1st Edition

Telecommunications and the City Electronic Spaces, Urban Places

By Steve Graham, Simon Marvin Copyright 1996
    452 Pages
    by Routledge

    456 Pages
    by Routledge

    Telecommunications and the City provides the first critical and state-of-the-art review of the relations between telecommunications and all aspects of city development and management.
    Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches and a wide body of recent research, the book addresses key academic and policy debates about technological change and the future of cities with a fresh perspective. Through this approach, the complex and crucial transformations underway in cities in which telecommunications have central importance are mapped out and illustrated. Key areas where telecommunications impinge on the economic, social, physical, enviromental and institutional development of cities are illustrated by using boxed extracts and wide range of case study examples from Europe, Japan and North America.
    Rejecting the extremes of optimism and pessimism in current hype about cities and telecommunications, Telecommunications and the City offers a sophisticated new perspective through which city-telecommunications relations can be understood.

    1 INTRODUCTION Telecommunications and the city: parallel transformations; Telecommunications and urban transformations; The urban ‘impacts’ of telecommunications; The neglect of telecommunications in urban studies; The need for more sophisticated approaches to city—telecommunications relations; The transformation of telecommunications: from the ‘Plain Old Telephone Service’ (POTS) to telematics; The transformation of cities: towards planetary urban networks 2 TELECOMMUNICATIONS AS A PARADIGM CHALLENGE FOR URBAN STUDIES AND POLICY 3 APPROACHING TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND THE CITY 4 URBAN ECONOMIES 5 THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE OF THE CITY 6 URBAN ENVIRONMENTS 7 URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORTATION 8 URBAN PHYSICAL FORM 9 URBAN PLANNING, POLICY AND GOVERNANCE 10 CONCLUSIONS

    Biography

    Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin are both Lecturers at the Centre for Urban Technology, Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Newcastle.

    'This excellent book provides a much needed focus by overviewing and integrating conceptual and empirical insights from technology, geography and urban studies...THe high quality of the text, the standard of referencing and the variety of illustrations combine as an exemplar of synthesis and exposition for an undergraduate audience. As such it merits inclusion on the reading list for all students in the social sciences. - Progress in Human Geography

    'Telecommunications and the City is an important contribution to the field of urban studies and planning...excellent value as a textbook and reference for teachers and students of urban studies and planning, sociology, communications and related areas of study and for those attempting to decipher the political and social dimensions of 'information age' technology.' - Urban Studies, Vol 34, No.7, 97