Customer Reviews

Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for Multicultural Cities

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This book was for me an excelent discovering of the new planning from a multicultural approach. In some cases is repetitive, but have a very good selection of cases. I recommend it.

This book is typical of planning theory books. They do not say much that is of any practical value. This book will tell you that it is important of build socially inclusive cities, but it will not tell you how. It has little of practical value. Rather than provide an alternative approach to city building that is socially and environmentally aware it does little more than rehash arguments against planning that have been around for 40 years.

Though Sandercock goes some way to recognising the importance of design in city building she still can't bring herself to engage meaningfully with new urbanist proposals or to make any design recommendations.

By concentrating on 'planning theory' it misses out on the rich traditions of planning practice. It has no photographs of real spaces or real cities, just words. Don't read this if you haven't already read "The Death and Life of the Great American City" or "A Pattern Language". Once you have read these other books you won't want to read this.