Social Geography and Urban Studies
We publish a wide range of topical titles in this subject area. Have a browse through the different categories on the left to get a flavour of what is covered.
We are particularly well-known for our atlases on social geography and inequality which have featured widely in the media – look out for The human atlas of Europe and People and places in 2016.
Health Divides
Where You Live Can Kill You
Clare Bambra examines the social, environmental, economic and political causes of health inequalities, how they have evolved over time and what they are like today. Revealing gaps in life expectancy of up to 25 years between places just a few miles apart, this important book demonstrates that where you live can kill you.
Health in Hard Times
Austerity and Health Inequalities
Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. This book is a vital review of the impact of austerity on the wellbeing of the UK. Case studies from Stockton-on-Tees, home to some of the starkest health divides, are combined with a review of the repercussions of budget cuts and welfare reforms to show the vast inequalities in health in the UK today.
Hearing the Voices of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities
Inclusive Community Development
This book charts Gypsies Romany and Travellers community activism, and the community and voluntary organisations which support them. It describes the communities' struggle for rights against a backdrop of intersectional discrimination across Europe.
Home zones
A planning and design handbook
Home zones (areas where cars travel slowly and space has been created for children and environmental improvement) are a common feature of the urban landscape. This handbook explains how to plan and design a home zone in an existing street or as part of a new residential area, including advice and illustrations derived from recent home zone schemes.
How to Build Houses and Save the Countryside
Focusing on house building and conservation politics in England, Spiers uses his considerable experience and extensive research to demonstrate why the current model doesn’t work, and why there needs to be both planning reform and a more active role for the state, including local government.
How to Save Our Town Centres
A Radical Agenda for the Future of High Streets
Written in an engaging and accessible style, How to save our town centres asks whether the internet has killed our high streets and how the relationship between people and places is changing, how business is done and who benefits, and how the use and ownership of land affects us all.
The Human Atlas of Europe
A Continent United in Diversity
Written by leading international authors, this timely atlas explores Europe’s society, culture, economy, politics and environment using state of the art mapping techniques. It addresses fundamental questions around social cohesion and sustainable growth as Europe negotiates the UK’s exit while continuing through the economic crisis.
Identity in Britain
A cradle-to-grave atlas
Danny Dorling and Bethan Thomas have brought together this outstanding atlas to provide us with a unique visual picture of identity and geography combined. "Identity in Britain" explores our changing identities as we progress from infancy to old age and tells the story of the myriad geographies of life in Britain.
Infrastructure in Africa
Lessons for Future Development
This book presents a comprehensive exploration of the state of infrastructure in Africa and provides an integrated analysis of the challenges the sector faces, based on extensive fieldwork across the continent, providing an important resource for researchers, students, policymakers and NGOs.
Invisible Britain
Portraits of Hope and Resilience
A photographic ethnography book that features the stories and portraits of individuals across the UK who have been impacted by social issues such as austerity, Brexit, deindustrialisation, nationalism and cuts to public services.
Jigsaw cities
Big places, small spaces
This new book explores Britain's intensely urban and increasingly global communities as interlocking pieces of a complex jigsaw; they are hard to see apart yet they are deeply unequal.
Jigsaw Cities examines these issues using Birmingham, Britain's second city, as a model of pioneering urban order and as a victim of brutal Modernist planning.
Justice and Fairness in the City
A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to 'Ordinary' Cities
This book examines the theory and practice of justice in and of the city through a multi-disciplinary collaboration, which draws on a wide range of expertise. It will be a valuable resource for academic researchers and students across a range of disciplines including urban and environmental studies.