Regional / urban economics Books

Book SynopsisTrade Review‘This book is essential for everybody who wants a modern overview of theories of regional and urban economics. Not only the beginner, but also the experienced reader has something to learn from Capello’s clear exposition. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the exciting mysteries of spatial economics.’ -- Hans Westlund, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden‘Advanced Introduction to Regional and Urban Economics represents a fascinating journey through the relationship between economic activity and place, looking at regional and urban economics with new eyes. An essential read for all those interested in a fresh and insightful view of the profound impact of space on economic dynamics.’ -- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1 Introduction to Regional and Urban Economics 2 Location theory 3 Regional growth theories: constant returns to scale 4 Local development theories: agglomeration economies 5 Local development theories: innovation and proximity 6 Regional growth theories: increasing returns to scale 7 Conclusion to Regional and Urban Economics References Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review‘This book is essential for everybody who wants a modern overview of theories of regional and urban economics. Not only the beginner, but also the experienced reader has something to learn from Capello’s clear exposition. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the exciting mysteries of spatial economics.’ -- Hans Westlund, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden‘Advanced Introduction to Regional and Urban Economics represents a fascinating journey through the relationship between economic activity and place, looking at regional and urban economics with new eyes. An essential read for all those interested in a fresh and insightful view of the profound impact of space on economic dynamics.’ -- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1 Introduction to Regional and Urban Economics 2 Location theory 3 Regional growth theories: constant returns to scale 4 Local development theories: agglomeration economies 5 Local development theories: innovation and proximity 6 Regional growth theories: increasing returns to scale 7 Conclusion to Regional and Urban Economics References Index

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Book SynopsisWritten by some of the founders of complexity theory and complexity theories of cities (CTC), this Handbook expertly guides the reader through over forty years of intertwined developments: the emergence of general theories of complex self-organized systems and the consequent emergence of CTC.Trade Review'This is a fascinating collection of discussions by leading authors, ranging from philosophical perspectives to conceptual frameworks and mathematical models across many disciplines. A unifying theme is the role of human cognition and decision making, addressed via psychology, uncertainty and risk, evolutionary game theory, behavioral economics and more. The book should be a reference to anyone interested in the history of the field and as a source of ideas for the opportunities (and challenges) of treating cities as complex systems in contrast to less holistic approaches to urban planning and policy.' -- Luis Bettencourt, University of Chicago, USTable of ContentsContents: Introduction to the Handbook on Cities and Complexity 1 Juval Portugali PART I FOUNDATIONS 1 Cities, complexity and beyond 13 Juval Portugali 2 The emergence of complexity theories: an outline 28 Hermann Haken 3 City systems and complexity 48 Michael Batty 4 Major transitions in the story of urban complexity 64 Stephen Marshall and Nick Green PART II COMPLEXITY THEORIES OF CITIES 5 Complexity: the evolution and planning of towns and cities 86 Peter M. Allen 6 Synergetic cities 108 Juval Portugali and Hermann Haken 7 Co-evolution as the secret of urban complexity 136 Denise Pumain 8 Fractal geometry for analyzing and modeling urban patterns and planning sustainable cities 154 Pierre Frankhauser 9 Scaling, fractals and the spatial complexity of cities 176 Yanguang Chen 10 Cybernetic cities: designing and controlling adaptive and robust urban systems 195 Carlos Gershenson, Paolo Santi and Carlo Ratti PART III COMPLEXITY, LANGUAGE AND CITIES 11 New concepts in complexity theory arising from studies in the field of architecture: an overview of the four books of the nature of order with emphasis on the scientific problems which are raised 210 Christopher Alexander 12 The dialectic as driver of complexity in urban and social systems 233 Alan Penn PART IV MODELING COMPLEX CITIES 13 Modelling car traffic in cities 260 Vincent Verbavatz and Marc Barthelemy 14 Studying the dynamics of urban traffic flows using percolation: a new methodology for real-time urban and transportation planning 274 Nimrod Serok, Orr Levy, Shlomo Havlin and Efrat Blumenfeld Lieberthal 15 The simple complex phenomenon of urban parking 295 Itzhak Benenson and Nir Fulman PART V COMPLEXITY, PLANNING AND DESIGN 16 Complexity and uncertainty: implications for urban planning 319 Stefano Moroni and Daniele Chiffi 17 Tailoring nudges to self-organising behavioural patterns in public space 331 Koen Bandsma, Ward S. Rauws and Gert de Roo 18 Evolutionary games in cities and urban planning 349 Sara Encarna..o, Fernando P. Santos, Francisco C. Santos, Margarida Pereira, Jorge M. Pacheco and Juval Portugali 19 Homo faber, Homo ludens and the city: a SIRNIA view on urban planning and design 370 Juval Portugali Epilogue: cities and complexity in the time of COVID-19 391 Hermann Haken, Juval Portugali, Michael Batty, Stephen Marshall, Nick Green, Peter M. Allen, Pierre Frankhauser, Carlos Gershenson, Alan Penn, Vincent Verbavatz, Marc Barthelemy, Daniele Chiffi, Stefano Moroni, Koen Bandsma, Ward S. Rauws and Gert de Roo Index

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Book SynopsisThis interdisciplinary book adopts a multi-level approach to understanding creative cities. David Emanuel Andersson draws on concepts of cultural individualism, generators of diversity and openness to experience to inform policy recommendations.

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Book SynopsisUniversities and colleges often operate between two worlds: higher education and economic systems. With a mission rooted in research, teaching, and public service, institutions of higher learning are also economic drivers in their regions, under increasing pressure to provide skilled workers to local companies. It is impossible to understand how current developments are affecting colleges without attending to the changes in both the higher education system and in the economic communities in which they exist. W. Richard Scott, Michael W. Kirst, and colleagues focus on the changing relations between colleges and companies in one vibrant economic region: the San Francisco Bay Area. Colleges and tech companies, they argue, share a common interest in knowledge generation and human capital, but they operate in social worlds that substantially differ, making them uneasy partners. Colleges are a part of a long tradition that stresses the importance of precedent, academic values, and liberal eTable of ContentsPreface Introduction , by W. Richard Scott, Michael W. Kirst, Manuelito Biag, and Laurel Sipes1. The Changing Ecology of Higher Education in the San Francisco Bay Area, by W. Richard Scott, Manuelito Biag, Ethan Ris, and Brian Holzman2. The Regional Economy of the San Francisco Bay Area, by W. Richard Scott, Bernardo Lara, Manuelito Biag, Ethan Ris, and Judy C. Liang3. Broader Forces Shaping the Fields of Higher Education and the Regional Economy, by W. Richard Scott, Manuelito Biag, Bernardo Lara, and Judy C. Liang4. Diverse Colleges in Varied Sub-Regions, by W. Richard Scott, Ethan Ris, Manuelito Biag, and Bernardo Lara5. Structures and Strategies for Adaptation, by W. Richard Scott, Ethan Ris, Judy C. Liang, and Manuelito Biag6. Policy Perspectives, by Michael W. Kirst, W. Richard Scott, Laurel Sipes, and Anne PodolskyAppendix AAppendix B, by Brian HolzmanReferences Contributors Index

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Book Synopsis Detractors have called it 'The Mistake on the Lake.' It was once America’s 'Comeback City.' According to author J. Mark Souther, Cleveland has long sought to defeat its perceived civic malaise. Believing in Cleveland chronicles how city leaders used imagery and rhetoric to combat and, at times, accommodate urban and economic decline. Souther explores Cleveland''s downtown revitalization efforts, its neighborhood renewal and restoration projects, and its fight against deindustrialization. He shows how the city reshaped its image when it was bolstered by sports team victories. But Cleveland was not always on the upswing. Souther places the city''s history in the postwar context when the city and metropolitan area were divided by uneven growth. In the 1970s, the city-suburb division was wider than ever. Believing in Cleveland recounts the long, difficult history of a city that entered the postwar period as America''s sixth largest, then lost ground Trade Review"In tracing the evolving production of images designed to confirm Cleveland's continued vitality in spite of the urban crisis that enveloped it in the mid-twentieth century, J. Mark Souther unveils the complex relationship between revitalization and decline. By penetrating the unified façade of the city's growth coalition, he reveals how competing approaches and contested perceptions complicated both recovery and public confidence in its success. Believing in Cleveland tests our understanding of how urban stakeholders reacted to decline and offers considerable insight into the perils of addressing revitalization in an important Rust Belt city."—Howard Gillette Jr., Professor Emeritus of History, Rutgers University, and author of Camden after the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-industrial City"Believing in Cleveland makes an important contribution to urban policy scholarship. Instead of starkly alternating accounts of revitalization or decline, Souther shows that decline and resurgence have always coexisted in post–World War II metropolitan life. By including the downtown, residential neighborhoods, and industry in the same history—one that foregrounds citizens' best and worst efforts on behalf of their entire metropolis—this book upends clichés of monolithic, hollow boosterism and an artificial center/suburb divide. Cleveland offers a powerful story in its own right, but most U.S. cities will see themselves reflected in this illuminating mirror." —Alison Isenberg, Professor of History, Princeton University, and author of Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City by the Bay"Believing in Cleveland is a powerful antidote to the simplistic, unidirectional narrative of decline that too often attends accounts of Rust Belt cities. Souther deftly interlaces stories of urban decay and revitalization, civic pessimism and optimism, despair over past mistakes and hope for a brighter future. Best of all, Souther traces these stories through real material spaces of the city. In the process, we see a wide range of actors at work and a city constantly grappling with its status in an urban nation. In this way, Believing in Cleveland sets a new standard for how we tell the story of postwar urban governance, municipal policy, and community development—a story where the richly layered interests of real people manifest in the streets, parks, plazas, and homes of the city."—Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies, The New School, and co-author (with Angela Dietz) of Capturing the City: Photographs from the Streets of St. Louis, 1900–1930"Historian Souther's meticulously researched book reexamines and, in his own word, 'complicate[s]' the understanding of the efforts expended by city politicians, civic leaders, and economic development professionals in their attempts to slow or reverse urban decline since WWII.... Readers will wonder if any of the projects proposed but abandoned would have produced different outcomes. Throughout, Souther maintains a balanced, dispassionate tone.... Summing Up: Highly recommended."—Choice"[A] dense, exhaustively researched history of simultaneous growth and decline in Cleveland from the 1940s to the 1980s.... [Souther's] considered findings make for multiple valuable contributions to the understanding of mid-century urbanism.... Souther's focus on the importance of perceptions of a city, by its citizens and by outsiders, is one of the prime contributions of this book.... By investigating perceptions and their influence, Souther excels in illuminating Cleveland’s recent history."—Journal of Urban Affairs"Souther deals with Cleveland’s sad transformation and the attempts to reverse its fortunes in this deeply researched and well-written book.... [He] presents a nuanced and complex account of the city’s attempts at rebirth over several decades.... highly recommended."— Journal of American History"In his finely detailed and meticulously researched study, [Souther] expertly traces the story of one beleaguered midwestern city’s initiatives to manage decline.... Souther’s work is a valuable resource. It deserves the serious attention of all students of urban America."—Indiana Magazine of History"This kind of project offers important contributions to several subfields of U.S. urban historical scholarship. At one level, Souther’s book provides a rich survey of local economic and policy history, including a source-intensive demonstration of the fractured rather than monolithic nature of postwar metropolitan growth coalitions. At another and perhaps more innovative level, it adds marvelously to the growing scholarly turn toward issues of urban representation and narrative. Indeed, Believing in Cleveland is, in large measure, a sustained close reading of a particular cluster of representational texts (growth coalition revitalization narratives) and the conflicted ways in which various interpretive communities—among others, business tycoons, white suburbanites, downtown theatergoers, and African American neighborhood activists—responded to them."—American Historical Review

