Please join us as we celebrate the publication of Emily Talen’s book Neighborhood, which is a critical evaluation of the idea of neighborhood. Through the exploration of cross-cultural and cross-temporal commonalities of the ways in which neighborhood articulation exposes conflicting purposes, and the varying levels of realization of neighborhood design, this book assesses the historical record and current relevance of neighborhood. While the idea of neighborhood has attracted substantial scholarly interest for more than a century, each discipline dissects the idea and reality of neighborhood from their own vantage point—sociology, urban history, urban planning, urban design, sustainability, economic development, anthropology, geography, public policy. There have been few attempts to synthesize the disparate range of perspectives involved to develop a fuller understanding of the meaning and complexity of this enduring urban ideal.
Emily Talen is Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she holds a PhD in urban geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Emily has written extensively on the topics of urban design, New Urbanism, and social equity and she has previously published four books (New Urbanism and American Planning, Design for Diversity, Urban Design for Planners, and City Rules). Copies of her new book will be available at the meeting.