City Lights: Urban-Suburban Life in the Global Society

Now in its third edition, City Lights: Urban-Suburban Life in the Global Society is the most interdisciplinary urban studies book on the market. It skillfully blends social science perspectives with insights from the visual arts and humanities to provide a comprehensive introduction to cities, suburbs, and post-suburban areas and how they work. Motivating students to develop their own perspectives on the issues, author E. Barbara Phillips provides an extended discussion of "doing social science," systematically showing how scholarly controversy and public debates over urban-suburban policy are rooted in deep-seated differences: in ideologies, research methods, theoretical orientations, academic disciplines, and/or levels of analysis.

Featuring a unique combination of serious scholarship and an accessible, engaging writing style, City Lights, Third Edition, is ideal for courses in urban sociology, urban studies, urban growth and development, urban theory, and urban history. It incorporates many helpful pedagogical features, including almost 200 photographs and illustrations, real-life case studies, excerpts from classic works, key terms, and suggestions for further learning. In addition, end-of-chapter projects encourage students to apply what they have learned by participating in research, activism, or other civic pursuits in their own communities.

Thoroughly revised and updated, the third edition features

* A focus on the U.S. city but also a global emphasis throughout, with in-depth profiles of such cities as Kyoto, Cordóba, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Mexico City; numerous global-local links; and a new chapter (5) on global urbanization and the urban system
* Updated statistical data
* Detailed coverage of the Internet's influence on personal, political, and economic relations
* Discussions of numerous new topics including the impact of terrorism on cities, new immigrants in the U.S. and elsewhere, gated communities, building "green," and the "New Urbanism" in the U.S
* Analyses of recent political, social, and economic changes--including economic downturns--and their effects on urbanites and suburbanites in the U.S. and worldwide