Description: Based on cross-disciplinary and transnational approaches, this book offers new insights into Jane Jacobs's complex and often contrarian way of thinking. Now, more than 50 years after the initial publication of her famous book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) in a period of rapid globalisation and deregulated approaches in planning, new challenges have arisen. The contributors in this book argue that it is not possible simply to follow Jane Jacobs's ideas to the letter, but instead it is necessary to contextualize them and consider how they might be updated.
Review Quotes: 'This is a stimulating exploration of the immediate and long-term impact of Jane Jacobs' efforts to resist large-scale urban renewal and highway plans for New York City. The book's authors come from seven countries and offer perspectives from many disciplines, including both historians and individuals active in formulating current policies about urban design. They reveal how Jacobs' ideas helped produce a transatlantic paradigm shift in urban planning.' Jeffry Diefendorf, University of New Hampshire, USA 'Neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, mixed use dense neighborhoods, New Urbanism: Jane Jacobs is consistently and even increasingly referenced. But what are the concrete links to the journalist activist and eminent female voice in urban studies who helped end so-called slum clearance? Examining her work, its reception and meaning for contemporary practice locally and globally, the contributions in this book provide a much-needed nuanced trans-disciplinary and trans-national contextualization of her work and philosophy.' Carola Hein, Bryn Mawr College, USA