ancient cities

xxvi Introduction
United States or gentrification in the United
Kingdom, for example) we purposively sought
authors from other countries to write these essays.
And for each entry and we asked contributors to
incorporate an international focus and to discuss
the importance of the topic for urban studies more
generally.
Rationale for Encyclopedia
Urban studies is an expansive and growing field,
covering many disciplines and professional fields,
each with its own schedule of conferences, journals,
and publication series. While much of the
important work in the field is published in the
interdisciplinary urban studies journals, the volume
of published work presents a challenge for
researchers who wished to stay abreast of recent
developments in the field. Add to this the many
volumes of original research, and the increasing
number of edited collections published each year,
and it quickly becomes overwhelming for even
advanced scholars to follow the many new lines of
development. The Encyclopedia of Urban Studies
is intended to present an overview of current work
in the field and to serve as a guide for further reading
in the field.
The encyclopedia will serve as an introduction
to important topics in urban studies for an audience
including undergraduate students, beginning
graduate students of urban studies, and the related
urban disciplines, a broader public that has an
interest in the new urban world, and even established
teachers and scholars who are exploring
new areas of study. It should be noted that
although the Encyclopedia of Urban Studies is
intended to be comprehensive in its coverage of
topics, it is not meant to provide comprehensive
treatments of any single topic; we provide references
for further reading on each topic and invite
our audience to explore further the important
work in our field.
Content and Organization
The encyclopedia is intended to provide comprehensive
coverage of topics currently studied in urban
studies. This is a difficult goal, and we recognize
that there is not unanimous consensus on what such
a list would look like. This is particularly the case
with urban studies, a relatively new and rapidly
evolving area of study that brings together scholars
and research traditions from many different disciplines
and professional fields.
Our approach has been to be as comprehensive
as possible, and all entries include several associated
topics and cross-references. In some cases, a
topic that was covered in the context of larger
topic may not receive its own entry; in those cases,
the smaller topic is listed with a cross-reference to
the entry in which it is discussed.
To help the reader navigate the encyclopedia, a
Reader’s Guide is provided, organizing the content
into major areas of study (the urban disciplines)
and topics (such as the city and film) as
well as important figures in the field. There also
is an alphabetical listing of all entries for both
volumes.
The content of each entry is intended to be a
concise summary of the major aspects of the topic.
Authors were asked to present their entries in a
nontechnical manner accessible not just to academics
in the field but also to a wider audience of
persons interested in learning more about urban
studies. Finally, each entry is intended to give
readers an overview of the topic, with suggested
readings that will allow readers to learn more
about the literature in the area and explore
selected topics in greater depth.
We have included a number of entries for individual
cities, some because of historical importance
(Santiago de Compostela, a world heritage conservation
site, was an important medieval pilgrimage
site, and the Camino de Santiago was a major
trade route connecting France with the Iberian
peninsula), their connection with other entries
(Venice is often discussed as the preeminent tourist
city, while Las Vegas has long served as a topic of
discussion for urban theory), others because of
their importance within urban studies (London,
Paris, and Tokyo have become the three cities most
identified with the literature on world cities).
How This Encyclopedia Was Created
Development of the Encyclopedia of Urban Studies
involved many steps, from beginning work done