Key Thinkers on the City

Key Thinkers on Cities provides an engaging introduction to the dynamic intellectual field of urban studies. It profiles the work of 40 innovative thinkers who represent the broad reach of contemporary urban scholarship and whose ideas have shaped the way cities around the world are understood, researched, debated and acted upon. Providing a synoptic overview that spans a wide range of academic and professional disciplines, theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, the entry for each key thinker comprises:

• A succinct introduction and overview
• Intellectual biography and research focus
• An explication of key ideas
• Contributions to urban studies

The book offers a fresh look at well-known thinkers who have been foundational to urban scholarship, including Jane Jacobs, Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells and David Harvey. It also incorporates those who have helped to bring a concern for cities to more widespread audiences, such as Jan Gehl, Mike Davis and Enrique Peñalosa. Notably, the book also includes a range of thinkers who have more recently begun to shape the study of cities through engagements with art, architecture, computer modelling, ethnography, public health, post-colonial theory and more.

With an introduction that provides a mapping of the current transdisciplinary field, and individual entries by those currently involved in cutting edge urban research in the Global North and South, this book promises to be an essential text for anyone interested in the study of cities and urban life. It will be of use to those in the fields of anthropology, economics, geography, sociology and urban planning. 

Regan Koch is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London. His interests are in matters of public space, urban sociality and collective culture, and the representation and imagination of urban life. Working between London and various cities across the US, Regan′s research has focused on exploring novel food trends, social entrepreneurship, licensing laws and government regulations, and changing social norms related to how we live together in cities. His work has been published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Urban Studies, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and in several edited collections.

Alan Latham is a Professor of Human Geography at University College London. His research focuses on sociality, social infrastructure, and the public life of cities more generally. He has undertaken research in Germany, America, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Sweden on cities as diverse as Auckland, London, New York, Eugene (OR), Malmo, Berlin, and Champaign-Urbana. Before moving to UCL he held academic positions at the University of Southampton, and the University of Auckland.