{{Short description|Field within the social sciences}} {{For|the academic journal|Urban Studies (journal)}} '''Urban studies''' is the transdisciplinary study of urban settlements and urban development—comprising the theory portion of the field of urban planning. Topics range from geography, sociology, anthropology, history, urban design and architecture, to public policy and politics, and their interrelations with community development.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the City|last=Caves|first=R. W.|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=978-0415862875|pages=728}}</ref> Urban studies is a major field of study used by practitioners of urban planning,<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Caves |first=R. W. |title=Encyclopedia of the City |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0415862875 |pages=728}}</ref><ref name=":022">{{Cite journal |last1=Deborah McKoy |last2=Jessie Stewart |last3=Shirl Buss |date=2015 |title=Engaging Students in Transforming Their Built Environment via Y-PLAN: Lessons from Richmond, California |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.25.2.0229 |journal=Children, Youth and Environments |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=229 |doi=10.7721/chilyoutenvi.25.2.0229 |s2cid=114665427 |issn=1546-2250|url-access=subscription }}</ref> it helps with the understanding of human values, development, and the interactions they have with their physical environment.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|title=Rural Communities: Legacy + Change|last1=Flora|first1=Cornelia Butler|author1-link=Cornelia Butler Flora|last2=Flora|first2=Jan L.|last3=Gasteyer|first3=Stephen P.|date=2015-08-04|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=9780813349718|edition=5|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=The ghetto : contemporary global issues and controversies|last1=Ray.|first1=Hutchison|author2=Haynes, Bruce D.|date=2012|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=9780813345031|oclc=701015428}}</ref>
==History ==
The study of cities has changed dramatically from the 1800s over time, with new frames of analysis being applied to the development of urban areas. The first college programs were created to observe how cities were developed based on anthropological research of ghetto communities.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2Y5DQAAQBAJ&q=anthropological+urban+studies+1800's+Europe|title=Encyclopedia of Anthropology|last=Birx|first=H. James|date=2005-12-08|publisher=SAGE|isbn=9780761930297|language=en}}</ref> In the mid-1900s, urban study programs expanded beyond just looking at the current and historical impacts of city design and began studying how those designs impacted the future interactions of people and how to improve city development through architecture, open spaces, the interactions of people, and different types of capital that forms a community.<ref name=":02"/>
Urban history plays an important role in this field of study because it reveals how cities have developed previously.<ref name="The History in Urban Studies: A Comment">{{cite journal |last1= Harris|first1= Richard|title= The History in Urban Studies: A Comment|last2= Smith|first2= Michael E.|date= 2011|journal= Journal of Urban Affairs|volume= 33|issue= 1|pages= 99–105|doi= 10.1111/j.1467-9906.2010.00547.x|s2cid= 17156871}}</ref> History plays a large role in determining how cities will change in the future. Such areas change continuously as part of larger processes and create new histories that researchers study on both large-scale and individual levels.<ref name="The New Urban History">{{cite journal |last1= Hersberg|first1= Theodore|date= 1978|title= The New Urban History: Toward an Interdisciplinary History of the City|journal= Journal of Urban History|volume= 5|issue= 1|pages= 3–40|doi= 10.1177/009614427800500101|s2cid= 143993067}}</ref>
Overall, three different themes<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Studying Cities">{{cite book |last=Paddison |first=Ronan |date= 2001 |editor-last=Paddison |editor-first=Ronan |chapter= Studying Cities |title=Handbook of Urban Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |pages=177–193 |location= London; Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 9780803976955| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zPRdrBeR1-UC&pg=PA1}}</ref>{{rp|7}} have influenced how researchers have and will continue to study urban areas: # Spatial structures: Reflect how the city is physically organized # Processes that support spatial structure: Question how the city's structure operates # Normative Analysis: Construct opinions supported by facts to promote better urban planning methods
Scholars have also researched how cities outside of the United Kingdom and the United States have developed, but only to a limited degree. Urban history previously focused mostly on how European and American cities developed over time, instead of focusing on how non-European cities developed.<ref name="A decade of Urban History: Ashgate's Historical Urban Studies series">{{cite journal |last1= Doyle|first1= Barry M.|date= 2009|title= A decade of urban history: Ashgate's Historical Urban Studies series|url= https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/a-decade-of-urban-history-ashgates-historical-urban-studies-series/F9AC32550D106168CCDAF52861F9E1BB|journal= Urban History|volume= 36|issue= 3|pages= 498–512|doi= 10.1017/S0963926809990149|s2cid= 126794836|access-date= April 24, 2017|url-access= subscription}}</ref> Additional geographic areas researched in this field include South Africa,<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Parnell|first1= Susan|date= 1997|title= South African Cities: Perspectives from the Ivory Tower of Urban Studies|journal= Urban Studies|volume= 34|issue= 5–6|pages= 891–906|doi= 10.1080/0042098975871|hdl= 10539/9583|s2cid= 154978833|hdl-access= free}}</ref> Australia,<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Huxley|first1= Margo|last2= Loughlin|first2= J. Brian|date= 1985|title= The New Urban Studies Literature: A Review with Special Reference to Australia |journal= Progress in Planning|volume= 24|pages= 163–245|doi= 10.1016/0305-9006(85)90004-2}}</ref> Latin America, and India.<ref name="The History in Urban Studies: A Comment"/> This is changing as more research is performed in developing economies, leading to more contextual urban and infrastructural development in various parts of the world.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030296728|title=Theology and Urban Sustainability|last=Allam|first=Zaheer|date=2020|publisher=Springer International Publishing|isbn=978-3-030-29672-8|series=SpringerBriefs in Geography|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Allam|first1=Zaheer|last2=Newman|first2=Peter|date=December 2018|title=Redefining the Smart City: Culture, Metabolism and Governance|journal= Smart Cities|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=4–25|doi=10.3390/smartcities1010002|doi-access=free}}</ref>
