Regional / urban economics Books

Book SynopsisThis book offers a fundamental contribution to the literature on the creative industries and the knowledge-based economy by focusing on three aspects: urban spaces as key sites of capitalist restructuring, creative industries' policies as state technologies aimed at economic exploitation, and the role of networks of aesthetic production in inflecting these tendencies. It simultaneously goes beyond these debates by integrating a concern with the cultural and aesthetic dimensions of the creative industries. As such, the book is relevant to researchers interested in the transdisciplinary project of a cultural political economy of creativity and urban change.

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Book SynopsisHow did American cities change throughout the 20th and early 21st century? This timely publication integrates research from American Literary and Cultural Studies, Urban Studies and History. The essays range from negotiations of the "ethnic city" in US literature and media, to studies of recent urban phenomena and their representations: gentrification, re-appropriation and conversion of urban spaces in the USA. These interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives on American cities provide unique points of access for studying the complex narratives of urban transformation.Trade Review"The volume features different case studies and combines essays that both thematically and methodologically make for a very valuable and readable contribution to the field of urban studies." Nico Völker, KULT_online, 48 (2016)

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Book SynopsisThe Economics of Urban Diversity explores ethnic and religious minorities in urban economies.Trade Review"This is a most welcome book exploring, expanding and deepening our understanding of contemporary urban complexities. Significantly, with a focus on two revealing sites, the editors have brought together a set of robust studies examining the confluence of historical trajectories, political economies, ethnicity dynamics, and transnational connections." Steven Vertovec, Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany "We live in the 'urban century'. Cities are becoming hotspots of human activity. They do not develop into a uniform species, but exhibit an enormous variety in appearances, socio-economic constellations, history, population and politics. The Economies of Urban Diversity is a well documented book that maps out and highlights the above megatrends. Taking the Ruhr Area Istanbul nexus as an orientation point, it offers a great illustration of the socio-economic drivers and aspects of urban diversity in modern multi-cultural agglomerations." - Peter Nijkamp, Professor, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands "By problematising and historicising the concept of urban diversity, this pathbreaking volume throws incisive light on major economic and social issues affecting migrants in both Istanbul and the Ruhr Area. The transdisciplinary ethos of this book, where the varying perspectives and approaches of the contributors meet editorial excellence and eloquence, makes it stand out in current debates on the situation of ethnic minorities at a time when such impressive analytical intensity is needed." - Tom Slater, Reader in Urban Geography, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UKTable of Contents1. The Economies of Urban Diversity: An Introduction; Darja Reuschke, Monika Salzbrunn and Korinna Schönhärl PART I: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL INSIGHTS 2. The Concept of Diversity in Migration and Urban Studies; Monika Salzbrunn 3. Plurality, Cosmopolitanism, and Integration: The Dangers of Comparing the Incomparable; Edhem Eldem PART II: POPULATION FLOWS AFFECTING ISTANBUL AND THE RUHR AREA 4. From Guest Worker Migration to Transmigration: The German-Turkish Migratory Movements and the Special Role of Istanbul and the Ruhr; Yunus Ulusoy 5. A Forgotten Chapter of Regional Social History: The Polish Immigrants to the Ruhr 1870-1939; Michaela Bachem-Rehm PART III: LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMES OF ETHNIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP 6. From a Multi-Ethnic Empire to Two National States: The Economic Activities of the Greek Orthodox Population of Istanbul, ca. 1870-1939; Maria Christina Chatziioannou and Dimitris Kamouzis 7. Greek Orthodox Communities and the Formation of an Urban Landscape in Late Ottoman Istanbul; Ay?e Ozil 8. The Turkish Migrant Economy in Dortmund – An Economy of Urban Diversity; Ivonne Fischer-Krapohl PART IV: RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION AND GENTRIFICATION PROCESSES 9. Residential Segregation of Turkish Migrants in the Ruhr Area - Reasons, Patterns and Policies; Darja Reuschke and Sabine Weck 10. European Istanbul and its Enemies: Istanbul's Working Class as the Constitutive Outside of the Modern/European Istanbul; Deniz Yonucu 11. Urban Space and Gentrification in Istanbul in the Twentieth Century; Nil Uzun