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Book Synopsis Detractors have called it 'The Mistake on the Lake.' It was once America’s 'Comeback City.' According to author J. Mark Souther, Cleveland has long sought to defeat its perceived civic malaise. Believing in Cleveland chronicles how city leaders used imagery and rhetoric to combat and, at times, accommodate urban and economic decline. Souther explores Cleveland''s downtown revitalization efforts, its neighborhood renewal and restoration projects, and its fight against deindustrialization. He shows how the city reshaped its image when it was bolstered by sports team victories. But Cleveland was not always on the upswing. Souther places the city''s history in the postwar context when the city and metropolitan area were divided by uneven growth. In the 1970s, the city-suburb division was wider than ever. Believing in Cleveland recounts the long, difficult history of a city that entered the postwar period as America''s sixth largest, then lost ground Trade Review"In tracing the evolving production of images designed to confirm Cleveland's continued vitality in spite of the urban crisis that enveloped it in the mid-twentieth century, J. Mark Souther unveils the complex relationship between revitalization and decline. By penetrating the unified façade of the city's growth coalition, he reveals how competing approaches and contested perceptions complicated both recovery and public confidence in its success. Believing in Cleveland tests our understanding of how urban stakeholders reacted to decline and offers considerable insight into the perils of addressing revitalization in an important Rust Belt city."—Howard Gillette Jr., Professor Emeritus of History, Rutgers University, and author of Camden after the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-industrial City"Believing in Cleveland makes an important contribution to urban policy scholarship. Instead of starkly alternating accounts of revitalization or decline, Souther shows that decline and resurgence have always coexisted in post–World War II metropolitan life. By including the downtown, residential neighborhoods, and industry in the same history—one that foregrounds citizens' best and worst efforts on behalf of their entire metropolis—this book upends clichés of monolithic, hollow boosterism and an artificial center/suburb divide. Cleveland offers a powerful story in its own right, but most U.S. cities will see themselves reflected in this illuminating mirror." —Alison Isenberg, Professor of History, Princeton University, and author of Designing San Francisco: Art, Land, and Urban Renewal in the City by the Bay"Believing in Cleveland is a powerful antidote to the simplistic, unidirectional narrative of decline that too often attends accounts of Rust Belt cities. Souther deftly interlaces stories of urban decay and revitalization, civic pessimism and optimism, despair over past mistakes and hope for a brighter future. Best of all, Souther traces these stories through real material spaces of the city. In the process, we see a wide range of actors at work and a city constantly grappling with its status in an urban nation. In this way, Believing in Cleveland sets a new standard for how we tell the story of postwar urban governance, municipal policy, and community development—a story where the richly layered interests of real people manifest in the streets, parks, plazas, and homes of the city."—Joseph Heathcott, Associate Professor of Urban Studies, The New School, and co-author (with Angela Dietz) of Capturing the City: Photographs from the Streets of St. Louis, 1900–1930"Historian Souther's meticulously researched book reexamines and, in his own word, 'complicate[s]' the understanding of the efforts expended by city politicians, civic leaders, and economic development professionals in their attempts to slow or reverse urban decline since WWII.... Readers will wonder if any of the projects proposed but abandoned would have produced different outcomes. Throughout, Souther maintains a balanced, dispassionate tone.... Summing Up: Highly recommended."—Choice"[A] dense, exhaustively researched history of simultaneous growth and decline in Cleveland from the 1940s to the 1980s.... [Souther's] considered findings make for multiple valuable contributions to the understanding of mid-century urbanism.... Souther's focus on the importance of perceptions of a city, by its citizens and by outsiders, is one of the prime contributions of this book.... By investigating perceptions and their influence, Souther excels in illuminating Cleveland’s recent history."—Journal of Urban Affairs"Souther deals with Cleveland’s sad transformation and the attempts to reverse its fortunes in this deeply researched and well-written book.... [He] presents a nuanced and complex account of the city’s attempts at rebirth over several decades.... highly recommended."— Journal of American History"In his finely detailed and meticulously researched study, [Souther] expertly traces the story of one beleaguered midwestern city’s initiatives to manage decline.... Souther’s work is a valuable resource. It deserves the serious attention of all students of urban America."—Indiana Magazine of History"This kind of project offers important contributions to several subfields of U.S. urban historical scholarship. At one level, Souther’s book provides a rich survey of local economic and policy history, including a source-intensive demonstration of the fractured rather than monolithic nature of postwar metropolitan growth coalitions. At another and perhaps more innovative level, it adds marvelously to the growing scholarly turn toward issues of urban representation and narrative. Indeed, Believing in Cleveland is, in large measure, a sustained close reading of a particular cluster of representational texts (growth coalition revitalization narratives) and the conflicted ways in which various interpretive communities—among others, business tycoons, white suburbanites, downtown theatergoers, and African American neighborhood activists—responded to them."—American Historical Review

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Book SynopsisDesigned to showcase current issues of interest, Pennsylvania Politics and Policy, Volume 2 isthe second reader consisting of updated chapters from recent issues of Commonwealth: A Journal of Pennsylvania Politics and Policy. The editors and contributors to this volume focus on government institutions, election laws, the judiciary, government finance and budgeting, the opioid crisis, childcare, property taxes, environmental policy, demographics, and more. Each chapter is supplemented by discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, and forums with arguments in support of or opposed to contested elements of state policy. In addition, Pennsylvania Politics and Policy, Volume 2 includes a detailed guide to researching state government and policy online, as well as a comprehensive chapter on the structure of Pennsylvania government. It is designed as a text or supplement for college or advanced high school classes in American government, state and local politics, public policy,

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Book SynopsisThe “Pittsburgh Renaissance,” an urban renewal effort launched in the late 1940s, transformed the smoky rust belt city’s downtown. Working-class residents and people of color saw their neighborhoods cleared and replaced with upscale, white residents and with large corporations housed in massive skyscrapers. Pittsburgh’s Renaissance’s apparent success quickly became a model for several struggling industrial cities, including St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia.In A Good Place to Do Business, Roger Biles and Mark Rosechronicle these urban “makeovers” which promised increased tourism and fashionable shopping as well as the development of sports stadiums, convention centers, downtown parks, and more. They examine the politics of these government-funded redevelopment programs and show how city politics (and policymakers) often dictated the level of success.As city officials and business elites deteTrade Review“A Good Place to Do Business brilliantly exposes municipal and business leaders’ decades-long preoccupation with insulating their cities’ downtowns from seismic postwar metropolitan change. They spared no expense, but cities’ most vulnerable citizens paid steeper costs. Through a fresh interpretation of racialized downtown renewal and the people who championed or fought it in five cities, Biles and Rose narrate with precision and clarity an essential but troubling national tale of how myopic, downtown-centered visions for urban revitalization blurred as boosters peered at the city from their gleaming towers.” —J. Mark Souther, Professor of History at Cleveland State University, and author of Believing in Cleveland: Managing Decline in “The Best Location in the Nation”“A Good Place to Do Business is a powerful yet nuanced story told by two of the most important urban historians writing today. Biles and Rose take us on a fascinating tour of the commercial, investment, and political cultures of big city downtowns in the decades following World War II. Along the way, we meet a plethora of actors, from mayors and ward heelers to corporate executives, planners, consultants, union bosses, and neighborhood residents. And we see a wide range of programs, plans, and schemes, some of which take shape in glass and steel, others that remain on the drawing board. At the core of this compelling drama are the racial and class politics of urban America, and the sacrifice of working-class and poor neighborhoods in pursuit of the elusive dream of a downtown renaissance. But the story is not straightforward, and the comparative framework shows different paths and divergent outcomes among Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. It is this comparative approach, and the deft hand of two great scholars, that makes this book an outstanding addition to the literature.”—Joseph Heathcott, Chair of Urban and Environmental Studies at The New School"Bringing new detail to the familiar subject of downtown revitalization, veteran historians Roger Biles and Mark Rose offer a compelling critique of urban policy over time as it privileges physical over human capital and produces a troubling view for the future.... [T]hey offer a deeply researched account demonstrating that no matter how many ways policymakers have privileged downtown revitalization, they have fallen short, even as they have done so primarily at the expense of poor and largely minority residents." —Journal of Urban Affairs "This coauthored volume by two well-published, distinguished professors of urban history exquisitely explores how US urban renewal policy since 1945 historically privileged the 'downtown' invariably to the detriment of minority-occupied city neighborhoods. Focusing on urban renewal programs in five large cities—Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Cleveland—the book employs delectable vignettes of pro-growth, neoliberal politicians, business leaders, and planners and unveils how the leadership within these cities followed—almost religiously—the model of postwar Pittsburgh’s 'renaissance'.... Lucidly explained and well written, this volume has much to offer to urban history scholars and students alike.... Summing Up: Recommended."—Choice"After reading A Good Place to Do Business, I concur with the judgment of urban scholars J. Mark Southern and Joseph Heathcott that the book is 'brilliant' and 'a powerful yet nuanced story.'”—Journal of Planning History

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Book SynopsisThe “Pittsburgh Renaissance,” an urban renewal effort launched in the late 1940s, transformed the smoky rust belt city’s downtown. Working-class residents and people of color saw their neighborhoods cleared and replaced with upscale, white residents and with large corporations housed in massive skyscrapers. Pittsburgh’s Renaissance’s apparent success quickly became a model for several struggling industrial cities, including St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Philadelphia.In A Good Place to Do Business, Roger Biles and Mark Rosechronicle these urban “makeovers” which promised increased tourism and fashionable shopping as well as the development of sports stadiums, convention centers, downtown parks, and more. They examine the politics of these government-funded redevelopment programs and show how city politics (and policymakers) often dictated the level of success.As city officials and business elites deteTrade Review“A Good Place to Do Business brilliantly exposes municipal and business leaders’ decades-long preoccupation with insulating their cities’ downtowns from seismic postwar metropolitan change. They spared no expense, but cities’ most vulnerable citizens paid steeper costs. Through a fresh interpretation of racialized downtown renewal and the people who championed or fought it in five cities, Biles and Rose narrate with precision and clarity an essential but troubling national tale of how myopic, downtown-centered visions for urban revitalization blurred as boosters peered at the city from their gleaming towers.” —J. Mark Souther, Professor of History at Cleveland State University, and author of Believing in Cleveland: Managing Decline in “The Best Location in the Nation”“A Good Place to Do Business is a powerful yet nuanced story told by two of the most important urban historians writing today. Biles and Rose take us on a fascinating tour of the commercial, investment, and political cultures of big city downtowns in the decades following World War II. Along the way, we meet a plethora of actors, from mayors and ward heelers to corporate executives, planners, consultants, union bosses, and neighborhood residents. And we see a wide range of programs, plans, and schemes, some of which take shape in glass and steel, others that remain on the drawing board. At the core of this compelling drama are the racial and class politics of urban America, and the sacrifice of working-class and poor neighborhoods in pursuit of the elusive dream of a downtown renaissance. But the story is not straightforward, and the comparative framework shows different paths and divergent outcomes among Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. It is this comparative approach, and the deft hand of two great scholars, that makes this book an outstanding addition to the literature.”—Joseph Heathcott, Chair of Urban and Environmental Studies at The New School"Bringing new detail to the familiar subject of downtown revitalization, veteran historians Roger Biles and Mark Rose offer a compelling critique of urban policy over time as it privileges physical over human capital and produces a troubling view for the future.... [T]hey offer a deeply researched account demonstrating that no matter how many ways policymakers have privileged downtown revitalization, they have fallen short, even as they have done so primarily at the expense of poor and largely minority residents." —Journal of Urban Affairs "This coauthored volume by two well-published, distinguished professors of urban history exquisitely explores how US urban renewal policy since 1945 historically privileged the 'downtown' invariably to the detriment of minority-occupied city neighborhoods. Focusing on urban renewal programs in five large cities—Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Cleveland—the book employs delectable vignettes of pro-growth, neoliberal politicians, business leaders, and planners and unveils how the leadership within these cities followed—almost religiously—the model of postwar Pittsburgh’s 'renaissance'.... Lucidly explained and well written, this volume has much to offer to urban history scholars and students alike.... Summing Up: Recommended."—Choice"After reading A Good Place to Do Business, I concur with the judgment of urban scholars J. Mark Southern and Joseph Heathcott that the book is 'brilliant' and 'a powerful yet nuanced story.'”—Journal of Planning History

