Herbert Gans’ classic book, The Levittowners, has inspired generations of urban sociologists studying American suburbs, but it has also confined the field's focus to studies of the local community. At the same time, however, outside the discipline of American urban sociology, an interdisciplinary field of global suburban studies has flourished. Global suburban studies address a wider range of topics that extends to infrastructural provision, governance, and popular resistance. By introducing the key debates in global suburban studies, this essay argues that it is time for American urban sociologists to broaden their analytical focus beyond community institutions and power relations, and that much can be gained by adopting an international and comparative perspective to learn about urban peripheries elsewhere in the world. A comparative vantage point can help U.S. sociologists better situate socio‐spatial transformations in American suburbs among a world of cities (and suburbs), and mine new insights on topics involving poverty, segregation, and community life that have been at the center of suburban research in American sociology.

中文翻译：

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全球视野下的郊区和城市边缘

赫伯特·甘斯（Herbert Gans）的经典著作《利维敦人》激发了研究美国郊区的几代城市社会学家的灵感，但同时也将这一领域的重点局限于本地社区的研究。然而，与此同时，在美国城市社会学学科之外，全球郊区研究的一个跨学科领域蓬勃发展。全球郊区研究涉及更广泛的主题，这些主题扩展到基础设施的提供，治理和民众的抵抗。通过介绍全球郊区研究中的关键辩论，本文认为，现在是美国城市社会学家将分析重点扩展到社区机构和权力关系之外的时候了，采用国际和比较性的观点来学习有关城市的知识可以取得很多成就世界其他地方的周边地区。比较有利的观点可以帮助美国