City Planning: A Very Short Introduction

City planning is a practice and profession that involves shaping cities as physical spaces and social environments. It requires a range of disciplines and approaches, including architecture, landscape design, engineering, geography, political science, sociology, and social work. Activists and community members also influence debates and controversies within the field. The book is organized around eight key aspects of city planning, including street layout, congestion and decentralization, suburbanization, conservation and regeneration, natural systems, cities and regions, social class and ethnicity, and disasters and resilience. The underlying assumption is that decisions made today about cities are the continuation of past efforts to solve fundamental problems.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: 26 November 2020
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

City planning is a multifaceted practice and profession that encompasses a range of goals and aspirations, often rooted in utopian ideals. It involves the deliberate shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments, drawing upon a diverse array of disciplines and approaches akin to those employed in understanding cities themselves. These disciplines span art and literature, social and natural sciences, architecture, landscape design, engineering, geography, political science, policy, sociology, and social work.

Surrounding the core profession of city planning, known as urban or town planning, are related fields such as architecture, landscape design, engineering, geography, political science, policy, sociology, and social work. Additionally, the influence of community and environmental activists plays a significant role in shaping debates and controversies within the field. This Very Short Introduction is structured around eight key aspects of city planning: street layout, congestion and decentralization, response to suburbanization, conservation and regeneration of older districts, cities as natural systems, cities and regions, social class and ethnicity, and disasters and resilience.

Throughout, the underlying assumption is that decisions made today about cities and metropolitan regions are best understood as the continuation of past efforts to address fundamental problems that have evolved and shifted over multiple generations. At its best, city planning harnesses technical tools to achieve goals set by community action and political debate.

Carl Abbott's contribution to Oxford's renowned Very Short Introduction series offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of past decisions regarding urban growth management and their profound impact on the development of the twenty-first-century city.

Weight: 130g
Dimension: 112 x 173 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190944346