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Book SynopsisIn Small Business and the City, Rafael Gomez, Andre Isakov, and Matt Semansky highlight the power of small-scale entrepreneurship to transform local neighbourhoods and the cities they inhabit.Trade Review'This book provides a rich analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of small firms in a dynamic context like Canada.' -- Alessandra Micozzi Scienze Regionali vol 16:01:2017 "A most useful book, especially for the city planner, urban geographer, and anyone who cares about the future of cities. Relevant case analyses are embedded in a coherent structure that provides practical examples of past successes and failures as well as sensible policy recommendations for the future. Highly recommended." -- David K. Foot, Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, University of Toronto, and author of 'Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift' "Small Business and the City is a plea for a 'small is beautiful' approach to business, urban scale, and public sector decision-making. Gomez, Isakov, and Semansky's evocative descriptions of Business Improvement Areas teach far more about BIAs, their operations, and the thinking of their members than do tables of statistics on these organizations." -- Pierre Filion, Professor, School of Planning, University of Waterloo "Each atomistic transaction between a small business and a customer provides the flare for a rich economic eruption, encompassing spillovers and interactions with other firms, citizens, and the built environment. This book offers a bold explanation of how cities can succeed by nurturing and harnessing these powerful interactions to create dynamic communities and growing economies." -- Kevin Milligan, Associate Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British ColumbiaTable of ContentsForeword, by Michael Thompson Acknowledgments * Introduction: Small Business and City Life Part I: The View from Main Street * The BIA Movement: Setting the Stage for Main Street Revitalization * The View from Main Street Halifax: The Challenge of Being the Big Fish in a Small Pond * The View from Main Street Vancouver: A City Region with an Emerging Sense of Place * The View from Main Street Toronto: The Bottom-Up, Top-Down Conundrum Part II: Unlocking the Potential of Small-Scale Enterprise * The "Art and Science" of Small Business Survival: Lessons in BIA Practice * Of People, Profits, and Place: Lessons in Local Economic Development * Small Business and the Main Street Agenda: Lessons in Public Policy * Recommendations for Making Small-Scale Enterprise a Transformative Force * Conclusion: Cities, Small Business, and Distributed Decision Making Afterword: Or ... Why Staying Small, Local, and Independent Matters to City Life About the Authors Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisIn Small Business and the City, Rafael Gomez, Andre Isakov, and Matt Semansky highlight the power of small-scale entrepreneurship to transform local neighbourhoods and the cities they inhabit.Trade Review'This book provides a rich analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of small firms in a dynamic context like Canada.' -- Alessandra Micozzi Scienze Regionali vol 16:01:2017 "A most useful book, especially for the city planner, urban geographer, and anyone who cares about the future of cities. Relevant case analyses are embedded in a coherent structure that provides practical examples of past successes and failures as well as sensible policy recommendations for the future. Highly recommended." -- David K. Foot, Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, University of Toronto, and author of 'Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift' "Small Business and the City is a plea for a 'small is beautiful' approach to business, urban scale, and public sector decision-making. Gomez, Isakov, and Semansky's evocative descriptions of Business Improvement Areas teach far more about BIAs, their operations, and the thinking of their members than do tables of statistics on these organizations." -- Pierre Filion, Professor, School of Planning, University of Waterloo "Each atomistic transaction between a small business and a customer provides the flare for a rich economic eruption, encompassing spillovers and interactions with other firms, citizens, and the built environment. This book offers a bold explanation of how cities can succeed by nurturing and harnessing these powerful interactions to create dynamic communities and growing economies." -- Kevin Milligan, Associate Professor, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British ColumbiaTable of ContentsForeword, by Michael Thompson Acknowledgments * Introduction: Small Business and City Life Part I: The View from Main Street * The BIA Movement: Setting the Stage for Main Street Revitalization * The View from Main Street Halifax: The Challenge of Being the Big Fish in a Small Pond * The View from Main Street Vancouver: A City Region with an Emerging Sense of Place * The View from Main Street Toronto: The Bottom-Up, Top-Down Conundrum Part II: Unlocking the Potential of Small-Scale Enterprise * The "Art and Science" of Small Business Survival: Lessons in BIA Practice * Of People, Profits, and Place: Lessons in Local Economic Development * Small Business and the Main Street Agenda: Lessons in Public Policy * Recommendations for Making Small-Scale Enterprise a Transformative Force * Conclusion: Cities, Small Business, and Distributed Decision Making Afterword: Or ... Why Staying Small, Local, and Independent Matters to City Life About the Authors Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisExamines the health and nutrition challenges in urban Bangladesh, looking at socioeconomic determinants in general and at health sector governance in particular. Using a mixed methods approach, the study identifies critical areas such as financing, regulation, service delivery, and public environmental health that require policy attention.

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Book SynopsisEste Manual proporciona experiencia para abordar desafíos técnicos, institucionales y financieros con los que se enfrentan tomadores de decisiones sobre proyectos ferroviarios urbanos.

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Book SynopsisHome to the original Fulton Fish Market and then the South Street Seaport Museum, it is one of the last neighborhoods of late 18th- and early 19th-century New York City not to be destroyed by urban development. This book tells the story, from the 1960s to the present, of the South Street Seaport District of Lower Manhattan.Trade Review"South Street Seaport Museum has lived as many lives as the proverbial cat, but it was born feral and has remained so to this day. James Lindgren . . . tracks the promise of what began in the 1960s as a grassroots movement to 1) preserve an evocative and colorful remnant of nineteenth-century New York, 2) let troubled young people use seafaring experiences to rebuild their lives. Lindgren succeeds, here as elsewhere, in evoking the dreams and visions of the organizers, while also making clear the forces arrayed against them" * H- Pennsylvania *"Lindgren does not close the door on the museums future but seems to suggest avenues by which it could still prosper. Its a tale of woe, of intrigue, of manipulative power brokers and competing ideologies, but it is definitely a necessary read for anyone interested in the complex cultural history and politics of New York." * Winterthur Portfolio *"It shouldbe required reading for everyonepoliticians, preservationists, developers, community members, journalists, and museum administratorsinvolved in rethinking how South Street Seaport will be remade in years to come." * The Journal of American History *"Preserving South Street Seaportends on a bittersweet note: the district beautifully restored, but the museum barely noticeable, and the ships under constant threat of being sold off. It is precisely this abrupt, incomplete, and depressing ending that makes this book an active part of the preservation project. It becomes a call to arms, challenging the reader to actively participate in the Seaports existence and to provide a more satisfying conclusion for the story of the South Street Seaport." * Journal of Folklore Research *"The author has done exhaustive research in assembling factual evidence of what went wrong . . . . This cautionary tale informs readers how not to run a museum and is recommended for museum educators, historical preservationists, and New York City history buffs." * Library Journal *"Preserving South Street Seaport, by James M. Lindgren, is the first history of this district - the city's top destination for visitors in the late 1980s - and its maritime museum . . . Lindgren chronicles the battles between preservationists and developers as well as how the tragedies of 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy crushed the area's renewed promise. In a work that features more than 40 archival and contemporary black-and-white photographs, Lindgren reveals the challenges of privatizing urban renewal while also providing a narrative of how a decrepit piece of waterfront rose to become, for a time, a go-to spot for New Yorkers and tourists alike." * NYU Research Digest *"Most New Yorkers think of South Street Seaport as only a touristy shopping mall. But the real South Street Seaport is a historic district with three piers and 11 blocks surrounded by Manhattan's skyscrapers. It's a treasure we must protect." * New York Post *"Since 1997, SUNY professor James M. Lindgren has been researching the history of the South Street Seaport Historic District, the museum that championed its preservation and became its steward, and the complicated relationships that eventually emerged between that organization, the City of New York, the citys economic development offices, and the & Festival Marketplace that was brought to the district in 1983. . . . This timely book will be sure to prove essential as we all work to unravel the Seaports tangled past and set it back on the right path." * New Amsterdam Public Market Association *"The details are overwhelming and fascinating, providing readers a play-by-play rendering of negotiations with politicians, banks, and developers, as well as the often heart-breaking process of acquiring the ships and other artifacts that constitute the Seaport Museum. This eminently readable book, filled with revealing anecdotes, is a red flag to all preservationists aiming to partner with commercial interests. Lindgren demonstrates all too clearly the difficulties of achieving economic viability as a cultural and educational institution, and pointedly questions the lack of sustained support for what could be one of the most important maritime museums. Summing Up: Highly recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: "Salvation on the East River" 1 "Eloquent Reminders of Sailing and Shipbuilding" 2 "The Kind of Civilized Vision That New Yorkers Are Not Supposed to Have" 3 "Ships, the Heart of the Story" 4 "Look at Our Waterfront! Just Look" 5 "A Million People Came Away Better Human Beings" 6 "Shopping Is the Chief Cultural Activity in the United States" 7 "They Tore Down Paradise, and Put Up a Shopping Mall" 8 "The Museum Was Intellectually and Financially Bankrupt" 9 "It's Tough When You Have a Museum in a Mall" 10 "A Ship Is a Hole in the Water into Which You Pour Money" 11 "Sometimes You Just Can't Get a Break" Conclusion: "Nobody Knows That We're Here"Notes Index About the Author

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Book SynopsisThis study combines in one volume a history and sociopolitical analysis of the group now called the Ralliement des Créditistes, and thus explores the dynamics of a contemporary social and political phenomenon – right-wing protest. In the 1960s, the Ralliement des Créditistes, led by the dynamic Réal Caouette, emerged as a major political force in Quebec.What explains the sudden success of this part? What motivated its supporters to join it? How far to the right do the Créditistes fall on the ideological spectrum? What caused the many internal divisions which plagued the party since its founding? In an effort to answer these questions, the author conducted a series of interviews among Créditistes leaders and explored party files, newspapers, and other unpublished materials?The first part of the book describes the ideology of Social Credit and traces the development of the movement from 1936 to the present through two phases: mobilization and consolidation. The se

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Book SynopsisAdvanced countries in all parts of the world are concerned with the geographical unevenness of their development. Canada's preoccupation is with the Atlantic provinces, and for years government departments and agencies have tried to improve the region's economy. However, the evidence suggests that the economic gap between the Atlantic provinces and the rest of Canada has remained remarkably constant.This persistent gap has no shortage of explanations: lack of resources, the cost of transportation, insufficient markets, and a poor supply of skilled labour are problems often mentioned. This study investigates how far these and other factors account for slow industrial development.The author compares two regions of Canada: Quebec and Ontario, which together are considered the industrial leader; and Nova Scotia, the industrial laggard. He compares the costs of inputs for an average manufacturing firm in Nova Scotia from 1946 to 1962 with what those costs would have been ha

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Book SynopsisCities for Profit examines the phenomenon of urban real estate megaprojects in Asiamassive, privately built planned urban developments that have captured the imagination of politicians, policymakers, and citizens across the region. These controversial projects, embraced by elites, occasion massive displacement and have extensive social and economic impacts. Gavin Shatkin finds commonalities and similarities in dozens of such projects in Jakarta, Kolkata, and Chongqing. Shatkin is at the vanguard of urban studies in his focus on real estate. Just as cities are increasingly defined and remapped according to the value of the land under their residents' feet, the lives of city dwellers are shaped and constrained by their ability to keep up with rising costs of urban life. Scholars and policy and planning professionals alike will benefit from Shatkin's comprehensive research. Cities for Profit contains insights from more than 150 interviews, site visits to projects, Trade ReviewCities for Profit is theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich. It provides a comparative lens focusing on the role of the state in Asia's real estate turn. It is an ideal and useful text for graduate-level courses on comparative urbanism, urban politics, international planning, land development, and the state–society relationship. For researchers who are drawn to the merits of comparative urban studies, this book is invaluable. * Journal of Urban Affairs *Scholars, policy makers, and urban planners could benefit from this excellent, comprehensive research. The reading is essential to students and scholars of urban theory and policy, urban studies in Asia, and Asian political economy in general. * Choice *Cities for Profit provides a significant perspective on the current strategies being enacted across urban Asia by political actors. Beyond the specific megaprojects described in the case studies, readers will gain valuable information about the present state of land reforms and urban processes in these countries. Shatkin's careful analysis proves that the local manifestation of neoliberalizing forces is highly varied because of the historically and spatially contingent conditions shaping urban politics. In addition, the role of infrastructure as a significant component for urban megaproject development recurs throughout the book and is a subject that could be developed in further research. In conclusion, Cities for Profit deserves to be read by all researchers interested in the dynamics of contemporary Asian urbanism and the spatial forms that accompany new state strategies. * International Journal of Urban and Regional research *Shatkin's...in-depth analysis of the cases reveals agents maneuvering through, within, and around complex processes and structures; comparison of the cases permits discovery of patterns of similarity and difference. Following Jennifer Robinson, he also moves us beyond the macroforces of global integration and neoliberalism to give equal consideration to the microdynamics of place. * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Origins and Consequences of the Real Estate Turn 2. Comparing State Agendas of Land Monetization 3. Planned Grabs 4. Experiments in Power 5. Chongqing Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisVulnerable Communities examines the struggles of smaller cities in the United States, those with populations between 20,000 and 200,000. Like many larger metropolitan centers, these places are confronting change within a globalized economic and cultural order. Many of them have lost their identities as industrial or commercial centers and face a complex and distinctive mix of economic, social, and civic challenges. Small cities have not only fewer resources but different strengths and weaknesses, all of which differentiate their experiences from those of larger communities.Vulnerable Communities draws together scholars from a broad range of disciplines to consider the present condition and future prospects of smaller American cities. Contributors offer a mix of ground-level analyses and examinations of broader developments that have impacted economically weakened communities and provide concrete ideas for local leaders engaged in redevelopment workTrade ReviewVulnerable Communities belongs on the shelf of any library focused on the future of small cities.[It] makes an important contribution[.] * Journal of Urban Affairs *Table of ContentsVulnerable Communities: An Introduction, by James J. Connolly, Dagney G. Faulk, and Emily J. Wornell Part I: INTERNAL DYNAMICS 1. The Perils of In-Betweenness: Fragmented Growth in a Virginia Small City, by Henry Way 2. Building Civic Infrastructure in Smaller Cities: Lessons from the Boston Fed's Working Cities Challenge on Paving the Way for Economic Opportunity, by Colleen Dawicki 3. Diversity in the Dakotas: Lessons on Intercultural Policies, by Jennifer Erickson 4. Shaking Off the Rust in the America South: Deindustrialization, Abandonment, and Revitalization in Bessemer, Alabama, by William G. Holt Part II: PATTERNS AND STRATEGIES 5. The Economic Fortunes of Small Industrial Cities and Towns: Manufacturing, Place Luck, and the UrbanTransfer Payment Economy, by Alan Mallach 6. Where Do Small Cities Belong? The Case of theMicropolitan Area, by James Matthew Fannin and Vikash Dangal 7. Conceptualizing Shrinking Inner-Ring Suburbs asSmall Cities: Governance in Communities in Transition, by Hannah Lebovits 8. Local Government Responses to Property Tax Caps: An Analysis of Indiana Municipal Governments, by Dagney G. Faulk, Charles Taylor, and Pamela Schaal 9. Asymmetric Local Employment Multipliers, Agglomeration, and the Disappearance of Footloose Jobs, by Michael J. Hicks

