Title Cities in the urban age : a dissent / Robert A. Beauregard

Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2018] ©2018

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xv, 213 pages) Contents The city -- Wealth, poverty -- Destructive, sustainable -- Oligarchic, democratic -- Intolerant, tolerant -- Encountering contradictions Summary We live in a self-proclaimed Urban Age, where we celebrate the city as the source of economic prosperity, a nurturer of social and cultural diversity, and a place primed for democracy. We proclaim the city as the fertile ground from which progress will arise. Without cities, we tell ourselves, human civilization would falter and decay. In Cities in the Urban Age, Robert A. Beauregard argues that this line of thinking is not only hyperbolic--it is too celebratory by half. For Beauregard, the city is a cauldron for four haunting contradictions. First, cities are equally defined by both their wealth and their poverty. Second, cities are simultaneously environmentally destructive and yet promise sustainability. Third, cities encourage rule by political machines and oligarchies, even as they are essentially democratic and at least nominally open to all. And fourth, city life promotes tolerance among disparate groups, even as the friction among them often erupts into violence. Beauregard offers no simple solutions or proposed remedies for these contradictions; indeed, he doesn't necessarily hold that they need to be resolved, since they are generative of city life. Without these four tensions, cities wouldn't be cities. Rather, Beauregard argues that only by recognizing these ambiguities and contradictions can we even begin to understand our moral obligations, as well as the clearest paths toward equality, justice, and peace in urban settings Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-207) and index Notes Print version record Subject Cities and towns. Cities and towns -- Social aspects Urban economics. Cities and towns -- Political aspects Cities and towns -- Social aspects -- United States Cities and towns -- Political aspects -- United States Cities cities. BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Urban & Regional. Cities and towns Cities and towns -- Political aspects Cities and towns -- Social aspects Urban economics United States Form Electronic book ISBN 9780226535418 022653541X

  Permalink