Introduction to 'Urban Politics' - Sage Library of Political Science Series

Abstract:     
Given the immense volume of urban political scholarship, going back millennia, we faced a substantial challenge in pulling the collection together. In doing so, we showcase some of the best and most influential thinking about city politics, predominantly on Europe and the USA, but also including Africa and Latin America, where the urban future is unfolding before our eyes and posing questions that we cannot answer with reference to the past or to prescriptions from the developed world.

For volume 1, we decided to reach back deep into history to the roots of the field, an approach we believe distinguishes this work from other recent urban politics Readers. We cover nearly 3,000 years and have had to squeeze several centuries out of the discussion. Nevertheless, we have highlighted some of the most salient traditions and developments down the millennia. Volumes 2, 3 and 4 were less challenging to organize, albeit that we had to make very difficult choices about what to include and what to leave out. The themes of these three volumes reflect what we see as the key concerns of contemporary urban political scholarship, which itself has deep historical roots. Within each volume, we cluster articles around salient sub-themes, or traditions, and draw out comparisons and contrasts between the different perspectives.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 29

Keywords: urban, politics, history, power, institutions, transitions, governance, publics, policies

Accepted Paper Series