The Urban Experience: An Interdisciplinary Policy Perspective

The Urban Experience provides a fresh approach to the study of metropolitan areas by combining economic principles, social insight, and political realities with an appreciation of public policy to understand how U.S. cities and suburbs function in the 21st century. The new edition features a new cohesive framework called the Metropolitan Area Dynamic, which is introduced in the first chapter of the book, then incorporated into every chapter, to demonstrate the demographic, economic, political, social, and public policy forces that impact metropolitan areas.

The narrative of the book is grounded in the real-life experiences of students and their families on the premise that there is a fascination about one’s own surroundings to engage the students in their study. It uses a great deal of historical and comparative data to explore the wide variation in how we experience urban and suburban communities and includes greater discussion of cities worldwide to engage with large-scale global issues like climate change, immigration/migration, and inequality.

The book also addresses the changing role and function of U.S. metropolitan areas in an age of growing global competition and focuses on key contemporary problems facing cities and suburbs. Providing an interdisciplinary approach to the topic, The Urban Experience, Second Edition, introduces analyses from economics, sociology, and political science, urban studies, and public policy as useful tools to understand the evolution and current status of the nation’s urban areas.

The book will be a valuable text for urban scholars, public officials, and all those interested in understanding urban dynamics.

Barry Bluestone is the Russell B. and Andree B. Stearns Trustee Professor Emeritus of Political Economy; Founding Director of the Dukakis Center; Founding Dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University.

Mary Huff Stevenson is a Professor of Economics Emerita at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Russell E. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Wheaton College.