Understanding the Urban

This interdisciplinary book examines the contemporary nature and possible futures of cities in a postindustrial and globalized world. Considering urban plans as complex systems and as products of collective human action, Byrne draws on urban history, geography, sociology, and studies from the developed, developing, and former soviet systems. He describes the crucial processes of the restructuring of urban employment, the creation of the built environment, and the transformation of "culture" in cities.

David Byrne is Reader in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Durham.