The Sociology of Urban Communities provides an authoritative collection of over 60 key articles by leading international contributors to urban sociology, together with an introductory article by the editor.The coverage is comprehensive, ranging from work on the role of cities in the transition from feudalism to capitalism and the nineteenth century origins of urban sociology, through the classic writings associated with the Chicago School and the Marxist new urban sociology of the 1960s and 1970s. The collection is completed by sections which focus on the urban consequences of contemporary economic restructuring and work which reflects recent developments in the sociology of gender, space and postmodernism.