The most recommended urban sociology books

Who picked these books? Meet our 27 experts.

27 authors created a book list connected to urban sociology, and here are their favorite urban sociology books.
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Book cover of Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding... Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis

Rachana Vajjhala Author Of Kinetic Cultures: Modernism and Embodiment on the Belle Epoque Stage

From my list on dazzlingly written books from the past five years with both style and substance.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a music historian who loves to read novels. Most of my childhood was spent either playing the piano or devouring whatever books I could get my hands on. Now, I try to share my love of music and good writing with my students at Boston University. When not at school, you can usually find me exploring the trails of New England with my dog.     

Rachana's book list on dazzlingly written books from the past five years with both style and substance

Rachana Vajjhala Why did Rachana love this book?

With keywords like "history of Oklahoma" and "basketball," this book seems an unlikely candidate for one I love.

Sam Anderson’s deftness as a writer, however, makes it a great read, even for a non-sporto coast dweller like me. He interweaves a story of the OKC and the NBA, describing the tension between “boom” and “process” that shaped both. Trust him, trust the process.

By Sam Anderson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Boom Town as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A brilliant, kaleidoscopic narrative of Oklahoma City—a great American story of civics, basketball, and destiny, from award-winning journalist Sam Anderson

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Chicago Tribune • San Francisco Chronicle • The Economist • Deadspin

Oklahoma City was born from chaos. It was founded in a bizarre but momentous “Land Run” in 1889, when thousands of people lined up along the borders of Oklahoma Territory and rushed in at noon to stake their claims. Since then, it has been a city torn between the wild…


Book cover of Planning the Good Community: New Urbanism in Theory and Practice

Nicolas A. Valcik Author Of City Planning for the Public Manager

From my list on urban and city planning for practitioners and scholars.

Why am I passionate about this?

The four authors who worked on this publication all bring different perspectives and have different backgrounds, which make this book very special. A City Manager, an artist/historian, an individual with a Ph.D. in Public Affairs, and is an Executive Director of a Non-Profit Organization, and then myself who has worked in municipalities since age 11 and then transitioned to higher education as an administrator, instructor, and researcher. We all were able to bring together our experiences, expertise, and passion to create a book that is designed to be a useful resource for both practitioners and scholars alike. Most of all, we all feel very passionate about making the places we live better for everyone.    

Nicolas' book list on urban and city planning for practitioners and scholars

Nicolas A. Valcik Why did Nicolas love this book?

For urban planning, this book is a must to understand the subject matter. Jill Grant does an excellent job blending the theoretical and applied aspect of new urban planning.

When discussing urban design, this book is an excellent reference for both students and practitioners alike. We used this book as a reference in City Planning for the Public Manager because the book had an applied aspect which is very useful to a wide audience in the field of city management.  

By Jill Grant,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Planning the Good Community as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An examination of new urban approaches both in theory and in practice. Taking a critical look at how new urbanism has lived up to its ideals, the author asks whether new urban approaches offer a viable path to creating good communities.

With examples drawn principally from North America, Europe and Japan, Planning the Good Community explores new urban approaches in a wide range of settings. It compares the movement for urban renaissance in Europe with the New Urbanism of the United States and Canada, and asks whether the concerns that drive today's planning theory - issues like power, democracy, spatial…


Book cover of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World

Stephen S. Power Author Of The Dragon Round

From Stephen's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Book editor Knowledge seeker

Stephen's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Stephen S. Power Why did Stephen love this book?

I love explainer books, especially regarding infrastructure, because the world isn’t the way it is naturally; it was designed, and it’s important to know how parking really does explain the world (even more so than soccer, I should say). And once you do, you can’t unsee how we’ve given over the world to cars instead of people, how parking lots dominate our environment, and how this will become a huge problem as climate change turns them into either lakes or heat generators.

The book also puts paid to the idea of governments privatizing public infrastructure for short-term financial gain. It will also help you understand why you feel conflicted when your town turns its main drag into a pedestrian plaza, which you hate when trying to find a space but love once you get out of your car.

