City Society And Planning City

This book was first published in 1980.

Chiefly in the Indian context.

"This major new text introduces the nature and dynamics of Urban Design. Setting Urban Design in its broader context, it demystifies the subject for non-designers and enriches it for designers. "--

Chiefly in the Indian context.

The relationship between space and politics is explored through a study of French urban policy. Drawing upon the political thought of Jacques Rancière, this book proposes a new agenda for analyses of urban policy, and provides the first comprehensive account of French urban policy in English. Essential resource for contextualizing and understanding the revolts occurring in the French 'badland' neighbourhoods in autumn 2005 Challenges overarching generalizations about urban policy and contributes new research data to the wider body of urban policy literature Identifies a strong urban and spatial dimension within the shift towards more nationalistic and authoritarian policy governing French citizenship and immigration

The book makes a step change from any other comparable studies by understanding our towns and cities in terms of function in form. This helps us to appreciate why every town is a recognisable town, wherever it is. Different urban environments in different parts of the world, past and present, can come to be seen according to their similarities instead of their differences. Furthermore, by appreciating how the economic influences of everyday life structure our towns and cities, we can in turn begin to understand better how the structure of towns and cities affect the quality of life of inhabitants and the cohesiveness of communities. In covering all scales from inside the home to macrostructure of the city, the book encapsulates urban or town planning and does not seek to distinguish between the various design disciplines.

Dreaming the Rational City is both a history of the city planning profession in the United States and a major polemical statement about the effort to plan and reform the American city. Boyer shows why city planning, which had so much promise at the outset for making cities more liveable, largely failed. She reveals planning's real responsibilities and goals, including the kind of "rational order" that was actually forseen by the planning mentality, and concludes that the planners have continuously served the needs of the dominant capitalist economy.