Urban Theory: A Critical Introduction to Power, Cities and Urbanism in the 21st Century

摘要

Having recently completed a PhD, trying to come to terms with the overwhelming weight of years of intellectual effort that has preceded me is still fresh in my mind. The shear diversity of present-day urban scholarship and its evolution over the past many years has meant a proliferation of ideas and literature that would take years to come to terms with. Urban Theory provides an introduction to key ideas and moments of intellectual evolution under the banner of the broad field of urban studies. The book opens by asking the question 'what is urban theory', and then spends nearly 300 pages trying to sketch out and answer. Of course many of the debates contained within this book are not confined to scholars of urban theory. Theoretical arguments in political economy, sociology, anthropology and other social science disciplines have largely covered similar terrain to that of areas of study that identify as expressly concerned with the 'urban'. The critical differ- ence here is that in reviewing the broad literature that identifies as being distinctly urban, Harding and Bloxland try and establish what is urban about urban theory, how it differs from just 'theory' and why it matters.