This completes Ed Soja's trilogy on urban studies, which began with Postmodern Geographies and continued with Thirdspace. It is the first comprehensive text in the growing field of critical urban studies to deal with the dramatically restructured megacities that have emerged world-wide over the last half of the twentieth-century.
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"Traditional sociological and urban design critiques of the American city have left vacant a wide middle ground of critical enquiry. Between statistical analysis and physical critique, Edward Soja attempts to bridge the divide by proposing a 'third way' for urban studies. The result is a broad overview, ranging between sociological and cultural points of view, with the provocative possibility of pairing the two in a new urban paradigm." Tom Leslie, World Architecture
"Coming to the field as a relative novice, I found this book more straightforward and thought provoking than I expected...it is sure to be of interest and value to students and researchers alike." Regional Studies.
"Postmetropolis effectively illuminates the rich complexity and multidisciplinary of urban and regional restructuring in the current era... will serve as a useful resource." Journal of Economic and Social Geography.
"Postmetropolis is magisterial in its historic sweep" Thomas L. Bell, University of Tennessee.
Book Description
A captivating guide to our urban future utilizing the urban geographic history of contemporary Los Angeles, a vivid & far-reaching interpretation of the restructured megacity.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Helpful for Grad Students,
By El Cholo Invisivel (Brazil) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (Paperback)
The core of the book is a section of 6 chapters, each focusing on a key issue of post modern debate about megacities. I found this extremely helpful because each one starts with a list of 20 of the most important books about the issue, and contains Soja's summary of the main arguments of 4 or 5 important writers with occasionally enlightening commentary. It is Soja's own analysis that tends to fall flat, however. He criticizes the traditional left as not understanding the complexeties of modern cities, but the only examples he gives of modern progressive sucess stories are based on the kind of community organization coalitions pioneered by orthodox leftists like Saul Alinsky. Perhaps to counter it being written off so much as an anomoly, Soja overstates the case for Los Angeles as the model postmodern megacity. In order to do that he has to avoid talking about the main difference between it and larger cities like London, New York, Tokyo or São Paulo - its near total lack of what Oldenburg calls 3rd places: public, non-consumerist spaces where people socialize away from work and home. Soja mistakenly labels advocates of pedestrian friendly cities like Jane Jacobs as "nostalgic", ignoring the positive social factors that vibrant street live gives to every other city with over 10 million inhabitants in the World. He is also occasionally misleading in his statistics, repeatedly siting one neighborhood in LA as being more densily populated than the borough of Manhatten (which has a large non-residential business district and two huge parks), downplaying LAs sprawl problem. On the whole, however, it is a very helpful book to read if you are an urban studies student needing to familiarize yourself with current debates in postmodern urban theory.
3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting view of the City,
By A Customer
This review is from: Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (Paperback)
The city as a phenomenon has gone through major changes. Mr Soja displays some extraordinary visions and views of this phenomenon and invites us to an exciting journey of the urban and regional concept.Quite recommendable if you are interested in the subject and already know a bit about it.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for Social/Urban Studies,
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This review is from: Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (Paperback)
This book is very excellent for those who are interested in Urban Studies. The author argued that instead of looking at the city as a product of agriculture community, rather, the city should be concerned as a catalyst for those agricultural activities. Without the city, the agriculture wouldn't exist! Interesting argument. Such a paradigm shift in understanding the city.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
As with Lewis Mumford's The City in History, Postmetropolis opens with a city that was symbolically a world - the very first such "city-world" in human history - and closes with a world that, in so many ways, has become very much like a city, where urban ways of life extend to every corner of the globe. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
postmetropolitan transition, new urbanization processes, postfordist industrial metropolis, regional cityspace, geopolitical economists, restructured social mosaic, postmetropolitan regions, critical spatial imagination, metropolis inverted, industrial capitalist city, urban globalization, critical spatial perspective, geopolitical economy, thirdspace perspective, metropolis unbound, critical urban studies, spatial justice, economic reflexivity, industrial urbanism, urban imaginary, city simulator, urban spatiality, world city research, human spatiality, world city hypothesis Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Southern California, Chicago School, African American, Rodney King, City of Quartz, Manuel Castells, Simi Valley, Southwest Asia, Mike Davis, North America, Henri Lefebvre, Long Beach, David Harvey, San Fernando Valley, Outer City, United States, San Francisco, Third World, Allen Scott, Great Depression, Moreno Valley, Jane Jacobs New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
As with Lewis Mumford's The City in History, Postmetropolis opens with a city that was symbolically a world - the very first such "city-world" in human history - and closes with a world that, in so many ways, has become very much like a city, where urban ways of life extend to every corner of the globe. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
postmetropolitan transition, new urbanization processes, postfordist industrial metropolis, regional cityspace, geopolitical economists, restructured social mosaic, postmetropolitan regions, critical spatial imagination, metropolis inverted, industrial capitalist city, urban globalization, critical spatial perspective, geopolitical economy, thirdspace perspective, metropolis unbound, critical urban studies, spatial justice, economic reflexivity, industrial urbanism, urban imaginary, city simulator, urban spatiality, world city research, human spatiality, world city hypothesis Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Los Angeles, New York, Orange County, Southern California, Chicago School, African American, Rodney King, City of Quartz, Manuel Castells, Simi Valley, Southwest Asia, Mike Davis, North America, Henri Lefebvre, Long Beach, David Harvey, San Fernando Valley, Outer City, United States, San Francisco, Third World, Allen Scott, Great Depression, Moreno Valley, Jane Jacobs New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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65
books
cite this book:
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- The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs on 7 pages
- The Emergence of Civilisation: From Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture, Cities and the State of the Near East by Charles Keith Maisels on 5 pages
- The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy by Michael Storper on 4 pages
- Ethnic Los Angeles by Roger Waldinger on 4 pages
- No Crystal Stair: African-Americans in the City of Angels by Lynell George on page 375, page 381, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
- Asian Ethical Urbanism: A Radical Postmodern Perspective by William Siew Wai Lim on 4 pages
- Postmodern Geography: Theory and Praxis by Claudio Minca on 4 pages
- Extinct Lands, Temporal Geographies: Chicana Literature and the Urgency of Space (Latin America Otherwise) by Mary Pat Brady in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Downtown Canada: Writing Canadian Cities by Justin D. Edwards in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Cities, War, and Terrorism: Towards an Urban Geopolitics (Studies in Urban and Social Change) by Stephen Graham in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 65 books citing this book
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