Suburban Studies
What is a Suburb?
Strictly speaking, a suburb is the populated region that surrounds a central city. It is not urban and it is not rural, it is sub-urban. It is also called the urban sprawl. This is a fitting description since the railroads, streets, highways, industrial complexes, civic centers, and residential units that spider out from the central city resemble a splotch of ink dropped from the ceiling onto the floor. The population density typically decreases as the distance from the city and the median household income increases.
Not all suburbs are the same, however. There is not a simple division between urban life and suburban life. Myron Orfield identifies six distinct types of suburban communities: at-risk segregated, at-risk older, at-risk low density, bedroom-developing, affluent job centers, and very affluent job centers. These six types represent one of the greatest challenges of suburbia: the socio-economic stratification of the suburban population. read more…
Book Reviews on the Suburban Context
- Reading Reading While Black While WhiteA reflection on the violence in our streets, racial injustice, and the imprecatory Ps
- Article | Filling the Governance Gap by Allan WallisRead Filling the Governance Gap by Allan Wallis, my annotated copy of this article. Wallis, Allan D. “Filling the Governance Gap.” National Civic Review 87, no. 1 (1998). Notes The dominant vision for regional growth Ownership of a detached single-family house; Automobile ownership; Low-rise workplaces; Small communities with strong local governments; Environment free from signs of poverty. Downs says the dominant vision succeeds admirably in ...
- Book | Metropolitics by Myron OrfieldOrfield, Myron. Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability. Cambridge, MA: Brookings Institution Press; Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1997. Author – Myron Orfield Myron Orfield identifies six distinct types of suburban communities: at-risk segregated, at-risk older, at-risk low density, bedroom-developing, affluent job centers, and very affluent job centers. These six types represent one of the greatest challenges of suburbia: the socio-economic stratification ...
- Book | Crabgrass Frontier by Kenneth JacksonJackson, Kenneth T. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. The Author Kenneth Jackson Professor of History and the Social Sciences at Columbia University My Thoughts Jackson’s work—Crabgrass Frontier—is the most ubiquitous citation in my experience of studying suburbia. He published this history of the Suburbs in 1985. It was on the front ...
- Book | Building Suburbia by Dolores HaydenHayden, Dolores. Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003. The Author She is a professor at Yale University and past president of the Urban History Association. The triple dream: house, yard, and neighborhood. The following paragraph summarizes the intent of this book: “Arguing for the metropolitan context of suburban landscapes, this history ...
- Book | Beorgeois Utopias by Robert FishmanFishman, Robert. Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia. New York: Basic Books, 1987. The Author Robert Fishman Fishman is a professor of architecture and urban planning at the University of Michigan. Annotated Reviews The following are reviews that I have marked up: Review of bourgeois – Haine Review of Bourgeois Utopias – Howland “Seen in historical perspective, suburbia now appears as ...
- Book | Souls of the City by Etan DiamondDiamond, Etan. Souls of the City: Religion and the Search for Community in Postwar America Polis Center Series on Religion and Urban Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003. The Author Etan Diamond Etan Diamond is a senior research associate. An urban and religious historian, he studies changes in the Indianapolis religious and urban landscapes since World War II. Summary Diamond ...
- Book | The Suburban Church by Arthur H. DeKruyterDeKruyter, Arthur H., and Quentin J. Schultze. The Suburban Church: Practical Advice for Authentic Ministry. 1st ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. The Author Arther DeKruyter Founding pastor of Christ Church in Oak Brook, IL. Summary DeKruyter offers a case study of how he started with the calling from five couples in the suburban Oak Brook Village, to ...
- Book | Death by Suburb by David GoetzDeath by Suburb by David Goetz The Author David Goetz is president of CZ Marketing, a creative strategy agency that repositions organizations for new growth. Dave is also the founder of www.RealityRN.com, a social media community for new nurses. Dave is the author of Death by Suburb (HarperCollins) and is working on a follow-up book tentatively titled, ...
- Book | How Cities Work by Alex MarshallMarshall, Alex. How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken. 1st ed. Constructs Series. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000. The Author A journalist and writer for a quarter century, Alex Marshall is the author of The Surprising Design of Market Economies (University of Texas 2012), as well as How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and ...
Posts on the Suburban Context
- Reading Reading While Black While WhiteA reflection on the violence in our streets, racial injustice, and the imprecatory Ps
- The Kairos Blanket Exercise at the Religious Education Association MeetingThe Kairos Blanket Exercise is a powerful, interactive, embodied educational experience that takes the participants through a 500-year story of what happened to the indigenous people of Turtle Island (North American Continent) after the European settlers arrived. I had the opportunity to experience this exercise on Friday morning in Toronto at the Annual Meeting of ...
- Deep in the BurbsI’ve been wrestling with the first sermon in our new series A Deep Life all day. My problem is that I have SO MUCH to say that I’m afraid a) I will overwhelm people, and b) it will go too long. I am so excited about this series, because it hits the core of my ...
- Emerging or Missional | How Should We Discuss the Church?Two terms have played an important role for me in discussing the church. The first term was important for me during the season in which we experimented with house churches. It was during that time that I realized I was swimming in the Emerging Church conversation. The “emerging church” was a term primarily coined by ...
- Tending the Generation Gap in Suburban CongregationsThis paper asks the question: How can the church leader attend to the generational gaps found in suburban congregations, specifically as it relates to spiritual formation in the congregation? I use Robert Kegan’s theory of the Five Orders of Consciousness as a framework to understand the differences and benefits of each generation. Read the Paper view paper ...
- Lutherans in the SuburbsThe Deep in the Burbs Research Project is a story of a particular place in Midwest suburbia. It was necessary to pursue this research in a specific location, through participatory action research within three neighboring congregations, because it is my assumption that a reasonably adequate Christian theology is done in, with, under, against, and for the ...
- New Study Shows Major Changes Coming to the Twin Cities SuburbsThe Star Tribune ran an opinion piece in yesterday’s paper that highlights an important demographic study commissioned by the Met Council. (read the simplified report or the actual Demographic study – Trends, Preferences, and Opportunities) The following is the executive summary from the report: “For the metro area as a whole and the central and non-central counties, ...
- Thinking about Suburban SpiritualityI decided to read The Blackwell Companion to Christian Spirituality. It has occured to me that I have become bogged down in the epistemological concerns section of the dissertation and have not attended well to the actual core of my research, which is the topic of spirituality. Thus, I have endeavored to read this primary ...
- The Geese are Back | An Easter Meditation on Life in the SuburbsThe weather cooperated nicely with Easter yesterday. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. The sun was bright, and warm, and unhindered by clouds. The air was dry and warm. Sounds of life buzzed through the still naked, but hopeful trees. Shoots of green stretched up from the dirt, yawning from a long, long ...
- Experiencing the Disruptive Nature of the SpiritPart of my research focuses on exploring the sense-making process of walking with the Spirit in community (specifically, how this works in the suburbs). Let me walk through the events and conversations of the last week in an effort to make some provisional sense from it for my own life, for my research, and for ...