By Henry Grabar,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Paved Paradise as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize

Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New Republic

“Consistently entertaining and often downright funny.”—The New Yorker

“Wry and revelatory.” —The New York Times

"A romp, packed with tales of anger, violence, theft, lust, greed, political chicanery and transportation policy gone wrong . . . highly entertaining."—The Los Angeles Times

An entertaining, enlightening, and utterly original investigation into one of the most quietly influential forces in modern American life—the humble parking spot

Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a shocking number…


Book cover of City and Modernity in Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin: Fragments of Metropolis

Thomas Kemple Author Of Marx’s Wager: Das Kapital and Classical Sociology

From Thomas' 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Disaffected sociologist Thinker-swimmer Aspiring multilinguist Queer Reader

Thomas' 3 favorite reads in 2023

Thomas Kemple Why did Thomas love this book?

Even if you’re not a professional academic or a tuition-paying student, sometimes it’s worth making the effort to read a book that is genuinely challenging without being merely frustrating.

Mele’s proficiency in Italian, German, English, and French, along with his erudition in 19th and early 20th-century philosophy, sociology, and literary criticism, are abundantly on display here. And yet he guides us through the fascinating labyrinth of the massive works of these cutting-edge thinkers of "the pre-history of postmodernity" with ease and without ever overwhelming us.

You’ll leave this book wanting to read everything Simmel or Benjamin ever wrote or at least to return to the dazzling passages Mele quotes from and comments on. 

By Vincenzo Mele,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked City and Modernity in Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This book reconstructs and compares the social theories of modernity of Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin, two classic thinkers in German social thought. The author focuses on five main topics: the historical-sociological method through which they investigate modernity; how are the concepts of history and society possible; the consequences of modern metropolis on the construction of individual subjectivity; the aestheticization of everyday life caused by the expansion of commodity culture; and the female culture as a counter-power to the domination of masculine objective culture. In the decades since Simmel and Benjamin, urban reality has undergone profound changes and we may…


Book cover of The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave-Robbery in 1830s London

Janet Philp Author Of Burke - Now and Then

From my list on the supply of cadavers and what they can teach us.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an anatomy educator and doctoral researcher looking at the use of human material in anatomy education. My historical research into the antics of body suppliers has caused me to explore many publications on what we do with the remains of our relatives. This is a subject that can be fascinating but also requires compassionate handling and sometimes asks us questions that we often do not want to ponder.

Janet's book list on the supply of cadavers and what they can teach us

Janet Philp Why did Janet love this book?

An exploration of the suspected murder of an Italian child in London that along with the murders of Burke and Hare, changed how bodies are supplied for medical teaching. Set in London in the 1830s it is a factual look at the way cadavers were supplied for medical teaching at that point in history.

By Sarah Wise,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Italian Boy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Towards the end of 1831, the authorities unearthed a series of crimes at Number 3, Nova Scotia Gardens in East London that appeared to echo the notorious Burke and Hare killings in Edinburgh three years earlier. After a long investigation, it became known that a group of body snatchers - two men in particular, John Bishop and Thomas Williams, called the 'London Burkers' - were supplying the anatomy schools with fresh 'examples' for dissection. The case became known as 'The Italian Boy' and caused a furore which led directly to the passing of controversial legislation which marked the beginning of…


Book cover of Baltimore Revisited: Stories of Inequality and Resistance in a U.S. City

Mary Rizzo Author Of Come and Be Shocked: Baltimore Beyond John Waters and the Wire

From my list on why Baltimore's problems are so hard to fix.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a cultural historian of 20th century America, I’m fascinated by how culture is used to rebel against the status quo and how the status quo fights back. In my first book, Class Acts: Young Men and the Rise of Lifestyle, I looked at greasers, hippies, and white hip hop lovers to understand how they used style and fashion to push back against being white and middle class. In Come and Be Shocked: Baltimore Beyond John Waters and The Wire, I went beyond looking at how individuals shape their identity to thinking about how artists and city leaders shape the identity of a place. Can artists counter the efforts of cities to create sanitized images of themselves?

