This study analyzes five different types of American urban communities to demonstrate the manner in which economic and political power have constructed the urban landscape. It uses such examples as Disneyworld and Henry Ford's industrial complex to show how powerful interests have shaped the land.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, I came to New York City to go to college--and have never left. Manhattan, as the critic John Berger writes, is the island for those who hope excessively--and I join my hopes and fears to those of everyone else in this ever-crowded, ever-new and ever-maddening place. I teach sociology at Brooklyn College and the City University Graduate Center, talking and writing about the neighborhoods, art scenes, real estate developers, immigrants and gentrifiers who make the city's soul.
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