Cities

Cities PDF

Author: Ash Amin

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2002-04-22

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9780745624143

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This book develops a fresh and challenging perspective on the city. Drawing on a wide and diverse range of material and texts, it argues that too much contemporary urban theory is based on nostalgia for a humane, face-to-face and bounded city. Amin and Thrift maintain that the traditional divide between the city and the rest of the world has been perforated through urban encroachment, the thickening of the links between the two, and urbanization as a way of life. They outline an innovative sociology of the city that scatters urban life along a series of sites and circulations, reinstating previously suppressed areas of contemporary urban life: from the presence of non-human activity to the centrality of distant connections. The implications of this viewpoint are traced through a series of chapters on power, economy and democracy. This concise and accessible book will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, geography, urban studies, cultural studies and politics. .

Urban Humanities

Urban Humanities PDF

Author: Dana Cuff

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2020-04-07

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0262356996

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Original, action-oriented humanist practices for interpreting and intervening in the city: a new methodology at the intersection of the humanities, design, and urban studies. Urban humanities is an emerging field at the intersection of the humanities, urban planning, and design. It offers a new approach not only for understanding cities in a global context but for intervening in them, interpreting their histories, engaging with them in the present, and speculating about their futures. This book introduces both the theory and practice of urban humanities, tracing the evolution of the concept, presenting methods and practices with a wide range of research applications, describing changes in teaching and curricula, and offering case studies of urban humanities practices in the field. Urban humanities views the city through a lens of spatial justice, and its inquiries are centered on the microsettings of everyday life. The book's case studies report on real-world projects in mega-cities in the Pacific Rim—Tokyo, Shanghai, Mexico City, and Los Angeles—with several projects described in detail, including playful spaces for children in car-oriented Mexico City, a commons in a Tokyo neighborhood, and a rolling story-telling box to promote “literary justice” in Los Angeles.

Reimagining Sustainable Cities

Reimagining Sustainable Cities PDF

Author: Stephen M. Wheeler

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2021-12-07

Total Pages: 339

ISBN-13: 0520381211

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Introduction -- How do we get to carbon neutrality? -- How do we adapt to the climate crisis? -- How might we create more sustainable economies? -- How can we make affordable, inclusive, and equitable cities? -- How do we reduce spatial inequality? -- How could we get where we need to go more sustainably? -- How do we manage land sustainably? -- How can we design greener cities? -- How do we reduce our ecological footprints? -- How can cities better support human development? -- How might we have more functional democracy? -- How can each of us help lead the move toward sustainable communities? -- Conclusion.

Reimagining Detroit

Reimagining Detroit PDF

Author: John Gallagher

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780814334690

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Suggests ways for Detroit to become a smaller but better city in the twenty first century and proposes productive uses for the city's vacant spaces.

Seeing Like a City

Seeing Like a City PDF

Author: Ash Amin

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-01-09

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1509515623

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Seeing like a city means recognizing that cities are living things made up of a tangle of networks, built up from the agency of countless actors. Cities must not be considered as expressions of larger paradigms or sites of human effort and organization alone. Within their density, size and sprawl can be found a world of symbols, bodies, buildings, technologies and infrastructures. It is the machine-like combination, interaction and confrontation of these different elements that make a city. Such a view locates urban outcomes and influences in the character of these networks, which together power urban life, allocating resources, shaping social opportunities, maintaining order and simply enabling life. More than the silent stage on which other powers perform, such networks represent the essence of the city. They also form an important political project, a politics of small interventions with large effects. The increasing evidence for an Anthropocene bears out the way in which humanity has stamped its footprint on the planet by constructing urban forms that act as systems for directing life in ways that create both immense power and immense constraint.

Re-imagining the City

Re-imagining the City PDF

Author: Kristen Sharp

Publisher: Intellect (UK)

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781841507316

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Re-Imagining the City: Art, Globalization, and Urban Spaces examines how contemporary processes of globalization are transforming cultural experience and production in urban spaces. It maps how cultural productions in art, architecture, and communications media are contributing to the reimagining of place and identity through events, artifacts, and attitudes. This book recasts how we understand cities--how knowledge can be formed, framed, and transferred through cultural production and how that knowledge is mediated through the construction of aesthetic meaning and value.

Bicycle Urbanism

Bicycle Urbanism PDF

Author: Rachel Berney

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-07

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 131717433X

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Over recent decades, bicycling has received renewed interest as a means of improving transportation through crowded cities, improving personal health, and reducing environmental impacts associated with travel. Much of the discussion surrounding cycling has focused on bicycle facility design—how to best repurpose road infrastructure to accommodate bicycling. While part of the discussion has touched on culture, such as how to make bicycling a larger part of daily life, city design and planning have been sorely missing from consideration. Whilst interdisciplinary in its scope, this book takes a primarily planning approach to examining active transportation, and especially bicycling, in urban areas. The volume examines the land use aspects of the city—not just the streetscape. Illustrated using a range of case studies from the USA, Canada, and Australia, the volume provides a comprehensive overview of key topics of concern around cycling in the city including: imagining the future of bicycle-friendly cities; integrating bicycling into urban planning and design; the effects of bike use on health and environment; policies for developing bicycle infrastructure and programs; best practices in bicycle facility design and implementation; advances in technology, and economic contributions.

Biophilic Cities

Biophilic Cities PDF

Author: Timothy Beatley

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1597267155

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Tim Beatley has long been a leader in advocating for the "greening" of cities. But too often, he notes, urban greening efforts focus on everything except nature, emphasizing such elements as public transit, renewable energy production, and energy efficient building systems. While these are important aspects of reimagining urban living, they are not enough, says Beatley. We must remember that human beings have an innate need to connect with the natural world (the biophilia hypothesis). And any vision of a sustainable urban future must place its focus squarely on nature, on the presence, conservation, and celebration of the actual green features and natural life forms. A biophilic city is more than simply a biodiverse city, says Beatley. It is a place that learns from nature and emulates natural systems, incorporates natural forms and images into its buildings and cityscapes, and designs and plans in conjunction with nature. A biophilic city cherishes the natural features that already exist but also works to restore and repair what has been lost or degraded. In Biophilic Cities Beatley not only outlines the essential elements of a biophilic city, but provides examples and stories about cities that have successfully integrated biophilic elements--from the building to the regional level--around the world. From urban ecological networks and connected systems of urban greenspace, to green rooftops and green walls and sidewalk gardens, Beatley reviews the emerging practice of biophilic urban design and planning, and tells many compelling stories of individuals and groups working hard to transform cities from grey and lifeless to green and biodiverse.

Urban Futures

Urban Futures PDF

Author: Timothy J. Dixon

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2023-11

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1447371674

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The Image of the City

The Image of the City PDF

Author: Kevin Lynch

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1964-06-15

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780262620017

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The classic work on the evaluation of city form. What does the city's form actually mean to the people who live there? What can the city planner do to make the city's image more vivid and memorable to the city dweller? To answer these questions, Mr. Lynch, supported by studies of Los Angeles, Boston, and Jersey City, formulates a new criterion—imageability—and shows its potential value as a guide for the building and rebuilding of cities. The wide scope of this study leads to an original and vital method for the evaluation of city form. The architect, the planner, and certainly the city dweller will all want to read this book.

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