 She began teaching urban sociology just as the “new urban sociology” was emerging, partly in response to a series of urban riots (many of which involved African-Americans reacting to police brutality or other manifestations of systemic racism) that took place in U.S. cities in the late 1960s.Widespread urban unrest in the U.S. and Europe prompted worried governments and agencies to increase the funding for urban research.Sociologist Manuel Castells and geographer David Harvey were two of the theorists influential in developing the new urban sociology.