Policy Press

Cities and communities

Our publishing on key issues around urbanisation - including housing, inadequate and overburdened services, pollution, overcrowded or inaccessible public transport - addresses many of the challenges posed in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.

We acknowledge that, with Asia and Africa set to have the largest and fastest increase in urbanisation by 2050 the Global South is a critical area for study accompanying and informing work on the Global North.

The Urban Policy, Planning and the Built Environment series looks in particular at the contested nature of government intervention in the urban land and housing market, and how urban governance, planning and design processes respond to increasing social complexity, socio-spatial diversity and the goal of democratic renewal.

Bristol University Press and Policy Press are signed up to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. In Cities and communities, we aim to address the following goal:

SDG Publishers compact logoSDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Showing 37-48 of 257 items.

Beyond the Neoliberal Creative City

Critique and Alternatives in the Urban Cultural Economy

A buoyant, creative economy can be seen as the saviour of many cities, but behind such ‘urban makeovers’ lie serious problems such as widening inequalities and gentrification. Blending lively city case studies with broader theoretical debates, this book explores the opportunities for a more just and sustainable urban future.

Bristol Uni Press

Beyond Neighbourhood Planning

Knowledge, Care, Legitimacy

The past three decades have seen an international ‘turn to participation’ – letting those who will be affected by neighbourhood planning outcomes play an active role in decision-making. This innovative analysis brings theory, research, and practice together and gives insights into how and why citizen voices either become effective or get excluded.

Policy Press

Cities in Search of Freedom

European Municipalities against the Leviathan

This analysis of the central state’s weakening authority over cities bridges political geography and politics, giving a new perspective to students and researchers in urban studies, geography and political science.

Bristol Uni Press

COVID-19, Inequality and Older People

Everyday Life during the Pandemic

This book provides new insights into the challenges facing older people in Greater Manchester in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on novel longitudinal research, the book analyses their lived experiences and those of organisations working to support them, shedding light on the isolating effects of social distancing.

Policy Press

The Short Guide to Town and Country Planning 2e

This fully updated short guide discusses the planning system, processes, legal constructs and approaches, taking into account the recent regulatory changes within the UK nations. It explores the interactions of government and society with the planning system, encouraging the reader to adopt a reflective and inquisitive outlook.

Policy Press

Infrastructuring Urban Futures

The Politics of Remaking Cities

Focusing on material and social forms of infrastructure, this edited collection focuses on cities across the global North and South. Considering public health crises and climate change, the book argues that paying attention to infrastructures’ past, present and future allows us to understand and respond to the current urban condition.

Bristol Uni Press

The Battle for Britain

Crises, Conflicts and the Conjuncture

This book addresses the UK's social, political and economic turbulence, exploring proliferating crises and conflicts, from social dissent through rentier capitalism to the looming climate catastrophe and how they have produced a deepening ‘crisis of authority’ that forms the terrain of the Battle for Britain.

Bristol Uni Press

Housing and Life Course Dynamics

Changing Lives, Places and Inequalities

Deepening inequalities and wider processes of demographic, economic and social change are altering how people across the Global North move between homes and neighbourhoods over the lifespan. This book presents a life course framework for understanding how the changing dynamics of people’s lives influence their residential experiences.

Policy Press

Arctic Justice

Environment, Society and Governance

Offering a unique introduction to the study of justice in the European, North American and Russian Arctic, this collection highlights the practical consequences of postcolonial legacies and climate change while championing a sustainable future for Arctic development and governance.

Bristol Uni Press

The Waste of the World

Consumption, Economies and the Making of the Global Waste Problem

Examining the root causes of the global waste problem, this book challenges existing policies, highlighting what needs to change if we are to get serious in tackling this global problem. It concludes with policy implications for shifting waste from an ‘end-of-pipe’ concern to being at the heart of the debate over decarbonisation.

Bristol Uni Press

Bringing Home the Housing Crisis

Politics, Precarity and Domicide in Austerity London

Often portrayed as an apolitical space, this book demonstrates that home is in fact a highly political concept. This book explores the legislative changes dismantling vulnerable groups’ rights to decent and affordable housing.

Policy Press

Retail Ruins

The Ghosts of Post-Industrial Spectacle

In the context of widespread precarity and ongoing crises, ruins have captured much attention in recent years. This book is about a troubling new kind of space for consumer society: the retail ruin. Drawing on the author’s own fieldnotes and photographs, this book takes a hauntological approach to these ‘new’ ruins in the urban landscape.

Bristol Uni Press