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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $179.99

Format:
Paperback
400 pp.
7.5" x 9.25"

ISBN-13:
9780190903169

Copyright Year:
2019

Imprint: OUP US


The Urban World

Eleventh Edition

J. John Palen

The Urban World, Eleventh Edition, provides a comprehensive, balanced, up-to-date, and cross-cultural look at cities and suburbs around the world. Offering a twenty-first-century view of the changing urban scene, the text covers evolving urban patterns and the changing nature of urban life. Combining expert scholarship with an accessible style, J. John Palen is one of America's leading urban sociologists. He adds fresh data and insights to each edition of his text.

Readership : This is a sociology text for upper level students taking urban sociology courses.

Reviews

  • "The Urban World is better than other available texts. I use it because of its comprehensiveness, up-to-date topics and information, and overall clarity of style. It is well balanced in terms of subject matter and provides a perfect overview for a course in urban sociology."
    --Joyce A. Sween, DePaul University

  • "This book's forte is making both the political economy approach and the social psychological approach compatible. It is up to date but not trendy."
    --Robert Ross, Clark University

  • "The Urban World is noteworthy for the author's writing style. Palen writes in an engaging manner that is readable, accessible to students, and dynamic."
    --Judith Kelley, Curry College

List of Boxes
Preface
About the Author
PART I: FOCUS AND DEVELOPMENT
1. The Urban World

Introduction
The Process of Urbanization
Urban Growth
Megacities
The Urban Explosion
Defining Urban Areas
Urbanization and Urbanism
Urbanization
Urbanism
Organizing the Study of Urban Life
Concepts of the City
Urban Change and Confusion
Rural Simplicity versus Urban Complexity

Early Social Theories and Urban Change
European Theorists
The Chicago School
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
2. The Emergence of Cities
Introduction
The Ecological Complex
Political Economy Models
First Settlements
Agricultural Revolution
Population Expansion
Mesoamerica
Interactions of Population, Organization, Environment, and Technology
City Populations
Evolution in Social Organization
Division of Labor
Kingship and Social Class

Technological and Social Evolution
Urban Revolution
Survival of the City
The Hellenic City
Social Invention
Physical Design and Planning
Population
Diffusion of People
and Ideas
Rome
Size and Number of Cities
Housing and Planning
Transportation
Life and Leisure
European Urbanization until the Industrial City
The Medieval Feudal System
Town Revival
Characteristics of Towns
Plague
Renaissance Cities

Industrial Cities
Technological Improvements and the Industrial Revolution
The Second Urban Revolution

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
PART II: AMERICAN URBANIZATION
3. The Rise of Urban America

Introduction
Colonists as Town Builders
Major Settlements
New England
The Middle Colonies
The South
Canada

Colonial Urban Influence
Cities of the New Nation: 1790-1860
Rapid Growth
Marketplace Centers

The Industrial City: 1860-1950
Technological Developments
Spatial Concentration

Twentieth-Century Dispersion

Political Life
Corruption and Urban Services
Political Bosses
Immigrants' Problems
Reform Movements

Urban Imagery
Ambivalence
Myth of Rural Virtue

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
4. Ecology and Political Economy Perspectives
Introduction
Development of Urban Ecology
Invasion and Succession
Criticisms of Ecology
Role of Culture
Burgess's Growth Hypothesis
Concentric Zones
Limitations

Sector and Multiple-Nuclei Models
Urban Growth Outside North America
The Postmodern City: The Los Angeles School
Political Economy Models
Political Economy Assumptions
Examples of the Political Economy Approach
The Baltimore Study
Urban Growth Machines
World Systems Theory and Globalization
Challenges

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
5. Metro and Edge City Growth
Introduction
Metropolitan Growth
In-Movement: 1900 to 1950
Out-Movement: 1950 into the Twenty-First Century

Commuting and Communication
Canadian Urban Regions
Post-industrial Central Cities
Edge Cities
Edgeless and Private Edge Cities
Boomburgs
Suburban Business Growth
End of Malling of the Land
Malls and "Street Safety"

Non-metropolitan Growth
Diffuse Growth
National Society
The Rise of the Sunbelt
Population and Economic Shifts
Regional Consequences
Sunbelt Problems

