都市が好きな者は「郊外」を軽蔑し、広い庭が好きな者は人が密集する歩道や地下鉄を嫌います。しかし、郊外に暮らす人のほうが多いというのは今日の世界的な流れです。その背景にはどのような歴史があり、社会、政治、文化にとって何を意味するのでしょうか。交通手段やインターネットの発達が、英米のコンパクトな都市を大都市圏に変化させた経緯をはじめ、欧州と東アジアでの垂直に伸びる郊外、北米・南米の即席の郊外、雇用の場としての郊外など、あらゆる側面から郊外を考察し、それが私たちの現在地と未来を考える上で中心的な役割を担っていることを浮き彫りにします。
  

• Presents suburbs as a global phenomenon rather than a narrow Anglo-American development
• Uses film and fiction to illustrate suburban trends

   
We live in the suburban era. Well over half of all Americans and two-thirds of Canadians live in suburbs. Tracts of suburban bungalows ring Sydney and Melbourne. Suburban apartments rise on the outskirts of Paris, Prague, Singapore, and Beijing. Nearly everyone has a strong opinion about suburbs. Folks who love dense cities scorn "suburbia," while people who like big yards dislike bustling sidewalks and subways. Social scientists argue whether contemporary suburbs are losing their luster or if a supposed back-to-the-city trend is a mirage--a debate that has been exacerbated by uncertainty over the effects of COVID-19.
    
Suburbs: A Very Short Introduction tackles two central questions: What is the history behind a suburbanizing world? What does the suburban trend mean for society, politics, and culture? Two chapters describe the ways that the new technologies of streetcars, trains, automobiles, and internet have allowed the compact cities of Britain and the United States to grow into sprawling metropolitan regions. The following chapters explore the vertical suburbs of Europe and East Asia, improvised or do-it-yourself suburbs in both North America and Latin America, and suburbs as places of employment. The book concludes by exploring criticism and praise of suburbs in popular sociology, fiction, film, and the Americanization of twenty-first century suburbs around the globe. The approach is rooted in history and geography, draws on all the social sciences, and highlights the ways in which suburbs are central to the ways that we understand the present and imagine the future.