The Emerging City: Myth and Reality - Softcover

Greer, Scott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765804328 ISBN 13: 9780765804327

Publisher: Routledge, 1998

Synopsis

The Emerging City was written at a time when the great transformation from urban to suburban lifestyle was under way. It is a tribute to Scott Greer that his work understood the new contours of the city, and also well appreciated that far from spelling the end of urban life, the new developments in communication and transportation only served to change the social and political structure of modern societies. Greer established the principle that in urban affairs, public policy follows the market. The task of this fine work was to chart just how this flow took place.

A careful researcher and writer, Scott Greer herein poses the largest questions of urban existence: What needs for fellowship and freedom are bedrock? What is gained and what is lost as urbanization unfolds? Can one speak of certain urban arrangements as good or bad for humans? The Emerging City attempts a theory of society within which the changing city could be interpreted at the social, political, and symbolic levels. The modern city is no longer an autonomous unit, but very much a part of, often at the center of, national and even international developments. As Janet Abu-Lughod points out in her sharp introduction most of the themes that are now in common usage owe their beginnings to Scott Greer.

About this title

About the Author:

Scott Greer was, until his death, professor of sociology and urban studies at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Before that he served as professor of sociology and political science at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Logic of Social Inquiry, also published by Transaction.

Review:

“What Greer has attempted to do is to attack the perennial problems of modern urban society: traffic, suburban sprawl, the atomization of social relations, political leadership, and the decline of the central city from a fresh point of view. He manages to make more sense out of the exasperating yet fascinating problems of modern urban life than any other book this reviewer has seen in some time.”

—E. Digby Baltzell, Administrative Science Quarterly

“Greer first destroys images of the city as conceived by political scientists, urban sociologist and economists, and produces a new and more complete one which has far more relevance to reality.”

—The Humanist

"Perhaps Greer's most important contribution is his stress upon the city's ties with the broader society of which it is necessarily a part."

—Gideon Sjoberg, American Sociological Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0765804328
• ISBN 13: 9780765804327
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246