Urban Sociology

How do we draw the lines between "good" and "bad" neighborhoods? How do we know “ghettos”? This book questions the widely held assumption that divisions between urban areas are reflections of varying amounts of crime, deprivation, and other social, cultural, and economic problems. Using Ogden, Utah, as a case study, Pepper Glass argues that urban reputations are “moral frontiers” that uphold and create divides between who is a good and respectable - or a bad and vilified - member of a community.

Exploring the power of naming to shape experience and our sense of place, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro traces the ways in which native Lenape, Dutch settlers, British invaders, and successive waves of immigrants have left their marks on New York City’s map. He excavates the roots of many names, from Brooklyn to Harlem, that have gained iconic meaning worldwide. He interviews the last living speakers of Lenape, visits the harbor’s forgotten islands, lingers on street corners named for ballplayers and saints, and meets linguists who study the estimated 800 languages now spoken in New York.

No two days were ever the same for bobby-on-the-beat Martyn Johnson. Come rain or come shine, he patrolled his patch with a sharp eye for troublemakers and a kind word for those in need of a friend. Whether he was pursuing unlikely coal thieves, tracking down peacocks gone AWOL or investigating mysterious flying saucers over Sheffield, PC Johnson faced every new challenge with a smile and a healthy dose of his copper's common sense. In his charming and funny memoir, Martyn Johnson recalls his life on the beat.

El libro es el relato de una educación sentimental, sexual y artística, y de la búsqueda de la identidad, con un retrato de fondo de la España –y la Europa– de los años cincuenta y sesenta, a la que aún llegan los fantasmas de la Guerra Civil. En sus páginas comparecen ciudades fundamentales en esa educación: Alicante, Madrid, Barcelona, París, Lisboa, escenarios de las experiencias de infancia, adolescencia y juventud evocadas.

How does it feel to receive a phone call from your 14-year-old son who is in the back of a squad car because he laughed at a police officer? How does a young person of color cope with being frisked several times a week since the age of 15? These are just some of the stories in No Place on the Corner, which draws on three years of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in the South Bronx before and after the landmark 2013 Floyd v. City of New York decision that ruled that the NYPD's controversial "stop and frisk" policing methods were a violation of rights.

Winner of France's 2004 Prix de Flore for his memoir The Romanian: Story of an Obsession, Bruce Benderson has gained international respect for his controversial opinions and original take on contemporary society. In this collection of essays, Benderson directs his exceptional powers of observation toward some of the most debated, as well as some of the most neglected, issues of our day.

Growing up on a council estate in East London, rapper Guvna B thought he knew everything he needed to know about what it means to be a man. But when a personal tragedy sent him reeling, he knew he had to face these assumptions head on if he was going to be able to overcome his grief. In this intimate, honest and unflinching memoir, Guvna B draws on his personal experiences to explore how toxic masculinity affects young men today. Exploring ideas of male identity, Unspoken is an inspirational account of Guvna’s journey.

Sembrano ormai lontani i tempi della Cool Britannia, quegli anni "ruggenti" a cavallo tra il XX e il XXI secolo in cui la stella di Londra brillava più che mai, rappresentando nell'immaginario collettivo un faro a cui guardare per capire dove stesse andando il mondo. Dalla musica delle Spice Girls all'arte di Damien Hirst, dal fenomeno David Beckham alla moda di Alexander McQueen e Vivienne Westwood fino al cinema di Danny Boyle, c'è stata un'epoca in cui la Gran Bretagna era il centro nevralgico di tendenze e rivoluzioni, all'avanguardia in tutti i campi.

From New York to New Delhi, COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our urban world. In this urgently relevant audiobook, leading experts Edward Glaeser and David Cutler examine the history and future of the global city. They argue the biggest threats are those we have created ourselves and that we need to address these as a matter of urgency if our cities are to continue to thrive and drive economic growth and prosperity. They conclude by proposing some practical measures that governments and citizens need to act on to ensure the survival of the city around the world.

Nation’s Metropolis describes how the national capital region functions as a metropolitan political economy. Its authors distinguish aspects of the Washington region that reflect its characteristics as a national capital from those common to most other metropolitan regions and to other capitals. To do so, they employ an interdisciplinary approach that draws from economics, political science, sociology, geography, and history.

From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home. From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London's story across cheerful coloured tiles. But those Monopoly streets live and breathe—they don't just illuminate our history.

