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 13-24 of 112 items.

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

Organising Waste in the City

International Perspectives on Narratives and Practices

Organising waste in the city takes a broad and international approach to the ways in which the issue of waste is framed, and brings together narratives from cities as diverse as Amsterdam, Bristol, Cairo, Gothenburg, Helsingborg and Managua.

Policy Press

Gypsies and Travellers in Housing

The Decline of Nomadism

This is the first published research from the UK to address the neglected topic of the increasing settlement of Gypsies and Travellers in conventional housing. It highlights the complex and emergent tensions and dynamics inherent when policy and popular discourse combine to frame ethnic populations within a narrative of movement.

Policy Press

Urban reflections

Narratives of place, planning and change

Drawing on geographical, cinematic and photographic readings, this unique book looks at how places change, the role of planners in bringing about urban change, and the public's attitudes to that change.

Policy Press

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.

Policy Press

The Caring City

Ethics of Urban Design

This original study makes a compelling case for a more ethical approach to urban development and management. Countering the conventional, neoliberal thinking of urban planners and academics, it uses case studies to show how a philosophy of caring can promote the wellbeing of our cities’ many inhabitants.

Bristol Uni Press

The Environments of Ageing

Space, Place and Materiality

Providing the first UK assessment of environmental gerontology, this book enriches current understanding of the spatiality of ageing. It contextualises personal experience in national and local spaces and places, considers the value of intergenerational and age-related living and global to local concerns for population ageing in light of COVID-19.

Policy Press

Estate Regeneration and Its Discontents

Public Housing, Place and Inequality in London

Using original interviews with estate residents in London, Watt provides a vivid account of estate regeneration and its impacts on marginalised communities in London, showing their experiences and perspectives. He demonstrates the dramatic impacts that regeneration and gentrification can have on socio-spatial inequality.

Policy Press

Ethnic Segregation Between Schools

Is It Increasing or Decreasing in England?

This book uses up-to-date evidence to interrogate contemporary patterns of ethnic and social segregation at a school-level, looking at how the changing geographies of ethnic segregation reflect those of social segregation.

Bristol Uni Press

Resilience in the Post-Welfare Inner City

Voluntary Sector Geographies in London, Los Angeles and Sydney

Moving beyond theoretical notions of ‘resilience’ this is the first book to offer a conceptual and empirical approach to exploring and comparing the process of resilience across service ‘hubs’ in three complex but different global inner-city regions: London, Los Angeles and Sydney.

Policy Press

Researching the Lifecourse

Critical Reflections from the Social Sciences

Researching the Lifecourse features methods linking time, space and mobilities and provides practitioners with practical detail in each chapter. It covers the full lifecourse and includes innovative methods and case study examples from different European and North American contexts.

Policy Press

The Social Atlas of Europe

This is the first human geography social atlas of Europe to consider the European economy, culture, history and human and physical geography as a single land mass and a more unified European people. It provides an accessible overview of Europe and a human geography contribution to debates about a wide range of topics.

Policy Press