SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban

Ideal for researchers and practitioners looking for fresh approaches to transport problems, this book combines cutting-edge qualitative and qualitative knowledge to inform transport futures. It uses engaging case studies based in The Gambia and the US to show how and why a transdisciplinary approach can result in better planning decisions.

The sixth, fully updated edition of this bestselling guide links the theory and practice of community work in an insightful and relatable read for students and practitioners. The textbook features brand new sections on work in health, housing, with children, young people and those with disabilities and the changing role of IT.

How can we design, develop and adapt urban environments to better meet the needs of an increasingly diverse ageing population?  This book highlights the urgent need to address inequalities that shape the experience of ageing in urban environments, and demonstrates that despite obstacles, meaningful social change is achievable locally.

This book provides an introductory overview to the concept of ‘urban informality’, taking an international perspective across the global North and South. It explores theoretical understandings of the term, and looks at how it affects ways of living, such as land use, housing and basic services, working lives and political informality.

This book explores the connections between race, place and space, and their role in maintaining racial hierarchies. Focusing on White residents in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, it employs interviews, participant observation and content analysis to unveil the enduring racial inequality in this supposedly progressive area.

A deep exploration on how questions of time and its organisation affect planning practice, this book questions ‘project speed’: where time to think, deliberate and plan has been squeezed. The authors demonstrate the many benefits of slow planning for the key participants, multiple interests and planning system overall.

Drawing on ethnographic research in urban growing projects in Glasgow, this book explores community dynamics and asks who benefits from such projects. A timely consideration of localism and community empowerment, the book sheds light on key issues of light on key issues of urban land use, the right to the city and the value of social connection.

This book, offering in-depth analysis from a native scholar, is a critical examination of the world-renowned community Auroville located in Tamil Nadu, South India as a site of spiritually prefigurative utopian practice.

A buoyant, creative economy can be seen as the saviour of many cities, but behind such ‘urban makeovers’ lie serious problems such as widening inequalities and gentrification. Blending lively city case studies with broader theoretical debates, this book explores the opportunities for a more just and sustainable urban future.

The past three decades have seen an international ‘turn to participation’ – letting those who will be affected by neighbourhood planning outcomes play an active role in decision-making. This innovative analysis brings theory, research, and practice together and gives insights into how and why citizen voices either become effective or get excluded.

This analysis of the central state’s weakening authority over cities bridges political geography and politics, giving a new perspective to students and researchers in urban studies, geography and political science.