Movement to the Coasts
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
6. The Suburban Era
Introduction
Suburban Dominance
Emergence of Suburbs
The Nineteenth Century
Electric Streetcar Era: 1890-1920

Annexation
Automobile Suburbs: 1920-1950
Mass Suburbanization: 1950-1990
Metro Sprawl: 1990-2010

Causes of Suburban Growth
Postwar Exodus
Non-reasons

Contemporary Suburbia
Categories of Suburbs
Persistence of Characteristics?
Ethnic and
Religious Variation
High-Income Suburbs
Gated Communities
Common-Interest Developments
Working-Class Suburbs
Commercial Definitions

Exurbs
Rurban Areas
Characteristics of Suburbanites
Suburban Poverty
The Myth of Suburbia
Minority Suburbanization
Suburban Diversity
Black Flight
Integration or Resegregation?

Latino Suburbanization
Asian Suburbanites
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
Part III: Metropolitan Life
7. Urban Culture and Lifestyles

Introduction
Social Psychology of Urban Life
Early Formulations
The Chicago School
"Urbanism as a Way of Life"

Re-evaluations of Urbanism and Social Disorganization
Determinist Theory
Compositional Theory

Subcultural Theory
Characteristics of Urban Populations
Age
Gender
Race, Ethnicity, and Religion
Declining Middle Class
Urban Lifestyles
Cosmopolites
Unmarried or Childless
Gay Households
Ethnic Villagers
Neighborhood Characteristics
Deprived or Trapped

A Final Note of Caution
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
8. The Social Environment of Metro Areas: Strangers, Crowding, Homelessness, and Crime
Introduction
Dealing with Strangers
Codes of Urban Behavior
Altruism
Neighboring
Neighbors and Just Neighbors

Defining Community
Categories of Local Communities
Density and Crowding
Crowding Research
Practical Implications

Homelessness
Characteristics of the Homeless
Social Problems
SRO Housing
Urban Crime
Crime and Perceptions of Crime
Broken Windows Theory and
Predictive Policing
Crime and City Size
Crime and Male Youth
Crime and Race
Crime Variations within Cities
Crime in the Suburbs
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
9. Diversity: Women, Ethnics, and African Americans
Introduction
Women in Metropolitan Life
Female Domesticity
Gendered Organization of Residential Space
Feminist Housing Preferences
Cohousing and Downsizing
Current Housing Choices
Gendered Public Spaces
Workplace Changes
White Ethnic Groups
Immigration
First-Wave
Immigrants
Second-Wave Immigrants
Third-Wave Immigrants
"Racial Inferiority" and Immigration

African Americans
Historical Patterns
Population Changes
Slavery in Cities
"Free Persons of Color"
Jim Crow Laws
"The Great Migration"
Moving South

Urban Segregation Patterns
Extent of Segregation
Housing Discrimination

Twenty-First-Century Diversity
The Economically Successful
The Disadvantaged

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
10. Diversity: Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans
Introduction
New-Wave Immigrants
Recent Immigration Impact on Cities
Melting Pot or Cultural Pluralism
Latino Population
Legal Status
Growth
Diversity

Mexican Americans
Mexican Diversity
Education
Urbanization
Housing and Other
Patterns
Political Involvement

Puerto Ricans
Asian Americans
A "Model Minority"?
Asian Residential Segregation
The Case of Japanese Americans
Internment Camps
Japanese Americans Today

Native Americans
Nonurban Orientation
Movement to Cities

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
PART IV: METRO ISSUES, HOUSING, SPRAWL, AND PLANNING
11. Cities and Change
Introduction
The Urban Crisis: Thesis
Urban Revival: Antithesis
A Political Economy Look at the Urban Crisis
Twenty-First-Century City Developments
New Patterns
Central Business Districts
Mismatch Hypothesis
Downtown Housing
Fiscal Health
Crumbling Infrastructure
Neighborhood Revival

Gentrification
Government and Revitalization
Who Is Gentrifying?
Why Is Gentrification Taking
Place?
Displacement of the Poor

Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods
Successful Working-Class Revival
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
12. Housing Policies, Sprawl, and Smart Growth
Introduction
Housing in the Twenty-First Century
Mobility
Housing Costs
Changing Households
Return Nesters
Changing Federal Role
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Programs
Subsidizing Segregation
Upper- and Middle-Class Housing Subsidies
Back to the City?