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Book SynopsisToday, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.Trade Review"This is a very serious new book about economics and policy written by a team of academics under the leadership of Michael Storper . . . But it is written in a very accessible style, using the structure of a scientific detective story. And it is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of California and cities more broadly."—Jon Christensen, SFGate"The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies is a path-breaking book, both empirically and theoretically. It brings together an impressive array of data that helps explain the divergent economic trajectories of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles region, and provides new theoretical insights on the importance of social networks and knowledge communities in shaping economic growth."—Chris Benner, University of California, Santa Cruz"Throughout history, commerce and cities have invented and paced each other. Once developed, cities entered into competition. Blending the perspectives of history, business, urban planning, and public/private partnership, this lively and exhaustively documented study tells the story of how two representative urban regions—the Bay Area centered on San Francisco and Los Angeles, a metropolitan region unto itself— have carried on this ancient and ever new competition for commerce and hegemony."—Kevin Starr, University of Southern California"A highly original inquiry into the diverging development trajectories of Los Angeles and San Francisco since the 1970s. This book offers exemplary forensic evidence, while at the same time providing a robust theoretical appraisal of regional growth in general."—Allen J. Scott, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles"Storper and his colleagues have crafted a sweeping yet nuanced account of how the economies of metropolitan Los Angeles and San Francisco have steadily diverged over the past several decades. Their interpretation, based on a wealth of data and interviews, has important lessons for many urban regions struggling to maintain or improve their place in the global economy."—Edward J. Malecki, The Ohio State UniversityTable of ContentsContents and Abstracts1The Divergent Development of City Regions chapter abstractEconomic development is geographically uneven; incomes differ widely across places. After a long period during which incomes tended to become more even across cities and regions within developed countries, they are now diverging again. In 1970, the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles regions had very similar per capita incomes; in 2012, Los Angeles was almost 30 percent lower than the Bay Area. Understanding this process of divergence, which is widespread among metropolitan regions around the world, is a window on understanding economic development more generally. 2Divergent Development: The Conceptual Challenge chapter abstractInnumerable forces influence economic development, and research on it uses many different methods and comes from several disciplines. Four theoretical fields that contribute to understanding divergent economic development of city regions are development theory, regional science and urban economics, the new economic geography, and the social science of institutions. Together, they provide a robust framework for understanding convergence and divergence in economic development. 3The Motor of Divergence: High-Wage or Low-Wage specialization chapter abstractThe specialization of urban regions in different tradable industries is the source of significant differences in wages and income levels. Los Angeles was more specialized than San Francisco in 1970 but considerably less specialized in 2010. During this period, San Francisco consolidated its specialization in activities related to information technology, and Los Angeles consolidated its hold on the entertainment industries, but Los Angeles lost many other high-wage specializations it formerly contained, replacing them with low-wage specializations. Los Angeles also lost its lead over San Francisco in innovative sectors, as the latter soared in its per capita patenting rate. All in all, Los Angeles's economy came to have less overall focus and sophistication, while San Francisco's came to have more. 4The Role of Labor in Divergence: Quality of Workers or Quality of Jobs? chapter abstractDifferences in average regional wages between San Francisco and Los Angeles increased from 5 percent in 1970 to 35 percent in 2010. Wage gaps are due partially to increasing differences in the skills of the labor force but are proportionally greater than the increase in skills gaps. Skills gaps themselves must also be explained. Do they emerge as different kinds of people migrate or stay according to different kinds of jobs created in the two regions? Or is it the reverse: people go to the two regions in search of lifestyle amenities and housing, and the two economies diverge by absorbing different kinds of people? This is the key debate in urban labor economics. This chapter shows that the key force in drawing different kinds of labor was an increasing gap in the types of employment available, itself driven by differences in regional economic specialization. 5Economic Specialization: Pathways to Change chapter abstractIndustries, firms, and entrepreneurs in the Bay Area and Los Angeles did not plan the economic divergence of their regions. They faced challenges from the restructuring of the Old Economy and benefited from the opportunities of the New Economy. Their successes and failures widened the income gap between the two regions. This chapter presents comparative case studies of entertainment, aerospace, information technology, logistics, and biotechnology in San Francisco and Los Angeles, showing how they developed differently and shaped specialization, wages, and income divergence in the two regions. 6Economic Development Policies: Their Role in Economic Divergence chapter abstractRegional economic development is shaped by many policies, which are implemented by national governments, regional and state governments, and local governments. But local economic development policies in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area since 1970 had little to do with the economic divergence of these two regions. In reality, many so-called economic development policies have little to do with economic development as such, instead emphasizing land use changes and competition for sales tax revenue rather than industry and job development. Many of the problems with local planning and development policies in the United States in general are exemplified by the comparison of the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles. 7Beliefs and Worldviews in Economic Development: To Which Club Do We Belong? chapter abstractDominant beliefs—those of political and economic entrepreneurs in a position to make policies—over time result in the accretion of an elaborate structure of institutions that determine economic and political performance. This chapter documents the worldviews and beliefs of regional leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles since 1970. In Los Angeles, leaders never developed a consistent vision of the new economy or the region's role in it; in San Francisco, this vision emerged early in the 1980s and was reinforced over time and diffused throughout the region's leadership institutions. Moreover, San Francisco's leadership institutions are stronger and more interconnected than those of Greater Los Angeles, and its political majorities are more consistent over time, leading to more consistent regional policy agendas. 8Seeing the Landscape: The Relational Infrastructure of Regions chapter abstractNetworks of people and organizations create "invisible colleges" in labor markets, industries, communities, and political leadership. They influence who gets access to other people and hence to implementing ideas and finding resources. This chapter measures the corporate, philanthropic, and leadership networks of the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles since 1980. It shows that they had similar starting points in terms of their structure of connections, but that they diverged. Principal firms and industries in Los Angeles became less connected, while in San Francisco they become more closely intertied, with broader and deeper connections among their boards of directors. Networks among scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and firms are much denser in San Francisco than in Greater Los Angeles. There are more industry-building dealmakers in the Bay Area than in Los Angeles. The relational infrastructures of the two regions have become more and more different over time. 9Connecting the Dots: What Caused Divergence? chapter abstractThe sources of economic divergence lie in their divergent levels and types of economic specialization. Specialization is caused by many forces, including lucky breakthroughs in technology, particular powerful individuals, decisions of key firms at critical turning points, and lock-in effects from initial advantages. Most of these forces cannot be predicted or created. But they must find fertile ground, and this ground is prepared by the ability of the regional economy's firms, leaders, and workers to create and absorb the organizational change that is key to new, high-wage industries. Los Angeles and San Francisco are a striking contrast in these abilities, with Los Angeles's firms and leaders persistently returning to Old Economy organizational forms and San Francisco's firms and leaders consistently inventing the organizational forms of the New Economy that become models for the American and world economies as a whole. 10Shaping Economic Development: Policies and Strategies chapter abstractHigh-wage specialization comes from a complex sequence involving entrepreneurship, encouragement by local robust actors or leaders, breakthrough innovations, new organizational practices, the emergence of supportive overall relational infrastructure and networks, the proliferation of new specialized brokers and dealmakers, the diffusion of conventions or rules of thumb for doing business in new ways, and ultimately the consolidation of major firms. What is common to all processes of successful respecialization of a region's economy is the emergence of the right kinds of networks, organizational practices, worldviews, and beliefs for the region's evolving economic specializations. It is crucial to align understandings and change expectations so as to change policy agendas and to open up new forms of private action. When regional conversations are outdated, the process of organizational adjustment is stymied, as it has been in Los Angeles for 40 years. Old conversations must not crowd out new ones. 11Improving Analysis of Urban Regions: Methods and Models chapter abstractThe chapter assesses the contributions of regional science and urban economics, the new economic geography, and the institutional approaches found in economics, sociology, and political science to the analysis of urban economic development. The concept of development clubs should guide empirical identification of city-regions that are in different structural categories and their different constraints and opportunities. Each theory has additional empirical and methodological gaps that can be improved on. If this is done, then the field of comparative regional economic analysis will be able to offer more robust insights into economic development.

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Book SynopsisPoverty as Subsistence explores the "propertizing" land reform policy that the World Bank advocated throughout the transitioning countries of Eurasia, expecting poverty reduction to result from distributing property titles over agricultural land to local (rural) populations. China's early 1980s land reform offered support for this expectation, but while the spread of propertizing reform to post-communist Eurasia created numerous "subsistence" smallholders, it failed to stimulate entrepreneurship or market-based production among the rural poor. Varga argues that the World Bank advocated a simplified version of China's land reform that ignored a key element of successful reforms: the smallholders' immediate environment, the structure of actors and institutions determining whether smallholders survive and grow in their communities. With concrete insights from analysis of the land reform program throughout post-communist Eurasia and multisited fieldwork in Romania and Ukraine, this book details how and why land reform led to subsistence and the mechanisms underpinning informal commercialization.Trade Review"The creation of private property in land on the farms of post-communist Europe and Central Asia failed to produce a class of commercially-minded entrepreneurial farmers. Mihai Varga shows us why. This is a major book on post-communist agrarian change, with important insights of much wider contemporary relevance."—Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Trent University"Poverty as Subsistence is a must read for scholars, policy makers, and development practitioners considering land transfers and market-based solutions to rural poverty. Mihai Varga's timely analysis provides powerful insights on why and how agricultural reforms advocated by the World Bank and other agencies often undermine livelihoods of tightly knit rural economies."—Diana Mincyte, The City University of New York"This book demonstrates that the World Bank failed in post-communist transition by adopting a too narrow and ideological perspective on institutional reforms. It focused too much on creating individual property rights and not enough on the institutional environment of purchasing and distribution. Varga's insightful work reveals the result: that the World Bank reduced post-communist countries to a pre-war model of subsistence agriculture."—Mitchell A. Orenstein, University of Pennsylvania"As a work of sociology and political economy, Poverty as Subsistence adds to the critical studies of agrarian development in the contemporary era and raises new questions for scholars of environment and agrarian change.... Most crucially, the book demonstrates the continual relevance of land reform in agrarian economies and the versatile adaptation and resistance of rural people, showing that land is not simply an interchangeable property in the market but deeply rooted in interpersonal relationships and memory."—Leo Chu, H-EnvironmentTable of ContentsIntroduction: Poverty Reduction through Land Transfers 1. Pro-poor Reforms: The Propertizing Paradigm 2. Pro-poor Land Reform In Eurasia 3. The Reform Continuum: From China to Russia 4. Smallholders: A Fieldwork Study of Resilience and Resistance 5. Resilience: Survival and Growth of Smallholder Agriculture 6. Resistance: Smallholders against Commercialization Conclusions: The Limits of Pro-poor Land Reform

