Holston's interdisciplinary approach is also praised both for its breadth in coverage and it what it communicates to the reader, with reviewers saying "It is also liberally sprinkled with insights gleaned from the author's architectural, planning and anthropological reading." However, this interdisciplinary approach can make it difficult for readers to clearly define the discipline and simultaneously understand his method as stated by Mia Fuller. The book has received some criticism, with Alan Gilbert arguing that "the sections on social and residential segregation are insufficiently based on hard data to satisfy most social scientists." However, Gilbert does not see this issue as undermining his credibility. Another one of Gilbert critiques is that the multiple disciplines used in the work leads to some "reinventing [of] the wheel," making the work repetitive in light of other more specific works in the appropriate subdisciplines.