A city is a place where people come together, while a neighborhood, it is said, is a place where people belong. And yet this basic element of the human habitat often eludes us. Neighborhood makes the case that the neighborhood as traditionally understood needs to be reinstated as something real, meaningful, and non-exclusionary.

The term neighborhood has been reduced to a word for a convenient geographical locator. In fact, most cities claim to be compiled of neighborhoods, but this strays far from the term's original meaning - a spatial unit that people relate to. Neighborhood seeks to dispel this common misconception by integrating a complex historical record and multidisciplinary literature to produce a singular resource for understanding what is meant by neighborhood. Emily Talen provides a multi-dimensional, comprehensive view of what neighborhoods signify how they're idealized and measured, and what their historical progression has been. Talen balances perspectives from sociology, urban history, urban planning, and sustainability among others in efforts to make neighborhoods compatible with 21st century ideals. If neighborhoods are going to play a role in the future of the city, we need to know what and where they are in a more meaningful way. Neighborhoods need to be more than a label and more than a social segregator. For those living in the undefined expanse of contemporary urbanism-which characterizes most of American cities-can the neighborhood come to be more than a shaded area on a map?