New Books

Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan Realities in the US
By Bernadette Hanlon, John Rennie Short, and Thomas J. Vicino

Available from Routledge on October 28, 2009
Cloth and Paper Editions.


Praise for Cities and Suburbs

"The metropolitanization of America has been accompanied by some surprising changes in political, economic, social and physical landscapes. This book is an excellent primer on the new realities of reconfigured and resurgent metropolitan settings."

Professor Paul Knox, Virginia Tech, USA
Author of Metroburbia, USA (Rutgers University Press, 2008)


"For over half a century the process of suburbanisation has transformed American society. This timely contribution offers an informed, informative and incisive commentary on the trends and consequences of this ongoing process in the US."

Professor Michael Pacione, University of Strathclyde, UK
Author of Urban Geography: A Global Perspective (Routledge, 2009)


Description of Cities and Suburbs

This book is a systematic examination of the historical and current roles that cities and suburbs play in US metropolitan areas. It explores the history of cities and suburbs, their changing dynamics with each other, their growing diversity, the environmental consequences of their development and finally the extent and nature of their decline and renewal.

Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan Realities in the US offers a comprehensive examination of demographic and socioeconomic processes of US suburbanization by providing a succinct guide to understanding the dynamic relationship between metropolitan structure and processes of social change. A variety of case studies are used in the chapters to explore suburban successes and failures and the discourse concludes with reflections on metropolitan policy and planning for the twenty-first century.

The topics of discussion include:

--Key ideas and concepts on the demographic and sociospatial aspects of metropolitan change

--The changing nature of city and suburban population migration and their relationships with changes at the local, metropolitan, national, and global levels

--Current metropolitan public policy issues of large cities and suburbs

--Links of suburbanization to metropolitan transformation and the growing dichotomy between suburban decline and suburban sprawl in metropolitan areas.

Cities and Suburbs relies on theorized case studies, demographic analysis, maps, and photos from North America. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book addresses various fundamental questions about the socioeconomic role that suburbs and cities play in shaping metropolitan areas, their environmental impact, the political consequences, and the resulting policy debates. This is essential reading for scholars and students of Geography, Economics, Politics, Sociology, Urban Studies and Urban Planning.

Transforming Race and Class in Suburbia: Decline in Metropolitan Baltimore
By Thomas J. Vicino

Available from Palgrave Macmillan on June 10, 2008
Cloth Edition.


Praise for Transforming Race and Class in Suburbia

"Vicino masterfully provides a comprehensive analysis of the decline of first-tier suburbs of Baltimore ... providing important lessons for other metropolitan areas with similar patterns of decline."

--Professor Dennis Keating, Cleveland State University
Author of Suburban Racial Dilemma (Temple University Press, 1994)

"This is the most sophisiticated study yet of first-tier suburban decline. His book will be indispensable for anyone who wants to understand the rapidly changing suburban landscape."

--Professor Todd Swanstrom, St. Louis University
Co-Author of Place Matters (University Press of Kansas, 2004)


Description of Transforming Race and Class in Suburbia

Just as the nation witnessed the widespread decay of urban centers, there is a mounting suburban crisis in first-tier suburbs--the early suburbs to develop in metropolitan America. These places, once the bastion of a large middle class, have matured and experienced three decades of social and economic decline. In the first comprehensive analysis of suburban decline for an entire region, Vicino uses Baltimore as an illustrative case to chronicle how first-tier suburbs experienced widespread decline while outer suburbs flourished since the 1970s. At the brink of the twenty-first century, Vicino illustrates how the processes of deindustrialization, racial diversity, and class segregation have shaped the evolution of suburban decline.