Policy Press

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.

Showing 73-84 of 112 items.

The Essential Guide to Planning Law

Decision-Making and Practice in the UK

Written in an accessible style, this comprehensive yet concise text book gives students essential background and contextual information supported by practical and applied discussion to help even those with no planning law knowledge engage in the subject and understand planning in the real world.

Policy Press

Who Stole the Town Hall?

The End of Local Government as We Know It

Arguing that the UK Government intends to privatise all local services through its devolution agenda, Peter Latham proposes a new basis for federal, regional and local democracy, including land value taxation and a wealth tax.

Policy Press

Directly Elected Mayors in Urban Governance

Impact and Practice

Edited by David Sweeting

This book is about the practices, roles and impacts of directly elected mayors in the cities that they govern. The volume draws on recent, original research evidence, to locate the debates on directly elected mayors in context in Europe, the US, and Australasia.

Policy Press

Protest Camps in International Context

Spaces, Infrastructures and Media of Resistance

Through a series of interdisciplinary case studies, this topical collection is the first to focus on protest camps as unique organisational forms that transcend particular social movements’ contexts. The book offers a critical understanding of current protest events and will help better understanding of new global forms of democracy in action.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

Why Detroit Matters

Decline, Renewal and Hope in a Divided City

Edited by Brian Doucet

This edited book examines why what happens in Detroit matters for other cities around the world. Bridging academic and non-academic voices, contributions from many of the leading scholars on Detroit are joined by some of the city’s most influential writers, planners, artists and activists.

Policy Press

Towards Just and Sustainable Economies

The Social and Solidarity Economy North and South

Academics from a range of disciplines and from a number of European and Latin American countries come together to question what it means to have a ‘sustainable society’ and to ask what role alternative social and solidarity economies can play.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

Designing Prostitution Policy

Intention and Reality in Regulating the Sex Trade

The book offers a detailed analysis of the design and implementation of prostitution policy at the local level.

Policy Press

Education Policy and Racial Biopolitics in Multicultural Cities

Gulson and Webb show how school choice can represent and manifest the hopes and fears, contestations and settlements of contemporary racial biopolitics and ethnic politics of education in multicultural cities.

Policy Press

Age-Friendly Cities and Communities

A Global Perspective

This important book provides a comprehensive survey of different strategies for developing age-friendly communities, and the extent to which older people themselves can be involved in the co-production of age-friendly policies and practices.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press