Key Thinkers on Cities

Regan Koch is a Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen Mary University of London. His interests are in matters of public space, urban sociality and collective culture, and the representation and imagination of urban life. Working between London and various cities across the US, Regan's research has focused on exploring novel food trends, social entrepreneurship, licensing laws and government regulations, and changing social norms related to how we live together in cities. His work has been published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Urban Studies, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and in several edited collections. Alan Latham is another Professor of Human Geography at University College London. His research focuses on sociality, social infrastructure, and the public life of cities more generally. He's studied those themes in all sorts of places around the world too. In undertaking this work, he's explored a range of research approaches - including the use of photo-diaries, diary-interviews, social contact logs, and video recording and analysis. He's interested in doing whatever works to get as close as possible to the realities of people's experience. Originally from New Zealand, he's also been in London, and UCL, for quite a long time too.

Introduction: How to think about cities - Regan Koch and Alan Latham 01 Janet Abu-Lughod - Joseph Heathcott 02 Ash Amin - Junjia Ye 03 Elijah Anderson - Michael DeLand 04 Michael Batty - Helen Couclelis 05 Brian Berry - Elvin Wyly 06 M. Christine Boyer - Agustin Cocola Gant 07 Neil Brenner - Tauri Tuvikene 08 Teresa Caldeira - Sonia Roitman 09 Manuel Castells - Phil Hubbard 10 Jason Corburn - Andrew Barnfield 11 Mike Davis - Melanie Lombard 12 Bent Flyvbjerg - Martijn Duineveld, Kristof Van Assche and Raoul Beunen 13 Matthew Gandy - Andrew Karvonen 14 Nestor Garcia Canclini - Angela Giglia 15 Jan Gehl - Annie Matan 16 Edward Glaeser - Jurgen Essletzbichler 17 Stephen Graham - Kurt Iveson 18 David Harvey - Louis Moreno 19 Dolores Hayden - Leslie Kern 20 Jane Jacobs - Oli Mould 21 Jane M. Jacobs - Ryan Centner 22 Natalie Jeremijenko - Clemens Driessen 23 Rem Koolhaas - Davide Ponzini 24 Henri Lefebvre - David Pinder 25 Kevin Lynch - Quentin Stevens 26 William J. Mitchell - David Beer 27 Harvey Molotch - Eugene McCann 28 Enrique Penalosa - Juan Pablo Galvis 29 Jennifer Robinson - Rajyashree Reddy 30 Ananya Roy - Hanna Hilbrandt 31 Saskia Sassen - Michele Acuto 32 Richard Sennett - Alan Latham 33 Karen C. Seto - Michail Fragkias 34 Abdumaliq Simone - Colin McFarlane 35 Neil Smith - Tom Slater 36 Michael Storper - Alan Latham 37 Mariana Valverde - Regan Koch 38 Loic Wacquant - Tom Slater 39 Fulong Wu - I-Chun Catherine Chang 40 Sharon Zukin - Mark Jayne

"Key Thinkers on Cities is an excellent assemblage of urban studies scholars who reflect insightfully on the major ideas and contributions of many of the most influential contributors to urban theory and practice of the past three decades." -- Michael Peter Smith "Urban studies has experienced a theoretical renaissance of late, and the tumble dryer of ideas that has emerged underline the need to take stock. In this book, Koch and Latham are more than up to the task, bringing together a plurality of 40 thinkers on cities that spans economics, geography, sociology, anthropology, planning and beyond. The scope of the book is admirable, capturing the diversity of approaches and disciplines that builds on but also moves well beyond the usual suspects and trends. Indeed, and using a celestial analogy, the book covers not only the super-giant suns with their considerable gravity, but also those thinkers only emerging from the cosmic dust, rogue planets forging their own unique understandings, and the shooting stars that promise exciting new insights. But the edited volume goes one step further by relating theories across thinkers, thereby uncovering the rich relationalities that underpin urban studies today." -- Dr Geoff DeVerteuil "The contributors to Key Thinkers weave together the personal and the professional to provide a wonderful set of insights into the people behind contemporary urban studies. And in the process they highlight the many and varied methods and theories that co-exist in this diverse and heterogeneous field. This book is a must-read for all of us who want to know more about why we understand cities in the way we do!" -- Kevin Ward "This is a fresh and comprehensive survey of the current state of urban theory, both revisiting the reputation of established experts as well as bringing forth new voices and theories that have enlivened the field in recent years." -- Donald McNeill