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.
Directly Elected Mayors in Urban Governance
Impact and Practice
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.