Urban Ills: Twenty-first-Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts

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Urban Ills: Twenty First Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts is a collection of original research focused on critical challenges and dilemmas to living in cities. Volume 1 examines both the economic impact of urban life and the social realities of urban living. The editors define the ecology of urban living as the relationship and adjustment of humans to a highly dense, diverse, and complex environment. This approach examines the nexus between the distribution of human groups with reference to material resources and the consequential social, political, economic, and cultural patterns which evolve as a result of the sufficiency or insufficiency of those material resources. They emphasize the most vulnerable populations suffering during and after the recession in the United States and around the world. The chapters seek to explore emerging issues and trends affecting the lives of the poor, minorities, immigrants, women, and children.

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Hurricane Katrina, mortgage foreclosures, racism, human trafficking, mass transit, HIV AIDS, gentrification, failing schools, and chronic unemployment are used to weave a complex, revealing tapestry that lays bare the ills of contemporary urbanization. We see "Tales of Two Cities"with the best and worst of timesrepeated around the globe in the vast economic, social, and health disparities that separate rich from poor. A thoughtful, revealing study of how context, culture, and history combine to shape life chances in 21st century cities. Urban Ills: Twenty First Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts is destined to become a classic.

Author Bio

Carol Camp Yeakey is founding director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Urban Studies and its Center on Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis. She also holds faculty appointments as professor of education; of international & area studies; of American culture studies; and of urban studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Vetta Sanders Thompson is associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis where she holds faculty appointments in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work; the Institute of Public Health; and Urban Studies. Anjanette Wells is assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis George Warren Brown School of Social Work with faculty appointments in the Institute of Public Health, and Urban Studies.