Now that most of us live in cities our attention turns increasingly to how different these places are around the world and why this might be so. Are there underlying processes at work that influence or even determine the ways in which cities grow? To what extent are particular cities dependent on paths or foundations laid down centuries ago? To what extent can planners (using the term loosely) shape the way cities grow, how they look and how we experience them? Many have attempted to answer these questions, with varying degrees of success, and from a variety of perspectives

中文翻译：

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为什么城市看样子

现在我们大多数人生活在城市中，我们的注意力越来越转向世界各地这些地方的不同之处以及为什么会如此。工作中是否存在影响甚至决定城市发展方式的基本过程？特定城市在多大程度上依赖于几个世纪前建立的道路或基础？规划人员（宽松地使用该术语）可以在多大程度上影响城市的发展方式，其外观和我们的体验？许多人已经尝试从各种角度回答这些问题，并取得了不同程度的成功。