Sequel to Suburbia

Glimpses of America's Post-Suburban Future

Nicholas A. Phelps, Bhavna Shamasunder, Robert Gottlieb

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780262330756
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In the years after World War II, a distinctly American model for suburban development emerged. The expansive rings of outer suburbs that formed around major cities were decentralized and automobile oriented, an embodiment of America's postwar mass-production, mass-consumption economy. But alternate models for suburbia, including "transit-oriented development," "smart growth," and "New Urbanism," have inspired critiques of suburbanization and experiments in post-suburban ways of living. In Sequel to Suburbia, Nicholas Phelps considers the possible post-suburban future, offering historical and theoretical context as well as case studies of transforming communities.

Phelps first locates these outer suburban rings within wider metropolitan spaces, describes the suburbs as a "spatial fix" for the postwar capitalist economy, and examines the political and governmental obstacles to reworking suburban space. He then presents three glimpses of post-suburban America, looking at Kendall-Dadeland (in Miami-Dade County, Florida), Tysons Corner (in Fairfax County, Virginia), and Schaumburg, Illinois (near Chicago). He shows Kendall-Dadeland to be an isolated New Urbanism success; describes the re-planning of Tysons Corner to include a retrofitted central downtown area; and examines Schaumburg's position as a regional capital for Chicago's northwest suburbs. As these cases show, the reworking of suburban space and the accompanying political process will not be left to a small group of architects, planners, and politicians. Post-suburban politics will have to command the approval of the residents of suburbia.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Urban and Industrial Enviroments
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: From Modern Suburb to the Post-Suburb of a Second Modernity
• 2 Locating Post-Suburbs in a Metropolitan Context
• 3 The Suburbs and Their Contradictions: The Post-Suburban Politics of a Second Modernity
• 4 Politics and the Private and Collective Dynamics os America's Post-Suburban Future
• 5 Kendall Downtown: The Past of New Urbanism?
• 6 Taming Tysons: Post-Suburbia's Present
• 7 Schaumburg: The Post-Suburban Future Yet to Come?
• 8 Conclusion: After Suburbia
• Notes
• Series List
• Index