The Urban Geography Reader

As a Ph.D student of cultural anthropology with a burgeoning interest in urban geography, I found this edited collection of articles useful, particularly as an overview of trends in urban geography since the middle of the twentieth century. Perhaps seasoned urban geographers who are intimately familiar with the developments and debates within their sub-discipline might think they have little to learn from this disciplinary overview, but I would argue otherwise. Since academics of all stripes have a tendency to be myopic, both new and advanced scholars have much to gain from this collection, which ranges from classic articles in the political economy of urban geography to studies influenced by the cultural turn of the 1980s and 1990s. Despite the disparate sources of material composing this volume’s seven sections, several themes emerge: the importance of knowing the history and context of theories and methodologies of urban geography; the changing conceptualisations of ‘the city’; the dual influences of political economy and post-modern/interpretive analyses; and the significance of globalization as a phenomenon, its local impacts and the technologies that often shape and propel it.