A couple of interesting current projects

Country Mice & City Mice is a documentary film project currently in the works about the history of suburban development. They will be focusing on the culture of American suburbs, as well as the local political battles that are waged over land use. If the film turns out to be as insightful and informative as their blog then I'll be eager to see it.

And also ...

Philosopher James K.A. Smith and sociologist Mark Mulder, both of Calvin College, are conducting research into the extent to which evangelical Christian belief and practice contributes to an anti-urban bias in American life. I have yet to find a good study on how religious belief and geographical habits have been intertwined in the United States, but I think it's an especially important topic. From the description,

"The world is becoming increasingly urban. It becomes incumbent upon us then to reconcile these two seemingly oppositional forces: more population residing in the city and more population fearing the city. With recent scholarship we have a better understanding of evangelicals and the racialized society. What is less clear is the relationship between evangelicals and urbanized society. Such research will help to illuminate a powerful subculture of our society and how they think about and relate to the continued social dominance of urban centers."

I'm looking forward to seeing the conclusions of these.