Metropolis: Center and Symbol of Our Times / Edition 1

by Philip Kasinitz

Overview

Draws on renowned social thinkers to help understand why Americans flock to urban centers

The modern city is the nexus of culture, politics, and art. Despite the manifold problems cities face, more and more Americans are abandoning rural areas and relocating to urban centers. By the year 2000, 4 out of 5 Americans will live within one hour of a major city. What has prompted this emphasis on the city? Chronicling the rise of the modern city, Metropolis draws from the work of such renowned social thinkers as Georg Simmel, Lewis Mumford, Walter Benjamin, Richard Sennett, and Herbert Gans, to illustrate how and why we have come to be an urban society and what the future holds for the American city. Each of the five sections (on modernity and the urban ethos; New York City; community and social bonds in the city; social relations and public places; and the role of space, race, class, and politics in the American city) is prefaced by an introduction by the editor, highlighting the issues under discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814746400
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	12/01/1994
Series:	Main Trends of the Modern World , #3
Pages:	486
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 8.50(d)

About the Author

Philip Kasinitz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College and author of Caribbean New York: Black Immigrants and the Politics of Race.

Table of Contents

Preface; R.Jackall & A.J.Vidich - Acknowledgements - Notes on the Contributors - Introduction; P.Kasinitz - PART 1: MODERNITY AND THE URBAN ETHOS - Introduction; P.Kasinitz - The Culture of Cities; L.Mumford - The Metropolis and Mental Life; G.Simmel - Paris: Capital of the 19th Century; W.Benjamin - Urbanism as a Way of Life; L.Wirth - PART 2: RATIONALITY AND IT'S DISCONTENTS: THE MAKING OF THE A METROPOLIS IN NEW YORK CITY - Introduction; P.Kasinitz - New York is not a Completed City; Le Corbusier - Uses of Sidewalks; J.Jacobs - In the Forrest of Symbols: Some Notes on Modernism in New York; M.Berman - PART 3: COMMUNITY REDISCOVERED, COMMUNITY REASSESSED: SOCIAL BONDS IN THE MODERN CITY - Introduction; P.Kasinitz - Urbanism and Suburbanism as Ways of Life; H.Gans - Race, Ethnicity and New Forms of Urban Community; J.Bensman & A.Vidich - Private, Parochial and Public Social Orders: Crime and Incivility in Urban Communities; A.Hunter - Community Becomes Uncivilized; R.Sennett - City Life and Difference; I.M.Young - PART 4: SOCIAL RELATIONS AND PUBLIC PLACES - Introduction; P.Kasinitz - The Varieties and Vicissitudes of Public Space; J.Weintraub - The Pleasures and Costs of Urbanity; M.Walzer - Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom; E.Anderson - Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space; M.Davis - Reclaiming our Public Spaces; F.Siegel - PART 5: THE FUTURE OF THE CITY: SPACE, RACE, CLASS AND POLITICS - Introduction; P.Kasinitz - Megalopolis Unbound; M.Fishman - The Ghetto, the State and the New Capitalist Economy; L.J.D.Wacquant - Civil Society as a Polyarchic Form: The City; F.Ferrarotti - Index