Mary's book list on why Baltimore's problems are so hard to fix

Mary Rizzo Why did Mary love this book?

The history that matters most to me is the history that can help explain the world we live in now. The editors of Baltimore Revisited, a collection of brilliant essays about the city, takes that to heart. Fascinating chapters trace the War on Drugs back to the 1910s, when the city outlawed cocaine, examine how Johns Hopkins University’s growth has displaced Black residents for decades, and surprise us with the fact that Maryland was home to the longest-running movie censorship board in the country (which only closed shop in 1981). More than curiosities, though, these authors reveal how race, gender, sexuality, and class have affected Baltimore.

Most importantly, the book focuses on how everyday people fought back against discrimination through acts as varied as pickets against segregation to dancing in gay bars. The book is good history, yes, but also a call to action. 

By P. Nicole King (editor), Kate Drabinski (editor), Joshua Clark Davis (editor)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Baltimore Revisited as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Nicknamed both "Mobtown" and "Charm City" and located on the border of the North and South, Baltimore is a city of contradictions. From media depictions in The Wire to the real-life trial of police officers for the murder of Freddie Gray, Baltimore has become a quintessential example of a struggling American city. Yet the truth about Baltimore is far more complicated-and more fascinating.

To help untangle these apparent paradoxes, the editors of Baltimore Revisited have assembled a collection of over thirty experts from inside and outside academia. Together, they reveal that Baltimore has been ground zero for a slew of…


Book cover of Coming of Age in the Other America

George Farkas Author Of Industries, Firms, and Jobs: Sociological and Economic Approaches

From my list on understanding American poverty and inequality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have an unusual personal history. I majored in math in college and aspired to a life as a scientist. However, the civil rights movement and other events of the 1960s and 1970s inspired me to switch and earn a doctorate in sociology. (Which considers itself a science.) My first faculty position, at Yale beginning in 1972, involved a joint appointment in the Sociology Department and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, which focused on public policy. During the remainder of my career I have worked and published together with economists and sought to do research that uses the perspectives of both fields. 

George's book list on understanding American poverty and inequality

George Farkas Why did George love this book?

This book, by three sociologists, examines the life chances of children from low-income families living in public housing in Baltimore.

It builds on prior research by both economists and sociologists, and has both a quantitative and an intense qualitative aspect from in-depth interviews. The authors seem to have discovered a mechanism that can help these children succeed. It is to have an “identity project” that gives meaning and goals to their lives.

By Stefanie DeLuca, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, Kathryn Edin

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Coming of Age in the Other America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Recent research on inequality and poverty has shown that those born into low-income families, especially African Americans, still have difficulty entering the middle class, in part because of the disadvantages they experience living in more dangerous neighborhoods, going to inferior public schools, and persistent racial inequality. Coming of Age in the Other America shows that despite overwhelming odds, some disadvantaged urban youth do achieve upward mobility. Drawing from ten years of fieldwork with parents and children who resided in Baltimore public housing, sociologists Stefanie DeLuca, Susan Clampet-Lundquist, and Kathryn Edin highlight the remarkable resiliency of some of the youth who…


Book cover of Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places

Paul Ong Author Of Uneven Urbanscape: Spatial Structures and Ethnoracial Inequality

From my list on the underlying foundation of racialized spaces.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an engaged scholar fighting racism. As a person of color, an Asian American raised in Chinatown and a low-income Black neighborhood, the fight is personal. My parents and those before them suffered from and struggled against discriminatory immigration laws that fractured and separated family members. My research and publications as a university professor are tools for exposing and redressing racial injustices, producing and sharing knowledge that leads to reconciliation and restorative justice.  

Paul's book list on the underlying foundation of racialized spaces

Paul Ong Why did Paul love this book?

Renowned geographer Soja presents an intriguing interpretation of the underlying forces shaping the urban landscape.

Using a blend of critical and postmodern theories, he reconceptualizes the meaning, organization, and use of space in the production of societal inequality within capitalist societies, including but not limited to race.

