As an object of study, the city is back. During the past decade or so, scholars concerned with such matters as the global environment, social equity, and sustainable development have turned their attention to the city. Yet most of our thinking about the subject—particularly our reflections on the city as place—has failed to keep pace with the changes in urban form that are taking place all around us. Those changes are huge and ever accelerating. All over the world, more and more people inhabit cities or their sprawling interconnected communities. The number of "one million population cities" increased from 11 in 1900 to 105 in 1990, and is expected to reach 248 by 2115.

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