Abstract

There is no consensus as to what exactly constitutes a suburb. This chapter examines the range of suburban definitions in terms of their structure and the topical issues with which they grapple. Suburbs have been defined according to many different dimensions from location and transportation modes to culture and physical appearance. Given this confusion, one approach is to abandon the term; another is to use it with greater precision. This is more than just an issue of semantics. Rather, how people talk and think about suburbs shapes how they can see such areas being developed and redeveloped in the future.