Peripheral Centralities by Nicholas A Phelps

Peripheral Centralities by Nicholas A Phelps

The term ‘peripheral centralities’ may seem something of an oxymoron and yet the spatial peripheries of cities have often been more central to urban development processes than is appreciated. To better understand the nature of peripheral centrality, Peripheral Centralities: The Lost and Past Urbanity of the Suburbs brings together a wide variety of examples of lost and forgotten peripheral centralities of different sizes, purpose, geographical location, and political complexion, dating from the first decades of the twentieth century to the present day. Following the introduction, two chapters provide broad overviews of peripheral centralities in international and national systems of centralities. The next four chapters look at plans from settings as different as Dublin and Shanghai that, for one reason or another, failed to materialize. The following eight chapters each describes cases where projects have been realized, ranging from peripheral townships in England to a Chinese steel city. To conclude the book, the editors highlight the themes revealed in the foregoing chapters and consider the part an appreciation of peripheral centralities might play in the development of urban theory from the outside in.

Nicholas A. Phelps is Professor and Chair of Urban Planning and Associate Dean International in the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne.

Roger Keil is Distinguished Research Professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University, Toronto and Fellow of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s (CIFAR) Humanity’s Urban Future program.

Paul J. Maginn is Director of the Public Policy Institute and an Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Western Australia, Perth.