Bob Beauregard’s latest book, Cities in the Urban Age: A Dissent (University of Chicago Press, 2018) challenges urban scholars to reconsider the way we think about cities. Beauregard presents the city as a paradox, a “cauldron of haunting contradictions” spanning economic, environmental, political, and social dimensions. On Beauregard’s account, the city is defined equally by wealth and by poverty; it is simultaneously environmentally destructive and sustainable; it supports both political machines and democratic openness; it nurtures tolerance for diversity and violence across difference. These contradictions, furthermore, are not only incapable of resolution but are inherently constitutive of city-ness, of what makes the city the city. But Beauregard refuses to be helpless in the face of urban paradox. Working through and within these contradictions, he concludes, offers the only possibility for understanding and accepting our moral obligations and thus discerning a path toward urban equality, justice, and peace. Panelists working from a variety of perspectives will assess Beauregard’s account in this book, teasing out its implications for our understanding of cities in the urban age.
Moderator: Robert Lake, Rutgers University
City as Policy John West, Ball State University
Global City Cuz Potter, Korea University
City Practices Meg Holden, Simon Fraser University
Whose City? Susan Saegert, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Urban Imaginary Robert Lake, Rutgers University
City as Paradox Bob Beauregard, Columbia University
