Neighborhood

by Emily Talen

The term neighborhood has been reduced to a word for a convenient geographical locator. In fact, most cities claim to be compiled of neighborhoods, but this strays far from the term's original meaning - a spatial unit that people relate to.

Neighborhood seeks to dispel this common misconception by integrating a complex historical record and multidisciplinary literature to produce a singular resource for understanding what is meant by neighborhood. Emily Talen provides a multi-dimensional, comprehensive view of what neighborhoods signify how they're idealized and measured, and what their historical progression has been. Talen balances perspectives from sociology, urban history, urban planning, and sustainability among others in efforts to make neighborhoods compatible with 21st century ideals.

If neighborhoods are going to play a role in the future of the city, we need to know what and where they are in a more meaningful way. Neighborhoods need to be more than a label and more than a social segregator. For those living in the undefined expanse of contemporary urbanism-which characterizes most of American cities-can the neighborhood come to be more than a shaded area on a map?

Genres: Urban Planning, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published December 27, 2018

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a somewhat theoretical guide to the concept of a "neighborhood" and what it might mean today. The part of the book that I found most interesting was Talen's focus on midcentury attempts to create "neighborhood units"- little neighborhoods centered around schools and shops. Neighborhood unit planning was centered around a good idea- that shops and other facilities should be within walking distance of houses. But as Talen pointed out, this sort of planning sometimes got a lot wrong, especially in the United States. Residential streets were often cul-de-sacs, making it difficult to walk from one house to the other. Commercial streets were designed for cars first and pedestrians last, making it difficult to walk to shops. Many neighborhoods were simply not large or dense enough to support shopping; as a result, huge chunks of land were zoned for nothing but housing, making it impossible for most people to walk to shops and schools.

Today, people in car-oriented areas can drive a few miles to shops, and people in pedestrian-oriented areas can get a lot of goods online. So why is "neighborhood" even a useful concept today? Talen responds that a neighborhood "provides a framework for other urban interventions." Naming a neighborhood "fosters a sense of identity and ownership" thus making it easier for people to collectively improve it, or to resist others' misguided attempts to do so.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great, relatively neutral overview of the historical trends and recent debates on the nature of neighbourhoods across cultures. I appreciated that Talen concluded with recommendations for a path forward, where others might equivocate or simply throw up their hands. The only challenge I found in reading it was the somewhat technical language around the different types of neighbourhoods; I'm still not sure if I fully understand the different definitions of or perspectives on neighbourhoods that she was charting out.

[DW Rowlands · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a really useful literature review of the history of conceptions of "neighborhood" and of disputes over how neighborhoods should be conceived in various disciplines. I need to re-read it making notes of citations.