Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban design considers 'bigger picture' issues of economic, social and environmental value and social design. The scope of a project can range from a local street or public space to an entire city and surrounding areas. Urban designers connect the fields of architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning to better organize physical space and community environments.
A gay village, also known as a gayborhood, is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBT) people. Gay villages often contain a number of gay-oriented establishments, such as gay bars and pubs, nightclubs, bathhouses, restaurants, boutiques, and bookstores.
Hippodamus of Miletus was an ancient Greek architect, urban planner, physician, mathematician, meteorologist and philosopher, who is considered to be "the father of European urban planning", and the namesake of the "Hippodamian plan" of city layout, although rectangular city plans were in use by the ancient Greeks as early as the 8th c. BC.
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social philosopher, and political commentator. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. With widely published commentary and books—and as a guest on TV and radio—he became a well-known voice in the American conservative movement as a prominent black conservative. He was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush in 2002.
Robert Marshall Axelrod is an American political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan where he has been since 1974. He is best known for his interdisciplinary work on the evolution of cooperation. His current research interests include complexity theory, international security, and cyber security. His research includes innovative approaches to explaining conflict of interest, the emergence of norms, how game theory is used to study cooperation, and cross-disciplinary studies on evolutionary processes.
Urban sociology is the sociological study of cities and urban life. One of the field’s oldest sub-disciplines, urban sociology studies and examines the social, historical, political, cultural, economic, and environmental forces that have shaped urban environments. Like most areas of sociology, urban sociologists use statistical analysis, observation, archival research, census data, social theory, interviews, and other methods to study a range of topics, including poverty, racial residential segregation, economic development, migration and demographic trends, gentrification, homelessness, blight and crime, urban decline, and neighborhood changes and revitalization. Urban sociological analysis provides critical insights that shape and guide urban planning and policy-making.
Bohemianism is a social and cultural movement that has, at its core, a way of life away from society's conventional norms and expectations. The term originates from the French bohème and spread to the English-speaking world. It was used to describe mid-19th-century non-traditional lifestyles, especially of artists, writers, journalists, musicians, and actors in major European cities.
City Journal is a public policy magazine and website, published by the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, that covers a range of topics on urban affairs, such as policing, education, housing, and other issues. The magazine also publishes articles on arts and culture, urban architecture, family culture, and other topics. The magazine began publishing in 1990.
Michael Laban Walzer is an American political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of the left-wing magazine Dissent, with which he has been affiliated with since his years as an undergraduate at Brandeis University, an advisory editor of the Jewish journal Fathom, and sits on the editorial board of the Jewish Review of Books.
The creative class is the posit of American urban studies theorist Richard Florida for an ostensible socioeconomic class. Florida, a professor and head of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, maintains that the creative class is a key driving force for economic development of post-industrial cities in the United States.
An arts district or cultural district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and public squares for performances. Such an area is usually encouraged by public policy-making and planning, but sometimes occurs spontaneously. It is associated with allied service-industry jobs like cafes, printers, fashion outlets, restaurants, and a variety of 'discreet services'.
Edward Ludwig Glaeser is an American economist who is currently the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he is also the Chairman of the Department of Economics. He directs the Cities Research Programme at the International Growth Centre.
George Chauncey is a professor of history at Columbia University. He is best known as the author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940.
Matthew E. Kahn is a leading American educator in the field of environmental economics. He is the Provost Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California. Between 2019 and 2021, he served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Economics and Business, with appointments at both Carey Business School and Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life is a non-fiction book written by Richard Florida. The book advances Florida's previous work on the locational choices of people and businesses. He adds a dimension of environmental psychology by assigning psychological profiles to urban regions according to the dominant personality traits of the people who live there. For example, the New York metropolitan area and the ChiPitts area have the highest concentration in the United States of people whose dominant personality trait is neuroticism. The book ends with a ten step guide to choosing a location best suited to the reader's personality and life situation.
The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity is a book published in April 2010 by Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. The book puts into context Florida's urban development theories and the financial crisis of 2007–2008 to describe the future of cities. The Great Reset examines the economic incentives which have driven American society in the past. Florida compares the recession to two similar periods in recent history, the 1870s, and the 1930s. The book is divided into three parts such as how past resets have shaped development, how different cities are positioned, and the trends that may emerge from the reset.
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, first published in 2012, is a book by economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. The book applies insights from institutional economics, development economics and economic history to understand why nations develop differently, with some succeeding in the accumulation of power and prosperity and others failing, via a wide range of historical case studies.
The Homosexual Matrix is a book by American psychologist Clarence Arthur Tripp, in which the author discusses the biological and sociological implications of homosexuality, and also attempts to explain heterosexuality and bisexuality. The book was first published in 1975 by McGraw-Hill Book Company; it was republished in a revised edition in 1987. Based on his review of the evidence, Tripp argues that people do not become homosexual due to factors such as hormone levels, fear of the opposite sex, or the influence of dominant and close-binding mothers, and that the amount of attention fathers give to their sons has no effect on the development of homosexuality. He criticizes Sigmund Freud and argues that psychoanalytic theories of the development of homosexuality are untenable and based on false assumptions. He maintains that sexual orientation is not innate and depends on learning, that early puberty and early masturbation are important factors in the development of male homosexuality, and that a majority of adults are heterosexual because their socialization has made them want to be heterosexual. He criticizes psychotherapeutic attempts to convert homosexuals to heterosexuality and argues in favor of social tolerance of homosexuality and non-conformist behavior in general.
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is an American conservative think tank focused on domestic policy and urban affairs. The institute's focus covers a wide variety of issues including healthcare, higher education, public housing, prisoner reentry, and policing. It was established in Manhattan in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J. Casey.
Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning in specific contexts, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportation, communications, and distribution networks, and their accessibility. Traditionally, urban planning followed a top-down approach in master planning the physical layout of human settlements. The primary concern was the public welfare, which included considerations of efficiency, sanitation, protection and use of the environment, as well as effects of the master plans on the social and economic activities. Over time, urban planning has adopted a focus on the social and environmental bottom lines that focus on planning as a tool to improve the health and well-being of people, maintaining sustainability standards. Similarly, in the early 21st century, Jane Jacobs's writings on legal and political perspectives to emphasize the interests of residents, businesses and communities effectively influenced urban planners to take into broader consideration of resident experiences and needs while planning.
