This extraordinary text for undergraduate urban students is a reflection of Mark Hutter’s academic interests in urban sociology and his life-long passion for experiencing city life. His deep academic roots in the Chicago School of Sociology help inform and appreciate the variety of urban structures and processes and their effect on the everyday lives of people living in cities. This text, however, extends the Chicago School perspective by combining its traditions with a social psychological perspective derived from symbolic interaction and also with a macro-level examination of social organization, social change, stratification and power in the urban context, informed by political economy. This entirely new, 3rd Edition has a global outlook on city life, and a visual presentation unmatched among books in this genre.
Hutter uses symbolic interactionism to examine the social psychology of city life and a political economy perspective to discuss urbanization, uneven development, and social stratification. One of the best urban sociology textbooks on the market.
--Richard Adams, Kent State University
Any professor will say that explaining the link between the microworld of everyday social life in cities and the macroworld of urban social structures, social forces, and political economy is among the toughest teaching tasks, and also among the most important. Hutter puts this link at the center of this text. While driven by a discussion of city life from a symbolic interactionist perspective, Hutter never loses sight of the urban contexts in which people live. Along with being well-written and -organized, this textbook succeeds for this reason.
--Richard Ocejo, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY
This newest edition of Hutter’s Experiencing Cities is a welcome addition to the study of urban sociology. Our favorite classics, as well as newer research, are included in this comprehensive examination of the development of the city in history, and its importance to society both in the past and in the future.
--Diane W. Lindley, University of Mississippi
Once again, Hutter's latest edition of Experiencing Cities is a rare urban text uniquely focusing on urbanism -- how people experience cities and the social psychology of urban life largely from a symbolic interactionist perspective with many topics that students and professors alike will find interesting and engaging.
--Peter Venturelli, Valparaiso University
Experiencing Cities is the only urban sociology text that squarely addresses the lived experience of city dwellers. Writing in the interactionist tradition, Professor Hutter skillfully interweaves a range of contemporary approaches to urban sociology, including social psychology, political economy, and recent cultural analyses of urban life. This new edition contains many updates and includes expanded international content and attention to new empirical work.
―Peter R. Grahame, Pennsylvania State University
