Jane Jacobs from Many Directions

摘要

Editing a book by academics can be like the proverbial herding of cats. The task is especially challenging when the focus is on a single-dominant individual. Yet in this case, the subject herself was so wide-ranging in her intellectual territory to leave plenty of room for the individualist to tread his or her own path. This latest volume to take up the challenge is organized in four sections: Jane Jacobs as Urban Philosopher, Urban Economist, Urban Sociologist and Urban Designer (urban planning being taken to be permeate all of these). Within this overall structure, the individual chapters variously illuminate, ruminate, bring up to date, or go off on their own tangent.