City structure - societal driving forces and effects (in Book & Eskilsson: City structure. Why and how?)

Why do cities appear the way they do? What are the underlying forces that contribute to its built environment and transport system? What/whom are the factors/actors that influence the ways in which the city is shaped? How can the international differences in the shape of cities be explained? The driving forces that shape the city are numerous and complex. City structure, has through the ages, been influenced by new technologies, social agencies and planning ideals.

This book, Stadens struktur. Varför och hur? (City structure. Why and how?) introduces two doctoral dissertations, where city structure is analysed from two perspectives. The dissertations consists of both shared and individual material or parts and has a common general goal: to investigate and analyse the driving forces that shape city structure and to analyse how these driving forces manifest themselves in different cities around the world by highlighting international similarities and differences. The dissertations are presented as a series of scientific articles, supplementary literature and extensive empirical material from both Swedish and foreign cities.

Karin Books' dissertation is entitled Stadens struktur - samhälleliga drivkrafter och effekter (City structure - societal driving forces and effects). Cities have changed over time due to changes in society. In gaining an understanding of why cities appear the way they do, it is important to conceive of the societal development processes that have influenced cities over different time periods. In Book's dissertation, the forces that shape societal development are known as societal driving forces. These forces consist of technological, economic, social and environmental-strategic developments. The intention of the dissertation is to gain deeper insight into city structure by analysing how the different societal driving forces have affected and still are affecting it. Aided by these driving forces, Book is able to explain why the structural development of the city has moved from spatial centralisation toward decentralisation - and presently, in a certain degree back toward recentralization - from spatial concentration toward dispersal and from spatial integration toward separation. The dissertation results in a connective-model synthesis that not only takes societal driving forces and city structure into consideration but also deals with local prerequisites and local societal effects.