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the practice of “commoning” in urban housing and its necessity for challenging economic injustice in our rapidly gentrifying cities Provoked by mass evictions and the onset of gentrification in the 1970s, tenants in Washington, D.C., began forming cooperative organizations to collectively purchase and manage their apartment buildings. These tenants were creating a commons, taking a resource—housing—that had been used to extract profit from them and reshaping it as a resource that was collectively owned by them. In Carving Out the Commons, Amanda Huron theorizes the practice of urban “commoning” through a close investigation of the city’s limited-equity housing cooperatives. Drawing on feminist and anticapitalist perspectives, Huron asks whether a commons can work in a city where land and other resources are scarce and how strangers who may not share a past or future come together to create and maintain commonly held spaces in the midst of capitalism. Arguing against the romanticization of the commons, she instead positions the urban commons as a pragmatic practice. Through the practice of commoning, she contends, we can learn to build communities to challenge capitalism’s totalizing claims over life. Trade Review"Through interviews and historical research, Amanda Huron gives us an in-depth description of the formation of a housing cooperative in Washington, D.C. in the ’70s and develops a theoretical structure enabling us to generalize this experience to other cities. It is a incisive book that speaks to a vital issue in contemporary politics and social theory."—Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation"Amanda Huron illuminates new ways of thinking what social justice in the City can look like. Her writing is rigorous yet upholds the dignity of the people she studies and their attempts to stake out a right to their city. Carving Out the Commons will be a go-to both for academics and organizers in the coming years."—James Tracy, author of Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes from San Francisco's Housing Wars"Carving Out the Commons offers deep and carefully researched insight into alternative ways to imagine, organize, and enact the urban commons that, if more broadly realized, could improve life for many. This important book should be read by students of the city as well as those trying to make it more socially just."—Nik Heynen, University of Georgia"Investigating urban commons in the context of rapid and increasing urbanization is a critical endeavour. Ultimately, the book argues that the commons, as exemplified by the housing cooperatives, is “a pragmatic practice to be pursued, within and between and against capitalist practices” (page 155). The commons, and particularly urban commons, is a potential pathway to building a post-capitalist world." —Environment & UrbanizationTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction1. What Is the Commons? Merging Two Perspectives2. The Urban Commons: Contradictions of Community, Capital, and the State3. Forged in Crisis: Claiming a Home in the City4. A Decent Grounds for Life: The Benefits of Limited-Equity Cooperatives5. Survival and Collapse: Keeping and Losing Housing Over Time6. Commoning in the Capitalist CityConclusionAcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAn investigation of the practice of “commoning” in urban housing and its necessity for challenging economic injustice in our rapidly gentrifying cities Provoked by mass evictions and the onset of gentrification in the 1970s, tenants in Washington, D.C., began forming cooperative organizations to collectively purchase and manage their apartment buildings. These tenants were creating a commons, taking a resource—housing—that had been used to extract profit from them and reshaping it as a resource that was collectively owned by them. In Carving Out the Commons, Amanda Huron theorizes the practice of urban “commoning” through a close investigation of the city’s limited-equity housing cooperatives. Drawing on feminist and anticapitalist perspectives, Huron asks whether a commons can work in a city where land and other resources are scarce and how strangers who may not share a past or future come together to create and maintain commonly held spaces in the midst of capitalism. Arguing against the romanticization of the commons, she instead positions the urban commons as a pragmatic practice. Through the practice of commoning, she contends, we can learn to build communities to challenge capitalism’s totalizing claims over life. Trade Review"Through interviews and historical research, Amanda Huron gives us an in-depth description of the formation of a housing cooperative in Washington, D.C. in the ’70s and develops a theoretical structure enabling us to generalize this experience to other cities. It is a incisive book that speaks to a vital issue in contemporary politics and social theory."—Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation"Amanda Huron illuminates new ways of thinking what social justice in the City can look like. Her writing is rigorous yet upholds the dignity of the people she studies and their attempts to stake out a right to their city. Carving Out the Commons will be a go-to both for academics and organizers in the coming years."—James Tracy, author of Dispatches Against Displacement: Field Notes from San Francisco's Housing Wars"Carving Out the Commons offers deep and carefully researched insight into alternative ways to imagine, organize, and enact the urban commons that, if more broadly realized, could improve life for many. This important book should be read by students of the city as well as those trying to make it more socially just."—Nik Heynen, University of Georgia"Investigating urban commons in the context of rapid and increasing urbanization is a critical endeavour. Ultimately, the book argues that the commons, as exemplified by the housing cooperatives, is “a pragmatic practice to be pursued, within and between and against capitalist practices” (page 155). The commons, and particularly urban commons, is a potential pathway to building a post-capitalist world." —Environment & UrbanizationTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction1. What Is the Commons? Merging Two Perspectives2. The Urban Commons: Contradictions of Community, Capital, and the State3. Forged in Crisis: Claiming a Home in the City4. A Decent Grounds for Life: The Benefits of Limited-Equity Cooperatives5. Survival and Collapse: Keeping and Losing Housing Over Time6. Commoning in the Capitalist CityConclusionAcknowledgmentsBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisA pathbreaking look at how progressive policy change for economic justice has swept U.S. cities In the 2010s cities and counties across the United States witnessed long-overdue change as they engaged more than ever before with questions of social, economic, and racial justice. After decades of urban economic restructuring that intensified class divides and institutional and systemic racism, dozens of local governments countered the conventional wisdom that cities couldn’t address inequality—enacting progressive labor market policies, from $15 minimum wages to paid sick leave.Justice at Work examines the mutually reinforcing roles of economic and racial justice organizing and policy entrepreneurship in building power and support for policy changes. Bridging urban social movement and urban politics studies, it demonstrates how economic and racial justice coalitions are collectively the critical institution underpinning progressive change. It also shows that urban policy change is driven by “urban policy entrepreneurs” who use public space and the intangible resources of the city to open “agenda windows” for progressive policy proposals incubated through national networks. Through case studies of organizing and policy change efforts in cities including Chicago, Seattle, and New Orleans around minimum wages, targeted hiring, paid time off, fair scheduling, and anti-austerity, Marc Doussard and Greg Schrock show that the contemporary wave of successful progressive organizing efforts is likely to endure. Yet they caution that success is dependent on skillful organizing that builds and sustains power at the grassroots—and skillful policy work inside City Hall. By promoting justice at—and increasingly beyond—work, these movements hold the potential to unlock a new model for inclusive economic development in cities. Trade Review"Marc Doussard and Greg Schrock lucidly expose the ways in which nationally-networked activists have mobilized to win major policy victories that advance class and racial justice in cities across the United States, despite the formidable political challenges of the neoliberal era. This fresh and important contribution illuminates the crucial role of twenty-first century cities as incubators of progressive social change."—Ruth Milkman, author of Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat "This book readjusts the understanding of how and where political agendas are made."—CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction1. The Upside of Globalization: City Power in the Urban Age2. Economic and Racial Justice Coalitions: Diverse Social Movements Challenge Inequality3. Urban Policy Entrepreneurs: Networked Policy Change from the Grassroots4. Organizing for Better Jobs: The Fight for $15 Transforms Urban Politics5. Good Jobs for All: Targeted Hiring Combats Racism at Work6. Justice beyond Work: Sick Days, Fair Schedules, and the Politics of Social Reproduction7. “Wall Street Is a Racist Conspiracy”: Racial Justice and the Fight against AusterityConclusion: The Promising Work of JusticeAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book provides new insights into popular understandings of urbanism by using a wide range of case studies from lesser studied cities across the Global South and Global North to present evidence for the need to reconstruct our understanding of who and what makes urban environments. Myers explores the global hierarchy of cities, the criteria for positioning within these hierarchies and the successes of various policymaking approaches designed specifically to boost a city’s ranking. Engaging heavily with postcolonial studies and Global South thinking, he shows how cities construct one another’s spaces and calls for a new understanding of planetary urbanism that moves beyond Western-centric perspectives.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Rethinking Urbanism from the South Chapter One: Southern Processes of Planetary Urbanization in Hartford Chapter Two: Villages in the City: Patterns of Urbanization in the Pearl River Delta, Dakar and Zanzibar Chapter Three: The Useful and Ornamental Landscapes of British (Post)Colonialism Chapter Four: Submarine Urbanism: Cities People Make in ‘The Here and the Elsewhere’ Chapter Five: ‘The Whole World is Made in China’: Products and Infrastructures of Dis/Connection Chapter Six: Sister Cities: Urban Politics and Policy in a Southern Urban Planet Conclusion

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Book SynopsisFor many younger and lower-income people, housing affordability continues to worsen. Based on the academic research of two distinguished housing economists – and stimulated by working with governments across the world - this wide-ranging book sets out clear theoretical and empirical frameworks to tackle one of today’s most important socio-economic issues. Housing unaffordability arises from complex forces and a prerequisite to effective policy is understanding the causes of rising house prices and rents and the interactions between housing, housing finance and the macroeconomy. The authors challenge many of the conventional wisdoms in housing policy and offer innovative recommendations to improve affordability.Table of ContentsCrisis, What Crisis? Is Housing Really Unaffordable? What Factors Determine Changes in House Prices and Rents? Influences on Household Formation and Tenure Rental Affordability What Determines the Number of New Homes Built? Housing Demand, Financial Markets and Taxation Housing, Affordability and the Macroeconomy Planning and the Assessment of Housing Need and Demand Raising the Level of Provate Housing Construction Subsidizing the Supply of Rental Housing Subsidizing the Housing Costs of Lower-Income Tenants Increasing Home Ownership Where Do We Go from Here?

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Book SynopsisThe Maker City Playbook is a comprehensive case studies and how-to information useful for city leaders, civic innovators, nonprofits, and others engaged in urban economic development. The Maker City Playbook is committed to going beyond stories to find patterns and discern promising practices to help city leaders make even more informed decisions. Maker City Playbook Chapter 1: Introduction and a Call to Action Chapter 2: The Maker movement and Cities Chapter 3: The Maker City as Open Ecosystem Chapter 4: Education and Learning in the Maker City Chapter 5: Workforce Development in the Maker City Chapter 6: Advanced Manufacturing and Supply Chain inside the Maker City Chapter 7: Real Estate Matters in the Maker City Chapter 8: Civic Engagement in the Maker City Chapter 9: The Future of the Maker City Maker City Project is a collaboration between the Kauffman Foundation, the Gray Area for the Arts, and Maker Media.

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Book SynopsisAs the economy and society of China has become more diversified, so have its urban neighborhoods. The last decade has witnessed a surge in collective action by homeowners in China against the infringement of their rights. Research on neighborhood governance is sparse and limited, so this book fills a vital gap in the literature and understanding.The authors reveal how the Chinese authorities have themselves become increasingly sensitive to the potential risk of collective actions becoming destabilizing forces in urban arenas. This thought-provoking book looks at both the theoretical and empirical underpinning of the self-governance of homeowners and their collective action, as well as control mechanisms in neighborhood governance. The book offers a window through which contending issues, such as changing state-society relations, rights-based social movements and the emergence of civil society, can be further explored.Neighborhood governance is a multifaceted concept that cuts across academic disciplines and intersects an array of policy areas. Therefore this book will find a wide audience amongst public and social policy academics, particularly those with an interest in urban studies, governance and Asian cities, as well as politics.Contributors: W. Breitung, H. Chai, J. Chen, L. Chen, Y. Chen, Y. Gui, S. Guo, R. Huang, Y. Jiang, W. Ma, B.L. Read, X. Sun, J. Tang, J. Wang, Y.Wu, N.-M. YipTrade Review‘This book is timely, coming as it does at a time when interest in China’s urban growth remains high (for example, Ren, 2013), and neighbourhood/community governance is increasingly emphasised in many countries, particularly the UK (cf. the 2011 Localism Act). However, as Chapter 2 of the book, written by Benjamin Read, acknowl-edges, Western theories around neighbour-hood governance ‘were created against the backdrop of a pluralist model of societal organization’ (p. 30), with more-or-less independent grassroots activity. That model, certainly in recent years, is not directly trans-ferable to the Chinese context, so this book makes a valuable contribution to developing our knowledge of neighbourhood gover-nance in a specific setting.’ -- John Sturzaker, Town Planning Review‘The editor did a fine job of bringing together a rare collection of research works that demonstrate an excellent understanding of the overall climate of urban governance in China. The book is eloquently presented and should attract a wide audience among the public and social policy researchers interested in China.’ -- Miao Zhang, Institutions and EconomiesTable of ContentsContents Preface 1. Introduction: Neighbourhood Governance in Context Ngai-Ming Yip PART I THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS 2. Theoretical Approaches to Neighbourhood Governance: Searching for Lost Treasure and Comparative Frameworks Benjamin L. Read 3. Neighbourhood Governance and the Creation of Urban Commons in China Limei Chen PART II STATE SOCIETY INTERACTION AT THE GRASSROOTS 4. The Institutionalization of Neighbourhood Governance - Dilemma and Political Hurdles Yong Gui and Weihong Ma 5. Are Residents’ Committees Able to Contain Homeowner Resistance? The Interaction between Residents’ Committees and Homeowners’ Associations Ronggui Huang 6. Loyalist-activist Networks and Institutional Identification in Urban Neighbourhoods Shengli Guo and Xiaoyi Sun PART III INSTITUTIONAL SETUP OF HOMEOWNERS’ ASSOCIATIONS 7. Institutional Innovations in Homeowner Self-governance: Case Study of Beijing Youhong Chen 8. Homeowner Self-governance and its Sustainability: Case Study of A Residential Neighbourhood in Shenzhen Juan Tang, Jianjun Wang and Hongxia Chan PART IV AGENTS OF CHANGE IN THE EMERGING CIVIL SOCIETY 9. Differentiated Neighbourhood Governance in Transitional Urban China: Comparative Study of Two Housing Estates in Guangzhou Werner Breitung 10. The Constructive Significance of Homeowners’ Rightful Protest in China Ying Wu, and Junhua Chen 11. Altering the Rules: Homeowners’ Participation in Legislation Yihong Jiang Index

