A Companion to the City provides the reader with an indispensable and authoritative overview of the key debates, controversies, and questions concerning the city from a variety of theoretical vantage points with an international perspective.

• Indispensable companion for students of the City.
• Multidisciplinary approach of interest across several fields.
• Includes contributions from major scholars in the field.

"...covers everything from the role of dance in shaping cities to race and class in South Africa to the application of military techniques to city planning." (The Observer, 19 June 2011)

"Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson's Companion to the City is a wonderful compendium of some of the best writing on cities and urbanism. It covers a wide range of approaches encompassing the city in literature, planning, representations of the city, policy and analysis. It truly is a 'companion' and like all good companions has always something relevant to say whatever the reader's mood or whatever s/he is searching for." Professor Elizabeth Wilson, previously of University of North London

"This is a first-class read, useful for architects and planners as well as for students of the city. A state-of-the-art book." Richard Sennett, London School of Economics and Political Science

"This is a substantial, well illustrated volume in five parts [...] The editors have certainly succeeded in their aim to 'create a multidiscplinary approach to cities' in compiling their 'companion'." Stephen Royle, Queen's University Belfast

Gary Bridge is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Urban Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, and writes on issues of rationality, time, space and the city.

Sophie Watson is Professor of Sociology at the Open University. Her recent books include Surface City: Sydney at the Millennium (with Peter Murphy, 1997) and Postmodern Cities and Spaces (co-edited with Katherine Gibson, Blackwell, 1995).