List of Figures, Maps, and Tables Preface 1. Introduction: Elusive Suburbia Jan Nijman Part 1: Questioning North American Suburbia2. Using Toronto to Explore Three Suburban Stereotypes, and Vice Versa Richard Harris3. Mexico City: Elusive Suburbs, Ubiquitous Peripheries Liette Gilbert4. Searching for Suburbia in Metropolitan Miami Jan Nijman and Tom Clery5. Spatial Transformations in the Suburbs of the North Carolina Piedmont Region Fang Wei and Paul Knox Part 2: Changing Political Economies of Suburbanization6. The Strange Case of the Bay Area Richard Walker and Alex Schafran7. Vancouverism as Suburbanism Elliot Siemiatycki, Jamie Peck, and Elvin Wyly8. Montreal: An Ordinary North American Metropolis? Claire Poitras and Pierre Hamel9. New York’s Suburbs in a Globalized Metropolitan RegionJames Defilippis and Christopher Niedt Part 3: Race, Ethnicity, and the Remaking of Suburbia10. Diverging Racial Geographies in Phoenix’s Postwar and Post–Civil Rights Suburbs Deirdre Pfeiffer11. Suburbanization and the Making of Atlanta as the “Black Mecca”Katherine Hankins and Steve Holloway12. Edmonton, Mill Woods, Amiskwaciy WaskahikanRob Shields, Dianne Gillespie, and Kieran Moran13. Economic Development and the New Immigrant Segregationist Politics in Suburban Chicago David Wilson Part 4: Contested Suburbs14. Governance, Politics, and Suburbanization in Los Angeles Roger Keil and Derek Brunelle15. Reaching Suburbia: Towards a Socially Just Transit System for Ottawa Caroline Andrew and Angela Franovic16. Contested Spaces: Suburban Development in Halifax and Other Midsized Canadian CitiesJill L. Grant17. Epilogue: Suburbs as Transitional Spaces Jan Nijman ContributorsIndex

"Drawing on major metropoles and smaller cities across the US and Canada, and the rather outlying case of Mexico City, the authors (primarily geographers) map varied suburban forms and beliefs from Vancouver to Miami, while looking closely at issues of race and political-economic struggles that focus on the dynamics of suburbs and central cities in the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Each essay's argument is comprehensive, compelling, and valuable for classroom us."

"Through the case studies presented in each of the chapters, The Life of North American Suburbs demonstrates the diversity and movement away from a stereotypical, post-war portrait of North American suburbs."