Books about Urbanization from Amazon.com

China is the most rapidly urbanizing nation in the world, with an urban population that may well reach one billion within a generation Over the past 25 years, surging economic growth has propelled a construction boom unlike anything the world has ever seen, radically transforming both city and countryside in its wake. The speed and scale of China's urban revolution challenges nearly all our expectations about architecture, urbanism and city planning. China's ambition to be a major player on the global stage is written on the skylines of every major city. This is a nation on the rise, and it is building for the record books.

China is now home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers and biggest shopping malls; the longest bridges and largest airport; the most expansive theme parks and gated communities and even the world's largest skateboard park. And by 2020 China's national network of expressways will exceed in length even the American interstate highway system. China's construction industry, employing a workforce equal to the population of California, has been erecting billions of square feet of housing and office space every year. But such extensive development has also meant demolition on a scale unprecedented in the peacetime history of the world. Nearly all of Beijing's centuries-old cityscape has been bulldozed in recent years, and redevelopment in Shanghai has displaced more families than 30 years of urban renewal in the United States. China's cities are also rapidly sprawling across the landscape, churning precious farmland into a landscape of superblock housing estates and single-family subdivisions laced with highways and big-box malls. In a mere generation, China's cities have undergone a metamorphosis that took 150 years to complete in the United States.

The Concrete Dragon: China's Urban Revolution and What it Means for the World sheds light on this extraordinary chapter in world urban history. The book surveys the driving forces behind the great Chinese building boom, traces the historical precedents and global flows of ideas and information that are fusing to create a bold new Chinese cityscape, and considers the social and environmental impacts of China's urban future.

The Concrete Dragon provides a critical overview of contemporary Chinese urbanization in light of both China's past as well as earlier episodes of rapid urban development elsewhere in the world-especially that of the United States, a nation that itself once set global records for the speed and scale of its urban ambitions..
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Based on the author's extensive experience as a working planner, this book gives readers an insider's view of sub-state urban planning–the “nitty-gritty” details on the interplay of politics, law, money, and interest groups. The author takes a balanced, non-judgmental approach to introduce a range of ideological and political perspectives on the operation of political, economic, and demographic forces in city planning. Unlike other books on the subject, this one is strong in its coverage of economics, law, finance, and urban governance. It examines the underlying forces of growth and change and discusses frankly who benefits and loses by particular decisions. A four-part organization covers the background and development of contemporary planning; the structure and practice of contemporary planning; fields of planning; and national planning in the United States and other nations, and planning theory. For individuals headed for a career in planning.

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"Top-ranked annual books on sustainable development."—GlobeScan survey of sustainability experts

In State of the World 2007, the Worldwatch Institute's award-winning research team focuses on the urbanization of our planet to provide policymakers, strategic planners, researchers, students, and concerned citizens with comprehensive analysis of the global environmental problems we face, together with descriptions of practical, innovative solutions. This report will show what is needed to foster sustainable cities on a planet where urban areas are home to half the human population and a far larger share of natural resource use.

Written in clear and concise language, with easy-to-read charts and tables, State of the World 2007 presents a view of our changing world that we, and our leaders, cannot afford to ignore..
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In twelve engaging essays, William Fulton chronicles the history of urban planning in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, tracing the legacy of short-sighted political and financial gains that has resulted in a vast urban region on the brink of disaster. Looking at such diverse topics as shady real estate speculations, the construction of the Los Angeles subway, the battle over the future of South Central L.A. after the 1992 riots, and the emergence of Las Vegas as "the new Los Angeles," Fulton offers a fresh perspective on the city's epic sprawl. The only way to reverse the historical trends that have made Los Angeles increasingly unliveable, Fulton concludes, is to confront the prevailing "cocoon citizenship," the mind-set that prevents the city's inhabitants and leaders from recognizing Los Angeles's patchwork of communities as a single metropolis.

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Rapid urban growth and suburban sprawl have heightened concern in many quarters about sustainable development. Are economic growth and environmental health always mutually exclusive goals? Nearly everyone would choose to pursue both given the chance, but many believe that it would be overly optimistic—perhaps naïve—to expect both..
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During the last decade, research on global cities has exploded throughout the social sciences. It has now become one of the most exciting, if controversial approaches to the study of urban life today.

Fifty generous selections, including contributions from John Friedmann, Michael Peter Smith, Saskia Sassen, Peter Taylor, Manuel Castells, and Anthony King, explore the interrelationships between cities and globalization. The seven sections with accompanying editorial introductions guide the student through the key theoretical, methodological, and empirical debates.

The Global Cities Reader explores the major foundations and intellectual influences of research on globalized urbanization. Classic and contemporary case studies of globalizing cities from Europe, North America and East Asia as well as from emerging world city regions of the global South are presented. The political and cultural dimensions of global city formation are examined in separate sections. The reader concludes by examining the refinement and critique of global cities research in the last fifteen years..
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