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a fascinating perspective on why China will very likely continue to play a major role in world export at a time when it is losing its comparative advantage in labor-intensive manufacturing products as a result of rapidly rising labor cost and appreciation of its currency-the secret lies in the fact that China (as the most populous nation) can benefit from increasing returns to scale. However, the author also clearly outlines the enormous challenges ahead of China: to urbanize and integrate most of its rural population as a precondition for China to explore its potential advantage in scale economy through agglomeration effects.'- Guanzhong James Wen, Trinity College, US and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China'This is an original reading by a Chinese economist on the grand topic of China's urbanization. Through gathering a vast amount of raw materials available in Chinese, the book deliberately maintains its indigenous flavour and introduces rich and timely information to the outside world, on topical issues such as household registration (Hukou) reform, fairness of land acquisition, housing price control, forced demolition, urban poverty, traffic congestion and many other topics. The attempt to consider the implications for the world economy, especially on issues such as energy and material consumption, is extremely valuable and much needed.'- Fulong Wu, University College London, UKThis innovative book places China's urbanization within a broader global context, including a detailed estimate of China's total domestic market and its impact on the world economy.Urbanization has become a new driving force in China's development. Through China's urbanization process, China's role in the world economy will change from the world's major workshop to one of the world s central markets. The increase in demand triggered by urbanization has created a tremendous impact in the international market, changing China's international trade patterns, foreign investment and exchange rate. The success of China's urbanization depends on a group of intertwined economic and political reforms, the vision and determinedness of the leadership, cooperation and opposition of the local government, and the attitude of society. This book focuses on the logic and contradictions of China's urbanization and its future, its impact on the world economy, and the policy tradeoffs the Chinese leadership face.Economists, policymakers, academics and students interested in urban policy, international studies, Asian studies and the impact of China's urbanization on the world economy will all have much to learn in this groundbreaking book.Contents: Preface Prologue Part I: China s Urbanization 1. China's Urbanization: History and Facts 2. The Road Map and Logic of China's Urbanization 3. Industrialization and Urban Development 4. Labor Migration 5. Land and Local Government Finance 6. Infrastructure and Housing Construction 7. Social Aspects of Urbanization 8. Other Problems with Urbanization 9. The System of the Cities Part II: China's Impacts on the World Market 10. Overall Estimates and Assumptions 11. Raw Materials and Capital Goods 12. Consumer Market 13. Relocation of Factors: Labor and Capital 14. Macroeconomic Impacts Part III: Choices of China and the World 15. China's Choices 16. The Choices of the Rest of the World Conclusions Reference IndexTrade Review‘This book provides a fascinating perspective on why China will very likely continue to play a major role in world export at a time when it is losing its comparative advantage in labor-intensive manufacturing products as a result of rapidly rising labor cost and appreciation of its currency—the secret lies in the fact that China (as the most populous nation) can benefit from increasing returns to scale. However, the author also clearly outlines the enormous challenges ahead of China: to urbanize and integrate most of its rural population as a precondition for China to explore its potential advantage in scale economy through agglomeration effects.’ -- Guanzhong James Wen, Trinity College, US and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, China‘This is an original reading by a Chinese economist on the grand topic of China’s urbanization. Through gathering a vast amount of raw materials available in Chinese, the book deliberately maintains its indigenous flavour and introduces rich and timely information to the outside world, on topical issues such as household registration (Hukou) reform, fairness of land acquisition, housing price control, forced demolition, urban poverty, traffic congestion and many other topics. The attempt to consider the implications for the world economy, especially on issues such as energy and material consumption, is extremely valuable and much needed.’ -- Fulong Wu, University College London, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface Prologue Part I: China’s Urbanization 1. China’s Urbanization: History and Facts 2. The Road Map and Logic of China’s Urbanization 3. Industrialization and Urban Development 4. Labor Migration 5. Land and Local Government Finance 6. Infrastructure and Housing Construction 7. Social Aspects of Urbanization 8. Other Problems with Urbanization 9. The System of the Cities Part II: China’s Impacts on the World Market 10. Overall Estimates and Assumptions 11. Raw Materials and Capital Goods 12. Consumer Market 13. Relocation of Factors: Labor and Capital 14. Macroeconomic Impacts Part III: Choices of China and the World 15. China’s Choices 16. The Choices of the Rest of the World Conclusions Reference Index

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Book SynopsisAgainst the backdrop of today?s climate of economic globalization and the rapid development of information, this timely book explores the complex concept of competitiveness between cities. The expert contributors illustrate that innovation is a prerequisite for increasing urban competitiveness, and highlight the various ways that urban innovation-based competitiveness can be approached. Themes explored include:? industrial clusters? competitiveness between major cities ? local policy and competition enhancement? governance to combat global climate change? innovation in urban policy and collaboration between cities? cluster theory and cluster-based economic development policy ? the strategic shift towards domestic markets and service enhancement.Scholars and policymakers in the fields of economics, public sector economics, innovation, technology and urban competitiveness will find this book to be an enlightening read.Trade Review‘Social science researchers interested in urban evolution will be interested in this book. City decision-makers will also ?nd the book’s insights into approaches for address-ing city challenges useful. . . The authors succeed in providing valuable analyses based on a set of indexes, case studies, and other methods. The book is especially useful for providing a rich set of details about the progress that cities are making to inform policy through evidence-based analysis.’ -- Stephanie S. Shipp, Science & Public PolicyTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction Ni Pengfei and Zheng Qiongjie PART I: URBAN COMPETITIVENESS 2. Chinese Cities and Global Urban Competitiveness Pengfei Ni, Wei Shaokun, Liu Kai and Zheng Qiongjie 3. Better Cities, Better Planet: Examples of Governing Against climate change from OECD Countries Lamia Kamal-Chaoui and Margo Cointreau 4. The Strategic Shift Toward Domestic Market, Service Enhancement, and Urban Competitiveness in China François Gipouloux PART II: URBAN COMPETITIVENESS AND INNOVATION 5. Enhancing the Innovation Based Urban Competitiveness Guido Ferrari 6. Enhancing Urban Competitiveness through Innovative Growth Clusters Leo Van Den Berg, Erik Braun and Wiliem Van Winden 7. Innovation in Urban Policy; Collaboration Rather than Competition between Cities William F. Lever 8. What Can Cities Do to Enhance Competitiveness? Local Policies and Actions for Innovation Zhang Ming PART III: WORLD CITIES 9. Competition and Cooperation between Cities in Globalization Peter Taylor 10. Global Power City Index-Comprehensive Power of Cities to Enhance their Competitiveness Hiroo Ichikawa 11. Urban Development in Hong Kong and its Regional Integration with Pearl River Delta 1978–2009 Shen Jianfa PART IV: URBAN COMPETITIVENESS AND INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS 12. A Development Officer’s Guide to Clusters Peter Karl Kresl 13. Cultural Policies and Local Development Strategies: The Cultural District of Caserta, Italy Stefano Mollica 14. Economic Competitiveness, Clusters, and Cluster-Based Development Hal Wolman 15. Urban Competitiveness and Industrial Clusters in Mexico Janime Sobrino Afterwords

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Book Synopsis'This book, although relatively short, is a tour de force. The book is elegantly written, offering a persuasive narrative in which the arguments and the prose flow smoothly from one theme to another. The reader is pulled along various lines of argument running parallel, but ultimately these are brought back together in a concluding synthesis. This is a superb book. I know of no other recent volume with a similar broad scope, internal cohesion, and argumentative rigour, as well as persuasive writing style. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in global economic transformations and the expanded role of global city regions.'- Larry S. Bourne, Canadian Studies in PopulationThis innovative volume offers an in-depth analysis of the many ways in which new forms of capitalism in the 21st century are affecting and altering the processes of urbanization.Beginning with the recent history of capitalism and urbanization and moving into a thorough and complex discussion of the modern city, this book outlines the dynamics of what the author calls the third wave of urbanization, characterized by global capitalism s increasing turn to forms of production revolving around technology-intensive artifacts, financial services, and creative commodities such as film, music, and fashion. The author explores how this shift toward a cognitive and cultural economy has caused dramatic changes in the modern economic landscape in general and in the form and function of world cities in particular. Armed with cutting-edge research and decades of expertise, Allen J. Scott breaks new ground in identifying and explaining how the cities of the past are being reshaped into a complex system of global economic spaces marked by intense relationships of competition and cooperation.Professors and students in areas such as geography, urban planning, sociology, and economics will find much to admire in this pioneering volume, as will journalists, policy-makers, and other professionals with an interest in urban studies.Trade Review'This is vintage Allen Scott, but also a tour d horizon of the state of urban studies, 2012, by one of its foremost global practitioners: compulsory reading.' --Peter Hall, University College London, UK'In this book, Allen Scott enriches his longstanding research into the ways in which city-regions function as the main economic engines of global capitalism. The end result is a seminal synthesis of how city-regions are increasingly enchained with one another in intensifying relations of competition and cooperation, and is a must-read for students and scholars alike.' --Ben Derudder, Monash University, Australia and Ghent University, Belgium'Scott's book is a remarkable treatment of the emerging global economy, weaving together the frontiers of technology and the ways in which labor is managed and surplus created with the cities of tomorrow. His book challenges conventional notions of the 'global city' to provide a more nuanced account of the ways in which the emerging cultural-cognitive economy of the 21st century is producing urban landscapes. His conception of the city of tomorrow is informed by deep knowledge of the contemporary city around the world and provides the reader with the conceptual building blocks to re-frame how we think about urbanization now and in the future.' --Gordon L. Clark, University of Oxford, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1. A Brief Historical Geography of Capitalism 2. On Urbanization and Urban Theory 3. Toward a New Economy: Technology, Labor, Globalization 4. Economic Geography and the World System 5. Emerging Cities of the Third Wave 6. Human Capital and the Urban Hierarchy 7. Symbolic Analysts and the Service Underclass 8. Social Milieu and Built Form of the City 9. Interstitial Geographies: The Cultural Economy of Landscape 10. Cosmopolis 11. Brave New World? References Index