Equally important to me is the discussion about the system’s inherent contradictions and the phenomenon of active resistance against repression. 

By Edward W. Soja,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Thirdspace as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Contemporary critical studies have recently experienced a significant spatial turn. In what may eventually be seen as one of the most important intellectual and political developments in the late twentieth century, scholars have begun to interpret space and the embracing spatiality of human life with the same critical insight and emphasis that has traditionally been given to time and history on the one hand, and social relations and society on the other. Thirdspace is both an enquiry into the origins and impact of the spatial turn and an attempt to expand the scope and practical relevance of how we think…


Book cover of For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities

Marina Karides Author Of Sappho's Legacy: Convivial Economics on a Greek Isle

From my list on to get stranded with on an island.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iʻve been travelling to islands before realizing I was seeking them. It was my political convictions that brought me to Haiti and Cuba, and later to Indonesia and Thai Islands due to my philosophical interests. When I headed to Greece for the first time it was to Corfu and the Peloponnese, my lineage, but also to Ithaca, Crete, the Cyclades, and eventually to Lesvos. Now I live in Hawaiʻi. I was attracted to the poetics of island landscapes, but as a scholar of space, society, and justice, I also understood that islands hold distinct sets of constraints and opportunities that require further study with intersectional and decolonial perspectives.

Marina's book list on to get stranded with on an island

Marina Karides Why did Marina love this book?

This is a spectacular and detailed book—think city as island—that can engross you over and over again. Simone, development activist and scholar, carries us into four African cities and shares the grassroots efforts of people coming together to create systems of trust for economic exchange and meeting social needs—without or outside the state and capital. It is the potential for alternatives that makes this book so attractive to me and inspired my own work on convivial economics. Simone helps us to see that new ways of being and acting collaboratively can spring up and offer a blueprint for how we can move forward in solidarity.

By AbdouMaliq Simone,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked For the City Yet to Come as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Among government officials, urban planners, and development workers, Africa's burgeoning metropolises are frequently understood as failed cities, unable to provide even basic services. Whatever resourcefulness does exist is regarded as only temporary compensation for fundamental failure. In For the City Yet to Come, AbdouMaliq Simone argues that by overlooking all that does work in Africa's cities, this perspective forecloses opportunities to capitalize on existing informal economies and structures in development efforts within Africa and to apply lessons drawn from them to rapidly growing urban areas around the world. Simone contends that Africa's cities do work on some level and to…


Book cover of Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution

Paul Chatterton Author Of How to Save the City: A Guide for Emergency Action

From my list on helping us save the city.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've been fascinated by city life since I studied Geography at high school. After twenty five years of teaching and researching urban geography, I am Professor of Urban Futures at a UK university. I now have a better sense of the challenges we face and what we can do about them. I spend my time supporting activists, campaigners, students, policymakers, and politicians about the urgency for change and what kind of ideas and examples they can use to tackle what I call the triple emergencies of climate breakdown, social inequality, and nature loss.

Paul's book list on helping us save the city

Paul Chatterton Why did Paul love this book?

David Harvey has been writing about how capitalism shapes city life since the global revolutions back in 1968.

What I learned from his book Rebel Cities is that we need a laser-like focus on how capitalism makes and remakes urban life, normally for the worse. Unless we realise this we don’t know what we are up against and what effective solutions look like.

What I really like about this book is that it encourages us to see that cities and their citizens are rebelling all over the world – and this means building alternatives to corporate capitalism power that is ultimately pushing our climate and natural world beyond safe limits.

By David Harvey,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Rebel Cities as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Long before Occupy, cities were the subject of much utopian thinking. They are the centers of capital accumulation as well as of revolutionary politics, where deeper currents of social and political change rise to the surface. Do the financiers and developers control access to urban resources or do the people? Who dictates the quality and organization of daily life? Rebel Cities places the city at the heart of both capital and class struggles, looking at locations ranging from Johannesburg to Mumbai, from New York City to S o Paulo. Drawing on the Paris Commune as well as Occupy Wall Street…