Best Book in Urban Affairs Award

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Since 1999, the Urban Affairs Association has sponsored an award for the best book in the field of urban affairs/urban studies. From 1999-2015, the award was given on a biennial basis and focused on North American urban contexts. However, in 2016, the award became an annual opportunity, and the guidelines were revised to welcome books on any urban context in the world. The purpose of the annual award is to encourage high-quality research on urban issues within any national context and reward cogent writing on urban affairs.

DEADLINE: September 18, 2023 (11:59pm CST) – Last day to submit an application or nomination

Eligibility Guidelines
Nominate a Book
Award Benefits
Selection Process
Past Recipients
General Eligibility Guidelines
  • To be eligible for the award, the book must address a significant issue in urban affairs or contribute to our understanding of urban issues and processes, and it must approach its topic in  scholarly fashion.
  • The book may have one or more urban contexts, and can be comparative or cross-national.
  • The book can be a theoretical argument, or it can be based on empirical research.
  • Its argumentative style should be systematic, non-polemical, and situated within a relevant literature.
  • Edited volumes, textbooks, dissertations, research reports, and journal articles are not eligible.
  • The book must be written or translated/republished in English.
  • A book can be nominated by its author(s), publisher, or by a member of UAA.
  • Previously nominated books can be re-nominated if they fulfill all other eligibility guidelines.
  • A digital copy (PDF) of the book must be attached to the nomination form.
Guidelines Specific to This Year’s Best Book Award
  • A book must have a copyright of 2022, 2023 or 2024.
Nomination Instructions

To nominate a book, ask the author or publisher to submit a digital copy (i.e. PDF) of the book via the submission form by the deadline noted above.

Only books meeting the stated eligibility guidelines, and that are received by the nomination deadline, will be given consideration. 

Submit a Nomination
Award Benefits

The award recipient receives:

  • A special award plaque
  • A complimentary conference registration waiver (including meal + reception tickets) for each author for the conference at which the award is received (valued at $500+ USD)
  • Up to four (4) nights of complimentary lodging at the conference hotel for the year in which the recipient receives the award.
    • Co-authors may share this lodging benefit in an agreed division of nights.
    • If recipient(s) is not able to attend the UAA Conference in the year of the award, the lodging benefit may be deferred up to one year.

The plaque will be presented at the Awards & Recognition Program held during the annual UAA Conference. Following the conference, a press release will be prepared announcing the recipient(s).

The award selection committee may choose to recognize another book(s) by giving Honorable Mention award(s). Each Honorable Mention award recipient will receive a conference registration waiver (valued at $500+).

Selection Process

A committee of UAA members selected by the Governing Board Chair will make the award decision. The UAA Executive Office informs the recipient of the award decision.

Past Recipients

2023
Chandan Deuskar
Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics
University of Pennsylvania Press
Award Press Release

2022
Tim Dixon and Mark Tewdwr-Jones
Urban Futures: Planning for City Foresight and City Visions
Policy Press
Award Press Release

2021
Jennifer Clark
Uneven Innovation: The Work of Smart Cities
Columbia University Press
Award Press Release

2021 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2020
Jessica Trounstine
Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities
Cambridge University Press
Award Press Release

2020 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2019
Mehrsa Baradaran
The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
Belknap Press
Award Press Release

2019 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2018
Nikhil Anand
Hydraulic city: Water and the infrastructures of citizenship in Mumbai
Duke University Press
Award Press Release

2018 (Honorable Mention)
Gavin Shatkin
Cities for profit: The real estate turn in Asia’s urban politics
Cornell University Press
Award Press Release

2017
Rachel Weber
From Boom to Bubble: How Finance Built the New Chicago
The University of Chicago Press, 2015
Award Press Release

2017 (Honorable Mention)
Robert Chaskin & Mark M. Joseph
Integrating the Inner City: The Promise and Perils of Mixed-Income Public Housing Transformation
The University of Chicago Press, 2015
Award Press Release

2017 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Honorable Mention

2015
Lawrence J. Vale
Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities

University Of Chicago Press, 2013
Award Press Release

2015 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2015 (Honorable Mention)
Sonia Hirt
Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land-Use Regulation

Cornell University Press, 2014
Award Press Release

2014 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2013
Rachel Woldoff
White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhood
Cornell University Press, 2011

2013 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2011
Japonica Brown-Saracino
A Neighborhood That Never Changes: Gentrification, Social Preservation, and the Search for Authenticity
University of Chicago Press, 2010

2011 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2011 (Honorable Mention)
Karen Bakker
Privatizing Water: Governance Failure and the World’s Urban Water Crisis
Cornell University Press, 2010

2011 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Honorable Mention

2009
David Freund
Colored Property: State Policy and White Racial Politics in Suburban America
University of Chicago Press, 2007

2009 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2007
Lance Freeman
There Goes the ‘Hood: Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up
Temple University Press, 2006

2007 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2005
Robert O. Self
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Post War Oakland
Princeton University Press, 2003

2005 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2003
Eric Klinenberg
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
University of Chicago Press, 2002

2003 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

2001
Lawrence Vale
From the Puritans to the Projects: Public Housing and Public Neighbors
Harvard University Press, 2000

2001 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner

1999
Paul Jargowsky
Poverty and Place: Ghettos, Barrios, and the American City
Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 1998

1999 UAA Best Book in Urban Affairs Award Winner