The racial segregation of urban residents in the United States has played an important role in developing this field. One program founded to research African-American urban residents, the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, was founded in 1959 to study residential segregation and to support affected communities.<ref name="Beyond Civil Rights">{{cite book |last=Geary |first=Daniel |date=2015 |chapter= Chapter 4: The Death of White Sociology |title=The Moynihan Report and its Legacy |location= Philadelphia, PA|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |pages=110–138 | isbn= 9780812247312}}</ref> More recently, studies related to race and urban life started to focus on ethnographic methods to study how individuals lived in relation to the city and their respective systems as a whole.<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Studying Cities" />
Israel Zangwill wrote one of the first books on the Ghettos of Europe and how they impacted the Jewish children that were descendants of the original residents, ''Children of the Ghetto''<ref name=":1" /> ''(1892),'' he also wrote two other books about the European Ghettos. Louis Wirth was the next scholar to write about the Ghettos, he wrote about them from a sociological perspective.<ref name=":1" /> Louis Wirth and Roberts Ezra Park also became the first sociologists to publish about the immigrant neighbourhoods in America with suggestions on their future design.<ref name=":1" /> Roberts Ezra Park was a student of George Zimmel in Chicago.<ref name=":1" /> Other famous scholars that studied segregation, American Ghettos, and impoverished neighbourhoods include Du Bois (1903),<ref name=":1" /> Haynes (1913),<ref name=":1" /> Johnson (1943),<ref name=":1" /> Horace Cayton (1944),<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Ghetto : the invention of a place, the history of an idea|last=Mitchell|first=Duneier|isbn=9780374161804|oclc=925426390|date = 2016-04-19}}</ref> Kenneth Clark (1965),<ref name=":2"/> William Julius Wilson (1987).<ref name=":2" />
==Areas of research==
This field is transdisciplinary because it uses theories from a variety of academic fields and places them within an urban context.<ref name="Transdisciplinarity and its challenges">{{cite journal |last1= Ramadier|first1= Thierry|date= 2004|title= Transdisciplinarity and its challenges: the case of urban studies|journal= Journal of Urban Affairs|volume= 33|issue= 1|pages= 99–105|doi= 10.1016/j.futures.2003.10.009}}</ref> A wide variety of academic fields refers to the urban environment as a location studied, such as Environmental Studies, Economics, Geography, Public Health, and Sociology.<ref name="The History in Urban Studies: A Comment"/> However, scholars in this field research how specific elements contribute to how the city operates, such as how housing<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Housing">{{cite book |last1=Forrest |first1= Ray |last2= Williams|first2= Peter|date= 2001 |editor-last=Paddison |editor-first=Ronan |chapter= Housing in the Twentieth Century |title=Handbook of Urban Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |pages=88–101 |location= London; Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 9780803976955}}</ref> and transportation<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Transportation">{{cite book |last=Hart |first=Tom |date= 2001 |editor-last=Paddison |editor-first=Ronan |chapter= Transport and the City |title=Handbook of Urban Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |pages=102–123 |location= London; Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 9780803976955}}</ref> will change. In addition, researchers also study how residents interact within the city, such as how race<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Race Relations">{{cite book |last=Darden |first=Joe T. |date= 2001 |editor-last=Paddison |editor-first=Ronan |chapter= Race Relations in the City |title=Handbook of Urban Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |pages=177–193 |location= London; Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 9780803976955}}</ref> and gender<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Gender">{{cite book |last=McDowell |first=Linda M. |date= 2001 |editor-last=Paddison |editor-first=Ronan |chapter= Women, Men, Cities |title=Handbook of Urban Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |pages=206–219 |location= London; Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 9780803976955}}</ref> differences lead to social inequalities, or concentrated disadvantage in urban areas. Urban studies is a major field of study used by paraprofessional practitioners of urban planning.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":022" />
==Criticism==
Researchers struggle how to define basic terms precisely, such as how a city is defined, due to how the roles of cities change.<ref name="Handbook of Urban Studies - Defining City">{{cite book |last1=Frey |first1=William H. |last2=Zimmer| first2=Zachary |date=2001 |editor-last=Paddison |editor-first=Ronan |chapter=Defining the City |title=Handbook of Urban Studies |publisher= SAGE Publications |location= London; Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 9780803976955}}</ref> Researchers must be careful in how they describe urban areas, as their work can be manipulated as positive elements for city boosters wanting to promote a specific city.<ref name="Superlatives in Contemporary Urban Studies">{{cite journal |last1= Brenner|first1= Neil |date= 2003|title= Stereotypes, Archetypes, and Prototypes: Three Uses of Superlatives in Contemporary Urban Studies|journal= City & Community|volume= 2|issue= 3|pages= 205–216|doi= 10.1111/1540-6040.00051|s2cid= 145634362 }}</ref>
==See also== {{div col}} * Index of urban studies articles * List of urban theorists * Urban theory * Urban ecology * Urban economics * Urban geography * Urban planning * Urban sociology * Urban vitality {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite web |url=http://libguides.princeton.edu/urbanstudies |title=Urban Studies Research Basecamp |work=LibGuides |author=Princeton University Library |location=New Jersey |publisher=Princeton University |author-link=Princeton University Library }} *[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.CFUS Guide to the University of Chicago Center for Urban Studies Records 1967-1968] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
+ Category:Poverty in the United States Category:Race in the United States Category:Black studies