Confronting Urban Legacy

Xiangming Chen is founding dean and director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies and Paul Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, as well as visiting professor in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He is author of As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim. Nick Bacon is research associate in urban studies at the Center for Urban and Global Studies and a PhD candidate in cultural anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center.

• PrologueChapter 1: Introduction: Once Prosperous and Now Challenged: Hartford’s Transformation in Comparative and Global PerspectivesPart 1: Urban Past and Present in New EnglandChapter 2: Hartford: A Global HistoryChapter 3: Podunk after Pratt: Place and Placelessness in East Hartford, Connecticut Chapter 4: “If We Would…Leave the City, This Would Be a Ghost Town”: Urban Crisis and Latino Migration in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1945-2000Part II: Social and Community TransformationsChapter 5: Poverty, Inequality, Politics, and Social Activism in HartfordChapter 6: Investigating Spatial Inequality with the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools ProjectChapter 7: The Puerto Rican Effect on Hispanic Residential Segregation: Hartford and Springfield Metropolitan Areas in National PerspectiveChapter 8: A Metro Immigrant Gateway: Refugees in the Hartford BorderlandsChapter 9: Re-Imagining Portland, Maine: Urban Renaissance and a Refugee CommunityPart III: Renewing Hartford: Global and Regional Dynamics

Among urbanists, studies about megacities have been the prime agenda item in the research frontier. Not surprisingly, the literature on the world's largest cities is rich in number and coverage. However, there is a dearth of in-depth research about smaller cities considered to be second and third tier, and books on these smaller, lesser-known cities are few and far between. This book helps to fill that void by studying Hartford, Connecticut, and a couple of cities in other areas of New England. It is Hartford, however, that receives the most attention. Fifteen experts diffuse their experience on the region by mixing theory with applied practice, resulting in 14 very interesting chapters covering a wide range of topics, including the past, the present, and social, political, and economic issues. Not ignored is Hartford's position in the regional and global scene. Chapters examine the city's future potential with realistic conclusions, making it possible to gain an understanding of the city not previously available, particularly in a single volume. The rich bibliography found after each chapter can guide readers to greater insights. Maps, photographs, and tables complement the essays very well. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic levels/libraries.