The revolutions that have taken place around the world during the last 50 years were fundamentally urban revolutions. They were muscular assertions of new classes of city-dwellers intent on ending their marginalization as they struggled to build their new livelihoods, freedoms, and communities in cities. Brugmann here explains what is unique and important about cities and how they grow, the ways global issues are being solved in individual cities, and how real people are living with urban migration, day in and day out.

When Rodney Mason, an ex-con drug dealer from Newark's rough South Ward, was shot and paralyzed, he vowed to turn his life around. A former high-school pitching ace with a 93-mph fastball, Mason decided to form a Little League team to help boys avoid the street life that had claimed his youth and mobility. Predictably, the players struggle but through the fists and tears, lopsided losses and rare victories, this bunch of misfits becomes a team, and in doing so gives the community something to root for.

Słynie jako miasto mostów. Zachwyca architekturą. Uwodzi i obiecuje moc ekscytujących wrażeń. Wrocław od lat niczym niepokojąco piękna kobieta urzeka i skrywa sekrety... Tamara Barriga z pasją i odwagą wnika w nieodkryte dotąd tajemnice Wrocławia. Zdradza, dlaczego w Mrówkowcu mieszka się luksusowo i… nieznośnie. Opowiada o ludziach, którzy wyróżniali się mądrością, pracowitością, a w końcu zapisali się w historii miasta i nie tylko: profesor Alzheimer, Otfrid Foerster – lekarz Lenina, Sir Gutmann – ojciec igrzysk paraolimpijskich czy profesor Tołpa – wierzący w leczniczą moc torfu.

Рустам Рахматуллин - писатель-эссеист, краевед, многие годы изучающий историю Москвы, - по-новому осмысляет москвоведческие знания. Автор прибегает к неожиданным сопоставлениям и умозаключениям, ведет читателя одновременно по видимой и невидимой столице. Сравнивая ее с Римом, Иерусалимом, Константинополем, а также с Петербургом и другими русскими городами, он видит Москву как чудо проявления Высшего замысла, воплощаемого на протяжении многих веков в событиях истории, в художественных памятниках, в городской топографии, в символическом пространстве городских монастырей и бывших загородных усадеб.

All of Mumbai's possessions and memories come to die at the Deonar garbage mountains. Towering at the outskirts of the city, the mountains are covered in a faint smog from trash fires. Over time, as wealth brought Bollywood knock offs, fast food, and plastics to Mumbaikars, a small, forgotten community of migrants and rag-pickers came to live at the mountains' edge, making a living by reusing, recycling, and reselling.

Americans are loud. Amsterdam equals sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Mexicans are lazy and Germans are boring, but punctual. Paris is romantic, Wuhan infectious, Ukrainians heroic, and New Zealand untouched.

Żadne inne duże polskie miasto nie ma tylu tajemniczych i niezwykłych historii co Szczecin. Dlaczego? Bo nigdzie indziej losy nie potoczyły się w tak skomplikowany sposób. W ciągu wieków miastem władali na przemian Niemcy, Polacy, Francuzi i Szwedzi. W czasie II wojny światowej największe zniszczenia spowodowali w nim nie Rosjanie, lecz... Anglicy. Wiele razy w oficjalnej historii Szczecina próbowano przemilczać niewygodne fakty lub wymyślać nieprawdziwe propagandowe hasła. Tymczasem na przełomie XIX i XX wieku było to jedno z najważniejszych miast Europy.

В Питер стекались те, у кого с удачей была напряженка. Им казалось, что приехать сюда стоило только ради того, чтобы тебе фартило всю оставшуюся жизнь. Они еще не знали, что совсем скоро Питер проникнет в их дом, в их постель, он будет все время рядом; куда бы они ни уезжали от этого города, он будет сидеть у них под кожей, как у героев этой истории, где отношения на завтрак, обед и ужин не только со вкусом белых ночей, но и с привкусом серых будней.

Bari non è una città qualsiasi del Sud. Tra i grandi capoluoghi meridionali, è il solo a non aver mai avuto un univoco centro di potere. È stata spesso divisa da istituzioni e forze sociali difformi e contrastanti: lo Stato e la Chiesa, la Magistratura e la Mafia, i fascisti e i comunisti, i ricchi e i poveri. Una città di antinomie e di opposizioni, che si è costruita grazie all'apporto faticoso di tribù di non baresi, gente proveniente da fuori che l'ha arricchita di fame e di lavoro.