APS 341 Urban Sociology

In Urban Nightlife, sociologist Reuben May undertakes a nuanced examination of urban nightlife, drawing on ethnographic data gathered in a Deep South college town to explore the question of how nighttime revelers negotiate urban public spaces as they go about meeting, socializing, and entertaining themselves.    May's work reveals how diverse partiers define these spaces, in particular the ongoing social conflict on the streets, in bars and nightclubs, and in the various public spaces of downtown.

Urban Ehtnic Encounters attempts to answer the two leading questions of how urban space structures the life of ethnic groups and how ethnic diversity helps to shape urban space. The authors search the various dimensions of the spatial organization of inter-ethnic relations in cities and countries around the globe. Unlike most ethnographies in which authors write about the 'other' in faraway places, the majority of the contributors have studied their own society. The case studies are from four different continents.

This innovative book looks at representations of ethnic and racial identities in relation to the development of urban culture in postindustrialised American cities. The concept of "urban space" organizes a series of themes that structure chapters on white paranoia and urban decline; memories of urban passage; the racialized underclass; urban crime and justice; and globalisation and citizenship. The book focuses on a range of literary and visual forms including novels, journalism, films (narrative and documentary), and photography to examine the relationship between race and representation in the production of urban space.