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James and Nancy Duncan look at how the aesthetics of physical landscapes are fully enmeshed in producing the American class system. Focusing on an archetypal upper class American suburb-Bedford in Westchester County, NY-they show how the physical presentation of a place carries with it a range of markers of inclusion and exclusion. James Duncan is a University Lecturer in Geography at Cambridge University, and Nancy Duncan is Affiliated Lecturer of Geography at Cambridge University.

How do landscapes work as class codes? In Landscapes of Privilege , James and Nancy Duncan look at how the aesthetics of physical landscapes are fully enmeshed in producing the American class system. Focusing on an archetypal upper class American suburb - Bedford in Westchester County, NY - they show how the physical presentation of a place carries with it a range of markers of inclusion and exclusion. Landscapes are very important in conveying social distinction and hierarchy - even while they make the ordering of a place appear 'natural' to everyone. Landscapes essentially act as cultural codes. If they encode affluence, residents work to reproduce them through stringent aesthetic rules, zoning restrictions, and slow growth coalitions. In full, this process has produced the physical form of the contemporary upper middle-class American suburb. Genuinely innovative, Landscapes of Privilege is one of the first books to apply critical landscape theory to the social production of American elites.

Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization.As manufacturing cities reinvent themselves after decades of lost jobs and population, abundant vacant land resources and interest in green infrastructure are expanding opportunities for community and environmental resilience.