Urban Redevelopment Policies
Critique of Urban Renewal
Phasing Out Public Housing
Urban Homesteading
Rent Vouchers: Section 8
Hope VI Projects
Tax Credits
Designing for Safety
Growth Control

Suburban Sprawl
Auto-Driven Sprawl
Amount of Sprawl
Costs and Consequences

Smart Growth
Advantages
Legislation

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
13. Planning, New Towns, and New Urbanism
Introduction
Ancient Greece and Rome
Renaissance and Later Developments

American Planning
Washington, DC
Nineteenth-Century Towns

Early Planned Communities
Parks
The City Beautiful Movement
Tenement Reform

Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Patterns
The City Efficient
Zoning and Beyond
Master Plans to Equity Planning
Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

European Planning
Planning and Control of Land
Housing Priorities
Transportation
Urban Growth Policies
The Dutch Approach

New Towns
British New Towns
New Towns in Europe

American New Towns
Public-Built New Towns
Federal Support for New Towns
Private
New Towns: Reston, Columbia, and Irvine
Research Parks

New Urbanism or Traditional Neighborhood Developments
Celebration
Creating Community
Limitations

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
PART V: WORLDWIDE URBANIZATION
14. Developing Countries

Developing Countries
Megacities
Plan of Organization
Common or Divergent Paths?

Developing-Country Increases
Rich Countries and Poor Countries
Global Cities
Characteristics of Third World Cities
Youthful Age Structure
Multinationals
The Informal
Economy
Squatter Settlements
Primate Cities
Overurbanization?

The Twenty-First Century
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
15. Asian Urban Patterns
Introduction
Asian Cities
Indigenous Cities
Colonial Background Cities

India
Delhi
Mumbai (Bombay)
Kolkata (Calcutta)
Prognosis

China
Treaty Ports
Forced Movement from Cities
Rural to Urban Migration
Special Economic Zones
Shanghai
Beijing
Hong Kong

Japan
Extent of Urbanization
Current Patterns

Tokyo
Planning
Planned New Towns
Suburbanization

Southeast Asia
General Patterns
Singapore
Other Cities

Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
16. African and Latin American Urbanization
Introduction
Africa
Challenges
Responses
Regional Variations

Urban Development
Early Cities
Colonial Period
Indigenous African Cities
Contemporary Patterns
Social Composition of African Cities
Ethnic and Traditional Bonds
Status of Women
Differences from the Western Pattern

Latin America: An Urban Continent
Spanish Colonial Cities
Colonial Organization
Physical Structure

Recent Developments
Urban Growth
Economic Change
Brazil
Urban Characteristics
Crime
Shantytowns
The Future of Settlements
Maquiladoras

Myth of Marginality
A Success Story
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
PART VI: CONCLUSION
17. Toward the Urban Future

Recapitulation
Urban Concentration
Deconcentration
Concentration Again?

Issues and Challenges
Urban Funding
People versus Places
Changing Metropolitan Population
Suburban Changes
Social Planning Approaches
Three Approaches to Social Planning
Social Planning and Technology

Planning for the Future City
Past Planned Utopias
New World Class Cities
Las Vegas

Quality-of-Life Planning
Middle-Range Planning
Bike Sharing
Smart Cities
Metropolitan Political Systems

A Working City
Toward a Metropolitan Future
Summary
Key Concepts
Review Questions
Name Index
Subject Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

J. John Palen is Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Special Features
New to this Edition

  • The impact of Hurricane Harvey on Houston and Hurricane Maria on Florida and Puerto Rico. The potential impact of sea rise due to global warming on coastal cities such as Miami.
  • Discussion of racial changes substantially updated to include material on Black Lives Matter and how political changes during the Trump presidency are affecting persons of color.
  • Increased and updated material on Latinos, including a discussion of the revocation of the Dreamers act, as well as President Trump's tweets criticizing Puerto Rican Americans response to the extreme devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.
  • Updates to chapter on Asian Urban Patterns, to include China's current building of scores of mega-cities.
  • India's likelihood of seeing its population size surpass China's by the early 2020's, and the physical and social consequences.
  • Expanded material on the greening of American cities. The discussion of the futuristic cities being built by the oil rich Mid-east gulf states will be updated with personal observations of the author based on his 2017 travels.