Mannheim, Steve. Walt Disney and the Quest for Community. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2002.

"This book provides the best account of a remarkable accomplishment of America's most influential modern urban planner — Walt Disney. Disney's genius went beyond amusement parks to the creation of the new suburban community form. Mannheim does a remarkable job in detailing the Disney's revolutionary urban planning contributions that shape most of the modern world."
— Edward J. Blakely, Dean, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School University, New York, USA.

This volume focuses on the original concept of EPCOT, which was conceived by Disney as an experimental community of about 20,000 people on the Disney World property in central Florida. With its radial plan, 50-acre town center enclosed by a dome, themed international shopping area, greenbelt, high-density apartments, satellite communities, monorail and underground roads, the original EPCOT plan is reminiscent of postwar Stockholm and the British New Towns, as well as today's transit-oriented development theory.

Murphy, Peter E., and Ann E. Murphy. Strategic Management for Tourism Communities: Bridging the Gaps. Buffalo, N.Y.: Channel View Publications, 2004.

Strategic planning within a community framework is essential for tourism to reach its potential. This book combines the four principal functions of business management and stakeholder analysis to develop a model of collaborative decision making. This model offers a template for communities to understand and make the most of their tourism resources.

James, Sarah, and Torbjorn Lahti. The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices. Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, 2004.

The book first clarifies the concept of sustainability, offering guiding principles — the Natural Step framework — that help identify sustainable action in any area. It then introduces the 60-plus eco-municipalities of Sweden that have adopted changes to sustainable practices throughout municipal policies and operations. The third section explains how they did it, and outlines how other communities in North America and elsewhere can do the same. Key to success is a democratic "bottom-up" change process, and clear guiding sustainability principles such as the Natural Step framework.

Ning, Zhu H., and Kamran K. Abdollahi. Urban and Community Forestry: Working Together to Facilitate Change. Baton Rouge, La.: Southern University, 2003?

Vale, Lawrence J. Reclaiming Public Housing: A Half Century of Struggle in Three Public Neighborhoods. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002.

Lawrence Vale explores the rise, fall, and redevelopment of three public housing projects in Boston. Vale looks at these projects from the perspectives of their low-income residents and assesses the contributions of the design professionals who helped to transform these once devastated places during the 1980s and 1990s. The three similarly designed projects were built at the same time under the same government program and experienced similar declines. Each received comparable funding for redevelopment, and each design team consisted of first-rate professionals who responded with similar "defensible space" redesign plans. Why, then, was one redevelopment effort a nationally touted success story, another only a mixed success, and the third a widely acknowledged failure?

Knapp, Connie L., and The Orton Family Foundation Community Mapping Program. Making Community Connections. Redlands, Cal.: ESRI Press, 2003.

This book is designed to bring teams of teachers and their students together with community members to study a problem, a resource, a condition — any matter of interest and importance to the community. The schoolwork includes gathering and examining existing information, discovering new facts through field investigation, and mapping the resource using GIS/GPS tools. Not only do the students meet and work with community mentors and experts who participate in the classroom and help with the field studies, they also typically hold public forums to gather input on the resource and their work. At the end of the semester or project the students hold a public forum to present their work in a variety of forms including video conferences, speeches and presentations, reading of narratives, display of hand-drawn maps, GIS maps, etc. thus providing a body of research to the community which can be used to address immediate concerns and help plan for the future.

Platt, Rutherford H. Land Use and Society. Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004.

This new edition of Land Use and Society devotes greater attention to urban land use and related social issues with two new chapters tracing American city and metropolitan change over the twentieth century. More emphasis is given to social justice and the environmental movement and their respective roles in shaping land use and policy in recent decades.

Downs, Anthony. Still Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

In this revised and expanded edition of his landmark work Stuck in Traffic, Anthony Downs examines the benefits and costs of various anticongestion strategies. Drawing on a significant body of research by transportation experts and land-use planners, he counters environmentalists and road lobbyists alike by explaining why seemingly simple solutions, such as expanding public transit or expanding roads, have unintended consequences that cancel out their apparent advantages. He argues that while there might be some measurable gains from increasing housing densities, most other land-use strategies have little effect. Indeed, the most powerful solutions, including higher gasoline taxes, increased public funding for transit, and highway tolls, are also the least palatable politically. Reviewed in January 2005 issue of Planning magazine.

Clark, William A. V. Immigrants and the American Dream: Remaking the Middle Class. New York: Guilford Press, 2003.

The United States has absorbed nearly 10 million immigrants in the past decade. This book examines who the new immigrants are, where they live, and who among them are gaining entry into the American middle class. Discussed are the complex factors that promote or hinder immigrant success, as well as the varying opportunities and constraints met by those living in particular regions. Extensive data are synthesized on key dimensions of immigrant achievement: income level, professional status, and rates of homeownership and political participation. Also provided is a balanced analysis of the effects of immigration on broader socioeconomic, geographic, and political trends.

Hovey, Kendra A., and Harold A. Hovey. CQ’s State Fact Finder: Rankings Across America. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 2004.

Significant updates over the past two years have locked in this guide’s reputation as the definitive resource for up-to-date and reliable state information. Acclaimed for its many enhancements, the 2004 edition added valuable new tables on current hot topics such as ethnic and immigrant populations, homeland security and defense spending, and prescription drug costs. At the core of this resource is a "Subject Ranking" section that provides over 265 tables, each including data and rankings for all fifty states plus the District of Columbia. The tables are organized into thirteen topical chapters that cover topics including crime/law enforcement, economies, education, government, health, taxes, technology, welfare and many more. State Fact Finder also includes a "State Ranking" section, so users can access information state-by-state depending on their needs. Also included is a helpful introduction and "State Fiscal Snapshot 2005," an overview of key financial information in all 50 states.