Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship: The Civic Costs of the American Way of LifeMust the strip mall and the eight-lane highway define 21st century American life? That is a central question posed by critics of suburban and exurban living in America. Yet despite the ubiquity of the critique, it never sticks-Americans by the scores of millions have willingly moved into sprawling developments over the past few decades. Americans find many of the more substantial criticisms of sprawl easy to ignore because they often come across as snobbish in tone. Yet as Thad Williamson explains, sprawl does create real, measurable social problems. Utilizing a landmark 30,000-person survey, he shows that sprawl fosters civic disengagement, accentuates inequality, and negatively impacts the environment. Yet, while he highlights the deleterious effects of sprawl on civic life in America, he is also evenhanded. He does not dismiss the pastoral, homeowning ideal that is at the root of sprawl, and is sympathetic to the vast numbers of Americans who very clearly prefer it. Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship is not only be the most comprehensive work in print on the subject, it will be the first to offer an empirically rigorous critique of the most popular form of living in America today. |
From inside the book
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... regime, balance of work and play, choice of leisure activity, or even religious convictions best promote the “good life,” competing conceptions of how space should be organized cannot be accommodated simply by permitting individuals to ...
... regime, balance of work and play, choice of leisure activity, or even religious convictions best promote the “good life,” competing conceptions of how space should be organized cannot be accommodated simply by permitting individuals to ...
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... regime characterized by systemic social inequalities mediated in part by geography. I show how sprawl is both symptom and cause of fundamental inequalities tied to spatial location, and how suburban residence is linked to politically ...
... regime characterized by systemic social inequalities mediated in part by geography. I show how sprawl is both symptom and cause of fundamental inequalities tied to spatial location, and how suburban residence is linked to politically ...
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... regime but between one form of planned regime and another. Consequently, a choicebased argument cannot be used to defend the policy status quo. 50 A third possible response follows closely on the heels of the second. As already noted ...
... regime but between one form of planned regime and another. Consequently, a choicebased argument cannot be used to defend the policy status quo. 50 A third possible response follows closely on the heels of the second. As already noted ...
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... regimes. Roads. The notion that one ought to be able to travel by automobile from any one destination to any other with minimal inconvenience and no obligation to pay for the full social costs of one's trips strikes most Americans today ...
... regimes. Roads. The notion that one ought to be able to travel by automobile from any one destination to any other with minimal inconvenience and no obligation to pay for the full social costs of one's trips strikes most Americans today ...
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... regime of social control in any given location; the degree to which individual behavior is publicly observable is another. An individual walking alone through a forest with few, if any, other persons around is free to sing offkey loudly ...
... regime of social control in any given location; the degree to which individual behavior is publicly observable is another. An individual walking alone through a forest with few, if any, other persons around is free to sing offkey loudly ...
Contents
Is Sprawl Efficient? | |
THREE Do People Like Sprawl and So What If They Do? | |
FOUR Is Sprawl Fair? Liberal Egalitarianism and Sprawl | |
and Social Solidarity | |
SIX Sprawl Civic Virtue and the Political Economy of Citizenship | |
Sprawl and Political | |
EIGHT Sprawl the Environment and Climate Change | |
NINE Reforming Sprawl and Beyond | |
Bibliography | |
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Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship: The Civic Costs of the American Way of Life Thad Williamson No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
activity affluent African American analysis argues argument associated with sprawl automobile automobile dependence Average Commutes Benchmark Survey benefits built environment cardependent census tract central city residence citizens civic republicans claim conception concern contemporary cost–benefit costs critical critique debate Democracy democratic density ecological economic existing preferences green political highdensity homeownership households housing human income individual inequalities interest justice land liberal egalitarians libertarian liberty live locations logistic regression lowdensity measures median metropolitan areas Metropolitan tracts moral neighborhood age normative one’s particular patterns people’s percent persons places plausible political participation population density possible predictor principles proportion public space question racial Rawls Rawls’s Rawlsian reason regime region regression relationship requires residential SCCBS segregation selfgovernance selfinterest significant simply social capital society sort specific sprawlrelated variables substantial suburban residents suburban sprawl suburbs theory Theory of Justice trust U.S. Census United urban utilitarian virtues wellbeing