-fi, big data, and smartphone apps, and discusses how developers conceive of interactions among the built environment, technological and urban infrastructures, citizens, and citizen engagement. Throughout, the author—who has studied smart cities around the world—argues that smart city developers should work more closely with local communities, recognizing their preexisting relationship to urban place and realizing the limits of technological fixes. Smartness is a means to an end: improving the quality of urban life.

Author : Carl Abbott
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190944366
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book City Planning: A Very Short Introduction written by Carl Abbott and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.