Summary
Contents
The SAGE Key Concepts series provides students with accessible and authoritative knowledge of the essential topics in a variety of disciplines. Cross-referenced throughout, the format encourages critical evaluation through understanding.
Written by experienced and respected academics, the books are indispensable study aids and guides to comprehension.
Key Concepts in Urban Studies:
Clearly and concisely explains the basic ideas in the interdisciplinary field of urban studies; Offers concise discussions of concepts ranging from community, neighbourhood, and the city to globalization, the New Urbanism, feminine space, and urban problems; Constitutes a re-examination of the key ideas in the field; Is illustrated throughout with international examples; Provides an essential reference guide for all students and teachers across the urban disciplines within sociology, political science, planning and geography.
The City
The City
A city is a bounded space that is densely settled and has a relatively large, culturally heterogeneous population. According to the US census, which has a very loose definition, a city can be any urban place of 2,500 people or more that is incorporated as a municipality (see entries on Counties; Urbanization and Urbanism for more discussion).
Many places that are commonly referred to in the US, such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas or New York, are not really cities, but urbanized multi-centered metropolitan regions or MMRs (see entry on Multi-centered Metropolitan Region). The term ‘city’ is much overused and is often merely a shorthand designation for these massive areas of continuous urbanization. In Europe, the words ‘megapolis’ and ‘metropolis’ have been used interchangedly in the post-war period, describing cities as different
