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422 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1975)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0422 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE America has become a suburban nation during the last 15 years while almost no one was looking. A larger proportion of the population now lives in suburbia (more than 38 percent) than in either the central cities (30 percent) or in rural areas (32 percent). While the scale of this population shift is dramatic, a more significant reason for revived interest in the suburban phenomenon is the urbanization of the suburbs, that is, the growing economic, cultural and political independence of suburbia as it becomes more like the cities sociologically and demographically. This transition from urban to suburban emphasis has been reflected in the new suburban literature.1 This literature, supplemented by extensive mass media coverage2 and the growing number and improved quality of suburban newspapers, has provided considerable documentation and some analysis of the suburban phenomenon. The intent of this volume of THE ANNALS is to enhance our understanding of urban deconcentration by exploring the implications of suburbanization-for the suburbs themselves, for the central cities on which they have traditionally depended for the metropolitan region of which they comprise a major part, and for a nation whose issues and politics are determined largely by the dynamics of urban- suburban change. I am grateful to Deborah Ellis Dennis and the staff of the Center for Urban Affairs for generous assistance in assembling the articles in this volume. While it was impossible to cover every major implication of as massive and diverse a phenomenon as suburbanization, I believe a successful effort has been made to address the most significant conceptual and substantive issues of suburbia in the seventies. As we begin the second half of the decade, there are already signs that the past is not necessarily prologue where suburbanization is concerned. The recent dramatic slowdown in suburban growth reflects not only the de- pressed national economy and the energy shortage, but also increased sub- urban resistance to growth. The full impact of this suburban deceleration has not yet been felt, but one can predict with confidence that it will have a significant effect on the future of suburbia, the cities and the nation. LoUIs H. MASOTTI 1. See, for example, Dennis P. Sobin, The Future of American Suburbs: Survival or Extinction? (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat, 1971); Charles Monroe Haar, The End of Innocence:A Suburban Reader (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1972); John Kramer, ed.,North American Suburbs (Berkeley, Calif.: Glendessary, 1972); Frederick M. Wirt et al., On the City's Rim: Suburban Politics and Policies (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1972); Louis H., Masotti and Jeffrey K. Hadden, The Urbanization of the Suburbs (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1973), and Suburbia in Transition (New York, N.Y.: Franklin Watts, 1974); Anthony Downs, Opening up the Suburbs: An Urban Strategy forAmerica (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973); James W. Hughes, ed., Suburbanization Dynamics and the Future of the City (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University, Center for Urban Policy Research, 1974); and two special journal issues: The Suburban Shaping of American Politics, Publius, Winter 1975; and The Changing Face of American Suburbs, American Journal of Sociology (forthcoming, 1975). See also, the extensive bibliography prepared by L. H. Masotti and D. E. Dennis, Suburbs, Suburbia and Suburbanization, rev. ed. (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University, Center for Urban Affairs, 1973). 2. In addition to occasional cover stories in news magazines like Time and Newsweek, several women's periodicals now have regular features on such topics as suburban survival. McCall's recently changed its subtitle to The Magazine for Suburban Women to reflect its new readership and focus. vii

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