Book Prizes

Book Prizes 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004

Book Prizes 2010

The IPHS book prize is awarded for the two most innovative books in planning history written in English and based on new research. Books may be written individually or joint-authored. Nominations had been possible from publishers as well as from scholars. On behalf of the IPHS members of the book prize committee, I am satisfied that we can announce the winners for the 2010 book prize today! The members of the IPHS book-prize committee are: Helen Meller – University of Nottingham, UK, Nihal Perera – Ball State University Muncie, USA, José Luis Sainz Guerra – Universidad de Valladolid, Spain and me: Dirk Schubert from the HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany.

There were over a dozen submissions this time and many really excellent new books dealing with planning history.  Although the members had special interests and preferences, the decision was quite clear. The two winners are:

Tom Angotti – New York for Sale –Community Planning confronts Global Real Estate, MIT Press Cambridge 2008

and

Yasser Elshestawy – The evolving Arab City – Tradition, modernity and urban development, Routledge, Taylor + Francis Group London 2008

I will start reviewing the book by Tom Angotti briefly:

He is Director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at the Hunter College City University of New York. He has published and edited several books. He is also the coeditor of the Progressive Planning Magazine and the online journal Gotham Gazette.

His book – New York for Sale- is a history of success and failure, it describes the struggle for community control of development in New York. It in-depth analyses the transition from local to global real estate and the evolution from protest to resident- led community planning. His analysis is related to the discussion on “Right to the City” as a starting point for social justice and against growing inequality.

He provides rich insights into the conflicts between neighborhood interests and globally orientated real estate business, the engagement against gentrification and displacement in a neo-liberal dominated city. Starting at the end of 1950´s with the advocate Planner Walter Thabit, Jane Jacobs fights with Robert Moses in the 1960´s. Community plans, the so called “197a”-plans, were officially sanctioned.

 The second winner is Yasser Elsheshtawy and his book on the evolving Arab City. He is Associate Professor of Architecture at the United Arab Emirates University Al Nain.

It is an edited book with critical assessments of Middle East cities. It deals with the contrasts and similarities between older Arab cities versus newer oil-stimulated cities and their search for a place in a globalized world. The book provides unique inside accounts of Middle Eastern cities like Amman, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Ryad and Dubai and in some cases even the struggle for Arabic-Islamic identity. Has globalization replaced colonization as a threat to the heritage and identity of Middle East cities?

The authors provide a new research agenda for analyzing unrivalled urban histories of the Middle Eastern cities related to the global city literature. The phenomenon of “Dubaization” is only a chapter illustrating the clash between state policies and citizens acting, between local and global. The rapid change and the wave of modernization have relevant impacts on the urban environments and questions about sustainability emerge

Yasser Elshestawy,  The evolving Arab City – Tradition, modernity and urban development, Routledge, Taylor + Francis Group London 2008 Tom Angotti,  New York for Sale –Community Planning confronts Global Real Estate, MIT Press Cambridge 2008

Book Prizes 2008

During the IPHS-conference in Chicago the book prizes 2008 were awarded by the chair of the book prize committee Dirk Schubert (HafenCity University Hamburg / Germany).

Prizes of 250 dollars were awarded to the two most innovative books on planning history, written in English, based on new research and published in the previous two years.

Nominations were made by scholars and publishers.

Members of the IPHS book prize committee were:

Helen Meller (University of Nottingham, UK)
Nihal Perera (Muncie State University, USA)
and Jose Luis Sainz Guerra (University of Valladolid, Spain).

There were over a dozen submissions this time and many really excellent new books dealing with planning history. Although the members had special interests and preferences the decision was quite clear. The two winners are:

	Michele H. Bogart, The Politics of Urban Beauty: New York and its Art Commission, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2006 Michele H. Bogart is professor of Art History at Stony Brook University and she was Vice president of the Art Commission of New York from 1999-2003.
The book provides a rich and provocative history of the Art Commission from its inception to the present day. The Art Commission reviewed all works of art designed for city property from benches and streetlamps to mailboxes and monuments. Michele Bogart has written an engaging story of forces, actions and actors involved. The book reflects the dynamic of the social, political, economic and spatial dimension of New York City.
Professor Helen Meller, Editor of Planning Perspectives and IPHS Book Prize Committee member presents Michele H. Bogart with her IPHS Book prize and:
	Mia Fuller, Moderns abroad. Architecture, cities and Italian imperialism, Routledge, London and New York 2007 Mia Fuller is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
The book studies architecture and urbanism of modern era Italian Colonialism until Second World War in influences in North and East Africa and the Mediterranean zone. She describes how Italian administrators and planners developed Tripoli, Addis Addeba and settlements for migrant farmers in Libya and Ethiopia. It is the first book on this topic and it offers an overview of Italian colonial architecture and city planning. It also provides a uniquely comparative study that is of great interest for specialists in this field.

Book Prizes 2006

The following were announced at the 12th International Planning History Conference in New Delhi in mid-December 2006.

Book Prize

Best book on planning history 2004-2005:
Anne Marie Broudehoux, The Making of Post-Mao Beijing, Routledge, 2004

Best book on South Asian planning history, 2004-2005:
Jyoti Hosagar, Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating architecture and urbanism, Routledge, 2005

Book Prizes 2004

Best book on planning history written in English in 2001-2003
André Sorensen, The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty First Century (Routledge, 2002).

Best book on Spanish and/or Latin American planning history in Spanish or English 2001-2003
Arturo Almandoz for Planning Latin American Capital Cities 1850-1950 (Routledge, 2002).