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Book SynopsisIn this bold, exciting and readable volume, Paul Cheshire, Max Nathan and Henry Overman illustrate the insights that recent economic research brings to our understanding of cities, and the lessons for urban policy-making. The authors present new evidence on the fundamental importance of cities to economic wellbeing and to the enrichment of our lives. They also argue that many policies have been trying to push water uphill and have done little to achieve their stated aims; or, worse, have had unintended and counterproductive consequences.It is remarkable that our cities have been so successful despite the many shortcomings of urban policies and governance. These shortcomings appear in both rich and poor countries. Many powerful policies intended to influence urban development and spatial differences have been developed since the late 1940s, but they have been subject to little rigorous economic evaluation. The authors help us to understand why economic growth has emerged so unevenly across space and why this pattern persists. The failure to understand the forces leading to uneven development underlies the ineffectiveness of many current urban policies. The authors conclude that future urban policies need to take better account of the forces that drive unevenness and that their success should be judged by their impact on people, not on places - or buildings.This groundbreaking book will prove to be an invaluable resource and a rewarding read for academics, practitioners and policymakers interested in the economics of urban policy, urban planning and development, as well as international studies and innovation.Contents: Foreword by Ed Glaeser 1. Introduction 2. Urban Economic Performance 3. Residential Segregation and People Sorting Within Cities 4. Planning for a Housing Crisis: Or the Alchemy by Which We Turn Houses into Gold 5. Planning and Economic Performance 6. Planning: Reforms that Might Work and Ones that Wont 7. Devolution, City Governance and Economic Performance 8. Urban Policies 9. Conclusions IndexTrade ReviewUrban Economics and Urban Policy pulls together cutting-edge developments in urban and regional economics and draws out their implications for urban policy. This new urban economics goes beyond simple comparative advantage and cost competitiveness of cities, and beyond simple views of capital and labor. It develops a much more complex and realistic view of what constitutes local advantage, due to the spatial sorting of different types of people and different types of firms, giving rise to a lumpy landscape of people, activities, and incomes. By taking seriously the new ways we understand the forces shaping the geography of economic development, the authors suggest fresh new ways to work with the grain of markets, but without letting them rip. It is a tour de force.' --Michael Storper, London School of Economics, UK'Paul Cheshire, Max Nathan, and Henry Overman recognize the large disconnect between urban economics and urban policy, and their book is intended to help bridge that gap. It is the authors' general contention that ''urban economists have to date contributed very little to the development and evaluation of real-world urban policy'' (p. 1). While I think there are some notable counterexamples to which I return below, I largely agree with this claim. In addition, the authors believe that urban economics, particularly modern urban economics, has much value to add to policy making. Here, I think the case is less clear-cut, but the authors present it well. Given the authors' purpose, readers of this book can expect a nontechnical summary of recent research in urban economics, with a clear and complete explanation of what it implies for urban policymaking. This is precisely what the authors deliver, so readers should not expect new findings from this extremely accomplished research team; instead they get careful synthesis, interpretation,and policy recommendations. As such the book will be of most value to students and practitioners in fields that do have a lot of influence in urban policy, especially planning and government.' --Andrew Haughwout, Journal of Regional Science'The book is among the most effective critiques of contemporary urban planning thought, characterized by such approaches as urban containment, compact city, and densification.' --Wendell Cox, New GeographyTable of ContentsContents: Foreword by Ed Glaeser 1. Introduction 2. Urban Economic Performance 3. Residential Segregation and People Sorting Within Cities 4. Planning for a Housing Crisis: Or the Alchemy by Which We Turn Houses into Gold 5. Planning and Economic Performance 6. Planning: Reforms that Might Work and Ones that Won’t 7. Devolution, City Governance and Economic Performance 8. Urban Policies 9. Conclusions Index

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Book Synopsis'This collection of essays provides a rich assortment of methods used to investigate the complex economic, social, environmental, demographic and political systems in cities throughout the world. It gives researchers, lecturers and students a useful taste of the different ways of studying these phenomena in diverse urban settings.'- Ivan Turok, University of Glasgow, UKIn this timely Handbook, more than 17 renowned contributors from Asia, the Americas and Europe provide chapters that deal with some of the most intriguing and important aspects of research methodologies on cities and urban economies.The Handbook comprises five parts: methodology, continental distinctions, positioning cities, planning for the future, and urban structures. The 'methodologies' section includes interviews, empirical and theoretical approaches whilst 'continental distinctions' offers contributions on China, North America, Europe, Latin America and South Africa. 'Positioning' treats cities in the international context and relates them to economic and administrative spaces whilst 'planning' includes general strategic economic planning, as well as the experience of individual cities. Finally, the 'structures' section refers to contextual and situational aspects of urban development.Providing a comprehensive study of urban development and competitiveness, this Handbook will strongly appeal to students wishing to gain a deeper understanding of research methods in urban economics, urban studies and planning.Contributors: J.A. Annema, D. Arribas-Bel, A. Battaglia, R. Boix, J.M.P. da Cunha, J. Duminy, E.H. Fry, V. Galletto, K. Kourtit, P.K. Kresl, W.F. Lever, J.L. Lezama, Q. Li, J.F. McDonald, P. Ni, P. Nijkamp, N. Odendaal, I. Orihuela, A. Otgaar, H. Priemus, S. Ronda, C. Salone, J. Sobrino, D.-G. Tremblay, J. Trullén, V. Ugalde, L. van den Berg, B. van Wee, V. WatsonTrade ReviewIt is obvious that cities have long been the focus if analysis by the scholars and practitioners whose writings published in the Kresl-Sobrino Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Urban Economies. The depth and excellence of the numerous topics examined reflects effective networking between the scholars involved, their analyses of approaches, problems and potentials of cities on the numerous continents, and the continuing role of the Global Urban Competitiveness Project in encouraging the development of methodologies and data helpful in understanding the hard and soft determinants of the growth and decline of cities. --Pierre-Paul Proulx, Universite de Montreal, CanadaI highly recommend students, teachers and researchers to enjoy reading this set of excellent papers. --Boris Graizbord, El Colegio de MexicoTable of ContentsContents: Introduction PART I: BASIC METHODOLOGIES FOR RESEARCHING CITIES 1. City Makers, Federal Interventions and Territorial Organization: The Case of Mexico Vincente Ugalde and Stéphanie Ronda 2. Empirical Approaches to Urban Competitiveness Analysis Peter Karl Kresl 3. Comparative Urban Studies in Europe: An Introduction to the Euricur Method Alexander Otgaar and Leo van den Berg PART II: CONTINENTAL DISTINCTIONS 4. Analysis of Urban Well-being and its Influencing Factors in the Spatial Distribution in China Ni Pengfei, Qingbin Li and Chao Li 5. A Comparative Approach to Doing Research on Cities: Comparing North American Cities to Others Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay and Angélo Battaglia 6. Questions and Challenges in Studies on Latin-American Cities José Marcos Pinto da Cunha 7. Doing Research in African Cities: The Case Study Method James Duminy, Vanessa Watson and Nancy Odendaal PART III: POSITIONING CITIES 8. Relating Cities to their International Context Earl H. Fry 9. Defining the Urban Economic and Administrative Spaces Carlo Salone 10. An Insight on the Unit of Analysis in Urban Research Joan Trullén, Raphael Boix and Vittorio Galletto PART IV: PLANNING FOR THE FUTURES 11. Evaluation of Strategic Planning Exercises Peter Karl Kresl 12. Imagining the Future of an Individual City John F. McDonald 13. The Limits of Environmental Management in the Mexico Megacity: The Air Pollution Case José Luis Lezama PART V: URBAN STRUCTURES 14. Urban Demographic Growth: The Case of Megacities Jaime Sobrino 15. Evaluating the Urban Milieu of an Individual City William F. Lever 16. Analysing Internal Migration Pathways in Mexico Jaime Sobrino 17. Model Building for Infrastructure Initiatives Bert van Wee, Jan Anne Annema and Hugo Priemus 18. Local Public–Private Relationships for Economic Development in Mexico: A Qualitative Analysis Isela Orihuela 19. The Creative Urban Diaspora Economy: A Disparity Analysis Among Migrant Entrepreneurs Karima Kourtit, Peter Nijkamp and Daniel Arribas-Bel Index

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Book SynopsisnullTrade Review'Iammarino and McCann bring together their own wide-ranging research into multinationals, as well as industrial clusters, the shed light into how firms are developing new strategies aimed at gaining access to strategic knowledge and technology in particular subnational locations, typically world cities that are linked into global innovation networks.' -- David W. Edgington, Economic Geography‘This book on multinationals and economic geography by two world leading economic geographers is a landmark that provides an integrated and dynamic perspective on the economic geography of the multinational enterprise. . . This book is an absolute “must-read” for any scholar and any student that is interested in multinationals and their location.’ -- Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and Lund University, Sweden'...the authors adopt a rigorous textbook approach, with a particularly detailed coverage of relevant empirical studies and findings of recent trends and phenomena...The convergence of ideas and arguments between IB and economic geography, the combination of which is intended to jointly develop a more holistic understanding of economic activity dispersed across space, has de?nitely taken off, and this book most certainly constitutes an invaluable toolkit for anyone wishing to contribute to this emerging and vibrant area of IB scholarship.' -- Lucia Piscitello, Journal of International Business Studies‘. . . the authors must be highly credited as being among the few economic geographers and regional scientists next to scholars from the international business and management fields responsible for building sustainable bridges across various disciplines with regards to developing a spatial MNE research. Therefore, the book offers an exceptional read and a brilliant conceptual and empirical analysis based on two decades of the authors’ own work with manifold astonishing examples framed by illustrative and informative boxes and features with current data useful for application to everyone interested in MNE in general, and to a wide array of academic scholars from economics, organisational studies, management science as well as international business and economic geography in particular. Ultimately, the book presents an important milestone towards a more balanced three-legged stool of MNE research with reference to the location dimension.’ -- Lech Suwala, Regional Studies‘The world economy is subject to a rapidly increasing globalization, and multinational enterprises are their major driving force. This brand new book on multinationals and economic geography by two world leading economic geographers is a landmark that provides an integrated and dynamic perspective on the economic geography of the multinational enterprise. To fully understand this process of globalization, the book explains forcefully and persuasively that one needs a dynamic perspective on multinational enterprises that brings together disparate literatures on economic geography, knowledge and innovation, global network cities, and international business and management. Embedding it in modern theory of innovation and geography, the book provides not only a state-of-the-art of theories and empirics on the location of multinationals, but goes far beyond that. This book is an absolute “must-read” for any scholar and any student that is interested in multinationals and their location.’ -- Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Lund University, Sweden‘Despite often playing second fiddle to clusters in the economic geography literature, multinationals are fundamental drivers of economic development. As generators and diffusers of knowledge they have played an essential role in shaping the new world economic order. No book captures this better than Simona Iammarino and Philip McCann’s Multinationals and Economic Geography, a must read for anyone eager to fully understand the new economic geography of globalisation.’ -- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UKTable of ContentsContents: Introduction: Multinational Enterprises, Innovation and Geography in Todays’ Globalized World Part I: Multinationals, Location and Innovation: Foundations and Extensions 2. Old and New(er) Theories of Multinational Enterprises: Selected Perspectives and the Search for Location 3. Firm Location Behaviour in Theory: Extensions to Multiplant and Multinational Firms 4. The Sources of Innovation: The Firm and the Local System Part II: Multinationals and the Changing Economic Geography of Globalization 5. Multinationals, Variety of Geographies and Evolution 6. Globalization and Multinationals in a Historical Process 7. Multinationals, Connectivity and Global Cities 8. Multinationals, Emerging Economies and the Changing Economic Geography 9. Conclusions: Review of the Arguments and Implications for Future Research Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisnullTrade Review'Iammarino and McCann bring together their own wide-ranging research into multinationals, as well as industrial clusters, the shed light into how firms are developing new strategies aimed at gaining access to strategic knowledge and technology in particular subnational locations, typically world cities that are linked into global innovation networks.' -- David W. Edgington, Economic Geography‘This book on multinationals and economic geography by two world leading economic geographers is a landmark that provides an integrated and dynamic perspective on the economic geography of the multinational enterprise. . . This book is an absolute “must-read” for any scholar and any student that is interested in multinationals and their location.’ -- Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and Lund University, Sweden'...the authors adopt a rigorous textbook approach, with a particularly detailed coverage of relevant empirical studies and findings of recent trends and phenomena...The convergence of ideas and arguments between IB and economic geography, the combination of which is intended to jointly develop a more holistic understanding of economic activity dispersed across space, has de?nitely taken off, and this book most certainly constitutes an invaluable toolkit for anyone wishing to contribute to this emerging and vibrant area of IB scholarship.' -- Lucia Piscitello, Journal of International Business Studies‘. . . the authors must be highly credited as being among the few economic geographers and regional scientists next to scholars from the international business and management fields responsible for building sustainable bridges across various disciplines with regards to developing a spatial MNE research. Therefore, the book offers an exceptional read and a brilliant conceptual and empirical analysis based on two decades of the authors’ own work with manifold astonishing examples framed by illustrative and informative boxes and features with current data useful for application to everyone interested in MNE in general, and to a wide array of academic scholars from economics, organisational studies, management science as well as international business and economic geography in particular. Ultimately, the book presents an important milestone towards a more balanced three-legged stool of MNE research with reference to the location dimension.’ -- Lech Suwala, Regional Studies‘The world economy is subject to a rapidly increasing globalization, and multinational enterprises are their major driving force. This brand new book on multinationals and economic geography by two world leading economic geographers is a landmark that provides an integrated and dynamic perspective on the economic geography of the multinational enterprise. To fully understand this process of globalization, the book explains forcefully and persuasively that one needs a dynamic perspective on multinational enterprises that brings together disparate literatures on economic geography, knowledge and innovation, global network cities, and international business and management. Embedding it in modern theory of innovation and geography, the book provides not only a state-of-the-art of theories and empirics on the location of multinationals, but goes far beyond that. This book is an absolute “must-read” for any scholar and any student that is interested in multinationals and their location.’ -- Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Lund University, Sweden‘Despite often playing second fiddle to clusters in the economic geography literature, multinationals are fundamental drivers of economic development. As generators and diffusers of knowledge they have played an essential role in shaping the new world economic order. No book captures this better than Simona Iammarino and Philip McCann’s Multinationals and Economic Geography, a must read for anyone eager to fully understand the new economic geography of globalisation.’ -- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UKTable of ContentsContents: Introduction: Multinational Enterprises, Innovation and Geography in Todays’ Globalized World Part I: Multinationals, Location and Innovation: Foundations and Extensions 2. Old and New(er) Theories of Multinational Enterprises: Selected Perspectives and the Search for Location 3. Firm Location Behaviour in Theory: Extensions to Multiplant and Multinational Firms 4. The Sources of Innovation: The Firm and the Local System Part II: Multinationals and the Changing Economic Geography of Globalization 5. Multinationals, Variety of Geographies and Evolution 6. Globalization and Multinationals in a Historical Process 7. Multinationals, Connectivity and Global Cities 8. Multinationals, Emerging Economies and the Changing Economic Geography 9. Conclusions: Review of the Arguments and Implications for Future Research Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'This book, although relatively short, is a tour de force. The book is elegantly written, offering a persuasive narrative in which the arguments and the prose flow smoothly from one theme to another. The reader is pulled along various lines of argument running parallel, but ultimately these are brought back together in a concluding synthesis. This is a superb book. I know of no other recent volume with a similar broad scope, internal cohesion, and argumentative rigour, as well as persuasive writing style. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in global economic transformations and the expanded role of global city regions.'- Larry S. Bourne, Canadian Studies in PopulationThis innovative volume offers an in-depth analysis of the many ways in which new forms of capitalism in the 21st century are affecting and altering the processes of urbanization.Beginning with the recent history of capitalism and urbanization and moving into a thorough and complex discussion of the modern city, this book outlines the dynamics of what the author calls the third wave of urbanization, characterized by global capitalism s increasing turn to forms of production revolving around technology-intensive artifacts, financial services, and creative commodities such as film, music, and fashion. The author explores how this shift toward a cognitive and cultural economy has caused dramatic changes in the modern economic landscape in general and in the form and function of world cities in particular. Armed with cutting-edge research and decades of expertise, Allen J. Scott breaks new ground in identifying and explaining how the cities of the past are being reshaped into a complex system of global economic spaces marked by intense relationships of competition and cooperation.Professors and students in areas such as geography, urban planning, sociology, and economics will find much to admire in this pioneering volume, as will journalists, policy-makers, and other professionals with an interest in urban studies.Trade Review'This is vintage Allen Scott, but also a tour d horizon of the state of urban studies, 2012, by one of its foremost global practitioners: compulsory reading.' --Peter Hall, University College London, UK'In this book, Allen Scott enriches his longstanding research into the ways in which city-regions function as the main economic engines of global capitalism. The end result is a seminal synthesis of how city-regions are increasingly enchained with one another in intensifying relations of competition and cooperation, and is a must-read for students and scholars alike.' --Ben Derudder, Monash University, Australia and Ghent University, Belgium'Scott's book is a remarkable treatment of the emerging global economy, weaving together the frontiers of technology and the ways in which labor is managed and surplus created with the cities of tomorrow. His book challenges conventional notions of the 'global city' to provide a more nuanced account of the ways in which the emerging cultural-cognitive economy of the 21st century is producing urban landscapes. His conception of the city of tomorrow is informed by deep knowledge of the contemporary city around the world and provides the reader with the conceptual building blocks to re-frame how we think about urbanization now and in the future.' --Gordon L. Clark, University of Oxford, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1. A Brief Historical Geography of Capitalism 2. On Urbanization and Urban Theory 3. Toward a New Economy: Technology, Labor, Globalization 4. Economic Geography and the World System 5. Emerging Cities of the Third Wave 6. Human Capital and the Urban Hierarchy 7. Symbolic Analysts and the Service Underclass 8. Social Milieu and Built Form of the City 9. Interstitial Geographies: The Cultural Economy of Landscape 10. Cosmopolis 11. Brave New World? References Index

