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This research examines the new divides and changing structure of the modern city and metropolis. Since the classic Chicago School models, the urban form of the metropolis has been conceptualized as a divided space, where affluent suburbs surround a less-advantaged and denser urban core. More recently, the concept of a great inversion has been advanced to capture the return of more advantaged groups to the urban center and the outward shift of poverty and disadvantage to the suburbs. To gain insight into contemporary urban form, we undertake a descriptive mapping exercise of the residential locations of three major classes—the advantaged class of knowledge, professionals and creative workers, the declining blue collar working class, and the less advantaged service class of workers—across a dozen of America’s largest metro areas and their core cities. We find a pattern of class division and urban form that we refer to as the “patchwork metropolis,” where class divides cut across city and suburb alike. These divides appear to be conditioned by the location of the advantaged class that occupies and clusters around the most functional and desirable areas of the metropolis—close to the urban core, around transit, near knowledge institutions, and along areas of natural amenities. The less-advantaged classes are shunted into the spaces leftover or in between—either traditionally disadvantaged areas of the inner city or the fringes of the suburban and exurban periphery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines whether perceived neighborhood ethnic diversity is associated with a range of social outcomes in a postindustrial city undergoing regeneration. The research included a survey in 3 types of deprived area in Glasgow: those undergoing regeneration, those directly adjoining regeneration areas, and those further removed from regeneration areas. In areas undergoing regeneration, perceived diversity was positively associated with many residential, cohesion, safety, and empowerment outcomes. This was also true, although to a lesser extent, in deprived areas at some distance from regeneration areas. In areas immediately surrounding the regeneration areas, perceived diversity had mixed associations with residential and safety outcomes and few associations with cohesion and empowerment outcomes. The results suggest that the effects of perceived diversity are context dependentwithina city. Moreover, regeneration processes alter neighborhood contexts and therefore enable scale, timing, and duration of diversity to mediate the relationships between perceived diversity and social outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: This study examines the processes of revitalization within small cities, using Scranton, a postindustrial city in Northeast Pennsylvania, as a case study. Through qualitative interviews, I examine the motivation factors for key players in the revitalization of Scranton's downtown, such as business owners, city and nonprofit administrators, and cultural leaders. Revitalizers are heavily influenced by Richard Florida's creative class theory in that they strongly believe that promoting arts and culture and creating a consumer-based downtown is imperative for urban renewal. However, revitalizers are also motivated because Scranton has a high level of social capital, especially in terms of bonding capital. Strong social ties (including community, family, and institutional) assist revitalizers in their creative endeavors. This study indicates that small cities attempting to achieve economic and population stability should focus on their strengths: city livability and the thick social ties that maintain communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]