"She brings to the fore a wealth of research from design, planning, and development studies and offers for her own part a compelling view of urban form and place making that complicates common assumptions--in sociology and planning alike--about the nature of cities in the 21st century." American Journal of Sociology "A momentous work of uncommon intelligence and clarity that packs a powerful political punch." Morning Star ''Finally, a book on urban design that gets close to the formal and informal practices, the material, social and virtual matter, and the deliberate and deliberative impulses that make and unmake cities. Fran Tonkiss offers a whole new repertoire of possibilities to help fashion the liveable and democratic city.'' Ash Amin, University of Cambridge ''Tonkiss is among the most insightfully spatial of urban sociologists and uses this social-spatial acuity to re-design urban design as "the social life of urban form". Cities by Design re-opens the old claim that urban design can become a convergent focus for critical thinking and effective practice across all disciplines and professions. Tonkiss applies her expanded vision of design to such controversial issues as density and sprawl, inequality and injustice, segregation and diversity, ordinary urbanism and informality, environmental racism and sustainability, never losing touch with practical, political, and policy implications.'' Edward Soja, UCLA.