Sprawling places /

The oxymoronic title of this examination of the metropolitan US evokes the dialogic quality of Kolb's thought as he casts a fresh eye on cities and suburbs. Rather than rehashing policies (and myths) that turn places and peoples into antagonists, Kolb (emer., philosophy, Bates College) engages traditions in philosophy, geography, and urbanism that grapple with qualities of urban and suburban space and experience, positing cogent ideas of complexity and meaning rich with interpretive and policy implications. He transforms value-laden terms in contemporary planning arguments--sprawl, authenticity, "themes"--through explorations of being in place and the density, thickness, and linkages of experience. He also addresses theorists from Lefebvre and Castells to Jacobs and provides new readings of themed spaces and suburbia; the text ends with new urbanism, smart growth, and other strategies that add complexity of form, connection, and movement to anodyne spaces. Such humanistic analysis should inspire social scientists to reexamine people (and their divisions, exclusions, and rejections) in constituting urban and suburban place. Kolb's inviting style and evocative points, developed in extensive expository notes and a compendious Web site, should also stimulate wider discussion across civic and academic audiences. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. G. W. McDonogh Bryn Mawr College