City politics is an ancient, enduring, and vibrant enterprise that can be traced back over two millennia. Its key concerns include the nature of power, institutions, governance, community, scale and economic processes, as well as the urban citizenry itself and the public policy efforts to address their problems. The study of these concerns is inherently interdisciplinary, as local political processes are shaped by social forces, spatial dynamics and economic factors.

Volume 1: Traditions and Transitions examines different ways in which the politics of city life have been conceived down the ages;

Volume 2: Political Economy and Power brings together theoretical work developed to explain urban politics, focusing on the key interactions between economic and political processes and the distribution and nature of political power;

Volume 3: Institutions and Governance focuses on the formal and informal institutions of urban government and the task of urban governance;

Volume 4: Publics and Policies covers a range of topics in urban politics related to its various publics and related problems and policies.