Philip Kasinitz Knihy

Global Cities, Local Everyday Diversity from New York to Shanghai, a cutting-edge text/ethnography, reports on the rapidly expanding field of global, urban studies through a unique pairing of six teams of urban researchers from around the world. The authors present shopping streets from each city – New York, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Berlin, Toronto, and Tokyo – how they have changed over the years, and how they illustrate globalization embedded in local communities. This is an ideal addition to courses in urbanization, consumption, and globalization.. The book’s companion website, www.globalcitieslocalstreets.org, has additional videos, images, and maps, alongside a forum where students and instructors can post their own shopping street experiences.

From its emergence at the end of the 18th century, the 'modern' way of life has been closely associated with the growth of great cities. The essays in this collection represent some of the most significant attempts to understand the nature of the metropolis and its relationship with modern life in general. The book includes both classic and contemporary works of sociological theory, literary and architectural criticism, ethnography, polemics and historical work. Yet in their very different ways, each of the authors is trying to make sense of the sometimes frightening but always stimulating phenomenon of contemporary city life. As such the essays speak to each other and to the controversies over the city - what it is and what it should be - that have emerged over the past century. In addition to general works on the social and psychological nature of urbanism, the book includes sections on the built environment and on public space.