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Book SynopsisIn a world which increasingly requires place-based approaches to economic development, Regional Competitiveness and Smart Specialization in Europe offers a new methodology and a framework in order to promote the smart specialization of territories. Rich in examples and evidence, the book is an essential tool for the design of sound development strategies and a must read for policy-makers and development practitioners.'- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UKRegions economically differ from each other - they compete in different products and geographical spaces, exhibit different strengths and weaknesses, and provide different possibilities for growth and development. What fosters growth in one region may hamper it in another. This highly original book presents an accessible methodology for identifying competitors and their particular circumstances in Europe, discusses regional competitiveness from a conceptual perspective and explores both past and future regional development policies in Europe.The authors illustrate that for the concept of regional competition to be valued correctly it should not solely be identified by the structural asset characteristics of cities and regions. They therefore present a unique applied analytic framework that takes into account economically valued network relations between places of (mobile) production factors and traded goods. Underpinned with thorough analysis and theory, the framework uses actual networks of competing and economically valued relations between regions to help develop smart specialization strategies that are central in the place-based policy initiatives of the new European cohesion policy.This path-breaking book presents a crucial contribution to the current academic discussion on regional competitiveness and the policy debate on smart specialization, place-based development and cohesion policy in the European Union. As such it will prove an invaluable read for academics, researchers, students and policy-makers with an interest in economics - particularly applied regional economics, European studies and regional studies.Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Smart Specialization, Regional Innovation Systems and EU Cohesion Policy by Philip McCann and Raquel Ortega-Argilés 3. Regional Economic Development and Competitiveness 4. Clustering and Specialization in European Regions 5. Revealed Competition in European Regions 6. Dynamics in Revealed Regional Competition between Firms in Europe 7. A Smart Specialization Strategy: Locational and Network Determinants of International Competitiveness 8. Conclusion: One Size Fits Only One in Place-based Regional Policy Appendix: European Regional Trade Flows Bibliography IndexTrade Review‘In a world which increasingly requires place-based approaches to economic development, Regional Competitiveness and Smart Specialization in Europe offers a new methodology and a framework in order to promote the smart specialization of territories. Rich in examples and evidence, the book is an essential tool for the design of sound development strategies and a must read for policy-makers and development practitioners.’ -- Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UKTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction 2. Smart Specialization, Regional Innovation Systems and EU Cohesion Policy by Philip McCann and Raquel Ortega-Argilés 3. Regional Economic Development and Competitiveness 4. Clustering and Specialization in European Regions 5. Revealed Competition in European Regions 6. Dynamics in Revealed Regional Competition between Firms in Europe 7. A Smart Specialization Strategy: Locational and Network Determinants of International Competitiveness 8. Conclusion: One Size Fits Only One in Place-based Regional Policy Appendix: European Regional Trade Flows Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a comprehensive view of global urban competitiveness, offers a useful methodology for its comparative study in different socioeconomic and territorial contexts, and is supplemented with reflections and case studies from around the world. Reading it is highly recommended to understand contemporary patterns in industrial and services location among cities, and the effects of such spatial concentration in the urban labor markets and in the quality of life of the urban population.'- Jaime Sobrino, El Colegio de México'Theoretically informed contributions to this empirically rich text introduce a timely critical perspective to the urban competitiveness literature, emphasizing that the notion of competitiveness applied in economic analysis cannot be conferred simplistically on city relations. A range of environmental, cohesion, technological innovation, cultural diversity and governance alongside business and GDP empirics presented in the book points to the complexity of contemporary cities and the diversity of processes that define their distinctive roles in global networks and circuits. The book illustrates the danger of competitive interpretations of global rankings, paving the way for new research agendas focusing on fine-grained city relational analyses.'- Kathy Pain, University of Reading, UKAcclaim for previous edition:'If you believe that the world economy is composed of cities vying with one another for capital investment, creative individuals, and high-performance firms, then you might be curios about which cities are most successful. To find out, you will need to consult this book. . . This reference work is thorough in its coverage.'- R.A. Beauregard, ChoiceThe Global Urban Competitiveness Report 2013 is an empirical study and evaluation of the sustainable competitiveness of 500 cities around the world from regional, national and other perspectives. This one-of-a-kind resource draws on a wealth of data sources, all of which are described and assessed, and involve urban economics, geography, urban studies, regional economics and many other fields. Using a sophisticated methodology and a team of 100 researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the book not only ranks these cities but also presents a treasury of information with regard to the strengths and weaknesses of each city in relation to each other.Included is a full discussion on the structure, trends and determinants of global urban development, prosperity and competitiveness, and comments on the policies and initiatives that are adopted by the most competitive cities. Chapters written by eminent scholars and researchers from organizations such as the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, World Bank and OECD analyze key problems in sustainable urban competitiveness. The research shows how global cities can improve their competitiveness and the analysis reveals that global urban competitiveness has increased overall, the highlight being emerging economy cities. The comprehensive and concise index system and valuation method, and stable and reliable data, provide an accurate reflection on many aspects of a city and its competitiveness.Scholars and researchers in the areas of urban economics, planning, geography and regional economics will find the information invaluable, as will local authorities, decision-makers and economic planners in cities throughout the world.Contributors include: M. Cointreau, L. Kamal-Chaoui, P.K. Kresl, C. Li, M. Li, Q. Li, K. Liu, W. Liu, P. Ni, B. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, S. Sassen, P.J. Taylor, X. Wang, J. Wei, S. Wei, J. Yang, X. Yang, A. ZhangTrade Review‘This book provides a comprehensive view of global urban competitiveness, offers a useful methodology for its comparative study in different socioeconomic and territorial contexts, and is supplemented with reflections and case studies from around the world. Reading it is highly recommended to understand contemporary patterns in industrial and services location among cities, and the effects of such spatial concentration in the urban labor markets and in the quality of life of the urban population.’ -- Jaime Sobrino, El Colegio de México‘Theoretically informed contributions to this empirically rich text introduce a timely critical perspective to the urban competitiveness literature, emphasizing that the notion of competitiveness applied in economic analysis cannot be conferred simplistically on city relations. A range of environmental, cohesion, technological innovation, cultural diversity and governance alongside business and GDP empirics presented in the book points to the complexity of contemporary cities and the diversity of processes that define their distinctive roles in global networks and circuits. The book illustrates the danger of competitive interpretations of global rankings, paving the way for new research agendas focusing on fine-grained city relational analyses.’ -- Kathy Pain, University of Reading, UK‘In this report the authors present the ranking concerning the sustainable competitiveness performance in 2013 of 500 cities from all over the world.‘This book is an updated assessment of the urban competitiveness of 500 cities in the world, based on seven indicators supported by data from the most authoritative sources. It is a valuable resource for comparing the positions of various cities in the league table of global urban competitiveness. The chapters in Part II written by leading experts of urban competitiveness and urban studies, make this book a valuable reference on the recent conceptual and methodological advancements in urban competitiveness studies.’ -- Jianfa Shen, The Chinese University of Hong KongAcclaim for previous edition:‘If you believe that the world economy is composed of cities vying with one another for capital investment, creative individuals, and high-performance firms, then you might be curios about which cities are most successful. To find out, you will need to consult this book. . . This reference work is thorough in its coverage.’ -- R.A. Beauregard, ChoiceTable of ContentsContents PART I GENERAL ANALYSIS 1. Conceptual Framework and Analytical Methods Pengfei Ni, Xiaolan Yang and Peter Karl Kresl 2. Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness Index Wei Liu, Mian Li, Jie Yang and Shaokun Wei 3. Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness: A Comprehensive Analysis Jie Wei and Pengfei Ni 4. Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness: A Regional Analysis Jie Yang and Kai Liu 5. Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness and Urban GDP Per Capita Anquan Zhang 6. Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness and Urban Population Size Chao Li 7. Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness: Characteristics of Functional Centers Qingbin Li PART II SPECIALIZED ANALYSIS 8. The Specialized Differences: One Key Vector in Urban Competitiveness Saskia Sassen 9. Social and Technological Innovations in the Competitiveness of Cities Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka 10. Green Cities: Examples of Governing for Green Growth from OECD Countries Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Margo Cointreau and Xiao Wang 11. Institutions and Urban Competitiveness – a Doing Business Perspective Doing Business Group in the World Bank 12. The Challenge of World City Network Pattern Changes on the World City Network Analysis Peter J. Taylor 13. Population Aging and Urban Competitiveness Peter Karl Kresl 14. Driving Factors of Urban Prosperity: An Empirical Analysis of Global Cities Pengfei Ni 15. Patterns of the Global Cities: Present and Future Pengfei Ni PART III INDEX REPORT 16. The State of Sustainable Competitiveness of 500 Cities Global Urban Competitiveness Assessment Team Index

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