Title Details

Xiangming Chen is the founding Dean and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies and Paul Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology at Trinity College, Hartford, and Distinguished Guest Professor in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University, Shanghai. His books include The World of Cities: Places in Comparative and Historical Perspective (with Anthony M. Orum, Blackwell, 2003), As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim (2005), and Shanghai Rising: State Power and Local Transformations in a Global Megacity (ed., 2009), and Rethinking Global Urbanism: Comparative Insights from Secondary Cities (coed., 2012). Several of his books have been translated into Chinese.

Anthony M. Orum is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was the founding editor of the journal City & Community, and has received several awards, including the 2009 Robert and Helen Lynd Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service given by the Community and Urban Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association. His publications include City-Building in America (1995), The World of Cities: Places in Comparative and Historical Perspective (with Xiangming Chen, Blackwell, 2003), and Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space (ed. with Zachary Neal, 2010). Several of his books have been translated into Chinese.

Krista E. Paulsen is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of North Florida. She has published widely on the city, urban tradition, and the ways that places develop and maintain distinctive cultures. Her research examines the ways that homes and neighborhoods reflect and reproduce cultural ideals associated with family and community, and her teaching takes in urban sociology and urban studies, environmental sociology, community, and qualitative research methods. She is currently at work on the edited volume Home – Place – Community: International Sociological Perspectives (ed. with Margarethe Kusenbach and Melinda Milligan).

Part I The foundations 5

1 Cities as places and spaces 6

2 Social theories of urban space and place: The early perspectives 28

3 Social theories of urban space and place: Perspectives in the post-World War II era 49

4 Methods and rules for the study of cities 72

Part II The changing metropolis 99

5 The metropolis and its expansion: Early insights and basic principles 100

6 The origins and development of suburbs 123

7 Changing metropolitan landscapes after World War II 154

Part III The metropolis and social inequalities 177

8 The early metropolis as a place of inequality 178

9 Inequality and diversity in the post-World War II metropolis 204

Part IV The metropolis in the developing world 231

10 Urbanization and urban places in developing-country cities 232

11 Cities in the global economy 261

Part V Challenges of today and the metropolis of the future 295

12 Urban environments and sustainability 296

13 The remaking and future of cities 321

"In a comprehensible style and with illustrating examples, Introduction to Cities offers a fresh perspective to investigate abstract cities through specific places... Given the scope of this book as a sociological volume, it is exceptionally clear and informative on demographic dynamics within urban settings. Students and scholars interested in urban change, human wellbeing and social justice issues will benefit from reading this book."  (Urban Studies, September 2014)

“In this context, the task of writing a broad introductory textbook is daunting, and the authors of Introduction  to Cities should be recognised for their notable accomplishment.”  (Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 1 November 2013)

“In sum, I recommend this book for academic use in lower level undergraduate courses in urban studies and related disciplines. To conclude, the full title of Introduction to Cities can and should be taken quite literally; this is an introductory text about cities, exploring how place and space shape the human experience. Xiangming Chen, Anthony M. Orum, and Krista E. Paulsen’s book exemplifies truth in advertising.”  (Journal of Urban Affairs, 1 May 2014)

"This comprehensive political sociology of cities reflects both the growing interest in space and place and the unusually rapid urbanization of the developing world, with a particularly sensitive treatment of Chinese cities. Up-to-date, and theoretically and politically astute, the text is exceptionally clear, almost conversational in tone, and oriented to student learning."
—Edward Soja, UCLA