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Calls for Contributions to Publications

Research in Urban Sociology (Emerald Press)
Special Issue - on comparative suburbanisations around the world (closing date 30 January 2010)

We invite academics and researchers to submit papers for volume 10 of Research in Urban Sociology (Emerald Press) on comparative suburbanisations around the world. In Europe and the United States, most urban growth over the last several decades has been in suburban areas, but research in urban sociology and other urban disciplines remains focused on the city (the global city, the networked city, the post-industrial city). We are looking for new and innovative contributions in suburban studies for urban regions not just in Europe and the United States, but also including emerging metropolitan regions in China, India and other areas of the world.

The time-frame should be limited to the years since 1945, with a particular focus upon social and cultural change in suburbanisation processes in developed as well as emerging urban countries. A variety of research methodologies are welcomed, but we wish to avoid articles dominated by statistical tables.

The following themes will be at the heart of the issue:

Papers that focus on one or more of the following: class, ethnicity, religion and gender in suburban communities and metropolitan regions;

The changing image of suburbanisation: from new town to ‘edge city’; planned suburb to suburban sprawl; residential to mixed-use suburbs.

Cultural debates about the nature of suburban life compared with the city centre and rural contexts; challenges to notions of the “typical” suburban lifestyle; diversity of suburban populations and experiences.

Problems of the banlieue and social exclusion in the 21st century suburb; importance of the banlieu, shantytown, and favela in suburban development; emergence of ‘inner city problems’ in the suburban fringe.

Submit a detailed one-page abstract of your paper by January 30, 2010 to either Mark Clapson, Westminster University (M.Clapson@westminster.ac.uk) or Ray Hutchison, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (hutchr@uwgb.edu). Authors will be contacted with additional details for complete papers by February 28, 2010. Final manuscript copy will be required by June 30, 2010 for expected publication in winter 2010.