Suburban Urbanities: Suburbs and the Life of the High Street

Description

While both urban and rural studies have long thrived, the suburbs have remained curiously neglected, and the inherent needs and problems of suburban living have long been unaddressed. Suburban space has traditionally been understood as a formless remnant of physical city expansion, without a dynamic or logic of its own. This book challenges this view by offering a definition of the suburb as a fluid, dynamic entity with an interdependent geography, situated within the context of wider urban systems. Through a genuine interdisciplinary approach it examines the patterns of city growth in case studies from Europe and around the Mediterranean. Situating the suburbs within these empirical settings offers a more comprehensive understanding of spatial change, the history of the suburb and its current development challenges. Studies of the high street as a centre for social, economic and cultural exchange, provide evidence for its critical role in sustaining local adaptability over time. By making the link between large scale city mapping together with urban design scale expositions of high street activity alongside anthropological interpretations of the local, the book underscores the need to consider suburban space on its own terms as a specific and complex field of social practice. Front Cover Half title Title page Copyright page Dedication Foreword Preface Table of Contents List of Figures and Plates List of Tables List of Contributors Introduction: Suburbs are as Old as the City Itself Part A: Theoretical Preliminaries Chapter 1: The Suburb and the City I. Introduction II. Suburban imaginations III. The one-dimensional suburb IV. Suburban trajectories V. Suburban identities VI. Suburban otherness VII. Conclusion Chapter 2: The High Street as a Morphological Event I. Introduction II. High street temporalities III. Morphological history and morphological events IV. High streets as network topoi V. Conclusion Part B: Suburban Centralities Chapter 3: Suburban Continuity and Change I. Introduction II. The case studies III. The London-wide context IV. Spatial network evolution V. Interventions in the network VI. Conclusion Chapter 4: Spatial Memory and Shifting Centrality I. Introduction II. Limassol’s urban development III. Research methods IV. Continuity and change V. Shifting centrality VI. Conclusion Chapter 5: Street Quality, Street Life, Street Centrality I. Introduction II. Research methods III. The case studies IV. Street structure V. Conclusion Chapter 6: Beyond Lively Streets I. Introduction II. Research methods III. Observing street life IV. Street frontage analysis V. Street network configuration VI. Conclusion Part C: High Street Diversity Chapter 7: High Street Diversity I. Introduction II. Concepts of diversity III. Land use diversity IV. Movement interfaces V. Building adaptability VI. Conclusion Chapter 8: High Street Transactions and Interactions I. Introduction II. The growth of Islington III. Spatial configuration IV. Life on the high street V. High street transformations VI. Conclusion Case Study 1: High Street Productivity I. Introduction II. High street diversity III. High street working life IV. High street design Case Study 2: High Streets and the Pedestrian Realm I. Introduction II. The pedestrian realm III. High street urbanity IV. Conclusion Part D: Everyday Sociability Chapter 9: Street Interaction and Social Inclusion I. Introduction II. Urban life and co-presence III. Co-presence and interaction IV. Segregation from urban life V. Segregation from urban functions VI. Conclusion Chapter 10: Sociability and Ethnic Identity I. Introduction II. Immigrant clustering and suburbanisation III. The Latino suburban hub IV. Market sociality V. Constituting social networks VI. Language barriers VII. Navigating space, bridging difference VIII. Conclusion Chapter 11: Being Suburban I. Introduction II. The image of the suburbs III. Re-imagining suburbs IV. Living in Seething, a place that is not a place V. The Seething events VI. After the event VII. Local communities VIII. Conclusion Glossary of Space Syntax References Index