The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation: Beijing, Chicago, and Paris

Description

While urban preservation is almost as old as cities themselves, it has become increasingly controversial in modern cities. In this book, Yue Zhang presents a cross-national comparative analysis of the politics of urban preservation. Based on comprehensive archival research and more than two hundred in-depth interviews in Beijing, Chicago, an

Yue Zhang is assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Yue Zhang vividly captures the inherently political nature of urban historic preservation by comparing the complex process by which political actors use government to transform and protect the urban landscape in Beijing, Chicago, and Paris. The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation is exceptionally well written, lively, and careful in its analysis. It highlights how the structure of urban governance powerfully influences the way cities change physically, and it raises profound questions about the obstacles to local democracy in deciding how and when this happens. It is a major contribution to the study of comparative urban politics.-Paul Kantor, Fordham University Yue Zhang has given us a wonderful volume on the politics of urban preservation that is written in the best tradition of social science. This comparative study is comprehensive without being overbearing and incisive without getting lost in detail. It is no easy task to deliver on such an ambitious project, but this book does it with aplomb and tenacity of purpose.-H.V. Savitch, University of Louisville