ancient cities

Ba c k-t o-t h e-ci t y Mo v e M e n t
Popularized in academia by Shirley Bradway
Laska and Daphne Spain in the title of their
widely referenced book Back to the City: Issues in
Neighborhood Renovation (1980), the term back
to the city became one of the keywords of the
1980s and 1990s literature on neighborhood revitalization
and gentrification in the United States.
It refers to households moving back to urban
neighborhoods after many years of suburban life.
The term focuses more on people and their preferences
rather than on neighborhoods or the housing
market. Of particular interest are newly
formed families or young couples, many of whose
parents had left cities decades earlier, returning to
the city from the suburbs.
In many instances, though, rather than people
literally returning, what occurred was that urban
neighborhoods became viable alternatives to the
suburbs and places of choice for certain types of
households. More and more people seemingly preferred
to live close to work, spend time outside the
home, have easy access to cultural amenities and
events, acknowledge the character of urban neighborhoods
by investing in old buildings, and live in
socially mixed communities. Promoters of this
trend argued, in effect, that the assets of urban living
outweighed the conveniences of suburban
living. Moreover, they pointed to the costs of suburban
life, including commuting to the city for
work but also low-density development and social
isolation.
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The overall extent and significance of the backto-the-city
movement in the residential decisions of
households have been points of controversy in the
literature. Furthermore, the argument is criticized
on the basis that the underlying explanation relies
mainly on empirical findings based on demographic
changes and preference patterns; that is, it
focuses too much on the consumption side of
urban neighborhood revitalization. Such an
approach is criticized for ignoring the economic
and political dynamics that led to the production
of those neighborhoods as well as the role played
by various actors, such as developers and local
government. The counterargument has been that
the emergence of these new consumers of urban
life represents a profound change in the labor market
and the lifestyle trends of young professionals.
Thus, the back-to-the-city movement is a spatial
reflection of new residential choices that people
make in response to emerging social, political, and
economic conditions and, thus, an indicator of
future urban prosperity.
See also Downtown Revitalization; Gentrification
Further Readings
Zuhal Ulusoy
Journal of the American Planning Association. 1979.
Special supplement with papers presented at the
Symposium on Neighborhood Revitalization, 45(4).
Laska, Shirley Bradway and Daphne Spain, eds. 1980.
Back to the City: Issues in Neighborhood Renovation.
Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.