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Book SynopsisIn this highly original work, Mary Njeri Kinyanjui explores the trajectory of women's movement from the margins of urbanization into the centres of business activities in Nairobi and its accompanying implications for urban planning. While women in much of Africa have struggled to gain urban citizenship and continue to be weighed down by poor education, low income and confinement to domestic responsibilities due to patriarchic norms, a new form of urban dynamism - partly informed by the informal economy - is now enabling them to manage poverty, create jobs and link to the circuits of capital and labour. Relying on social ties, reciprocity, sharing and collaboration, women's informal 'solidarity entrepreneurialism' is taking them away from the margins of business activity and catapulting them into the centre. Bringing together key issues of gender, economic informality and urban planning in Africa, Kinyanjui demonstrates that women have become a critical factor in the making of a postcolonial city.Trade ReviewWomen and the Informal Economy is a well-researched critical analysis, providing new perspectives on urbanization in Kenya. The book is essential reading for geographers, planners, policy makers and students of African urbanization and gender studies. * Agnes Musyoki, professor of human geography, University of Venda *Kinyanjui has presented us with a fresh way of understanding the complexities associated with women's socio-economic empowerment in a hostile city, in terms of access to economic space. This book is a paradigm shift in the way we talk and write about poverty alleviation in marginalized communities! * Faith Maina, professor of education, State University of New York, Oswego *This is a powerful case study, with important implications for urban planning and development in sub-Saharan Africa. Kinyanjui provides vital evidence of the genuine significance of women's informal economic activity for contemporary Nairobi. It is a concise, seminal contribution, very effectively situated in the burgeoning literature of African urban studies. * Garth Myers, Urban and International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford *The informal sector dominates Africa's economy and women have long played an important role in it. However, their contribution to the continent's urban informal economy is neither well understood nor documented. I applaud Kinyanjui for this timely volume on the contributions of women to the continent's urban informal economy and to the broader postcolonial African urban scene. * Kefa M. Otiso, associate professor of urban and economic geography, Bowling Green State University *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Theorizing planning and economic informality in an African city 3. Economic informality in Nairobi between 1980 and 2010 4. Women in Nairobi 5. Women, mobility and economic informality 6. Women in economic informality in Nairobi 7. The quest for spatial justice: from the margins to the centre 8. Women's collective organizations and economic informality 9. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisFeaturing everything from sports stadiums to shopping malls, hundreds of new cities in China stand empty, with hundreds more set to be built by 2030. Between now and then, the country's urban population will leap to over one billion, as the central government kicks its urbanization initiative into overdrive. In the process, traditional social structures are being torn apart, and a rootless, semi-displaced, consumption orientated culture rapidly taking their place. Ghost Cities of China is an enthralling dialogue driven, on-location search for an understanding of China's new cities and the reasons why many currently stand empty.Trade ReviewScholars and students of Chinese studies will gain greater clarity and understanding regarding the dynamics and unknown facets of the ghost cities of China. It is a book that everyone interested in ghost cities and the future of China would do well to read.' * Europe-Asia Studies *The landscape Shepard travels is so strange and monumental that it is hard to avoid being fascinated. * New Statesman *A crash course in how Chinese capitalism, if that’s what it is, actually works. * The Guardian *In Ghost Cities of China, Wade Shepard guides us on a comprehensive - yet still often intimate - tour of cities "that are just being born." Through in-depth engagement with the country's vast urbanization efforts, Shepard exposes both the myths and realities of China's ghost cities; haunted spaces, which are not dead and abandoned, but rather have yet to come to life. * Anna Greenspan, author of Shanghai Future: Modernity Remade *Wade Shepard cuts through the sensational coverage of China's infrastructure boom to deliver an eye-opening piece of reportage on the topic. A well-reported and fascinating primer on China's ghost cities. * Rob Schmitz, China correspondent for Marketplace *In his exploration of East Asian cities that are literally disposable, Wade Shepard provides an intriguing overview to a phenomenon that combines two of this century's biggest narratives -- global urbanization, and the unprecedented growth of China. * Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding and Marco Polo Didn't Go There *Ghost Cities of China tells a mixed story of China’s urbanisation drive…Wade Shepard presents an even-handed picture of this process as he has witnessed it and leaves the question of the future open. * Royal Society for Asian Affairs *Table of Contents1. The New Map of China 2. Clearing the Land 3. Of New Cities and Ghost Cities 4. When Construction Ends the Building Begins 5. Megacities Inside of Megacities 6. A New City, A New Identity 7. No Going Back 8. Powering the New China 9. Staying Afloat 10. What Ghost Cities Become

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Book Synopsis.- Advancing Cities' Resilience: A Comprehensive Review and Mapping of Research..- Systems Level Thinking:  Building resilient cities with integrated resiliency analyses..- Heat resilience and cooling: a matter of both adaptation and mitigation for the GCC Region..- Resilient Urban Transport Systems: The role of Transit Oriented Development in the GCC Cities..- WaterResilient Cities: GCC Strategies and Policy Recommendations..- Climate-resilient power system key considerations for the GCC countries..- Proactive Distributed Renewable Energy Resources (DRER) for Powering Tomorrow..- Digital Resilience in Smart Cities: A Dynamic Capability Approach..- Resilient Social Systems..- Fostering Social Cohesion in Multicultural Societies of the Gulf Cooperation Council..- Globalization, climate change, and compound health risks in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: The case of the GCC..- Grey carbon A new nature-positive carbon removal technology for the built world..- Resilience of Small Islands: Unveiling Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Futures..- Taking off and Navigating Climate Challenges for Building Resilience in Airport Infrastructure..- A review-based approach to understanding the current status of port resilience lessons learned for GCC ports..- Riyadh's Urban Greenwave: Fostering City Resilience Through Large-Scale Greening..- Resilient architecture in extreme hot dry climate, the iconic case of the Diplomatic Quarter in Riyadh.

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Book SynopsisWeltweit entwickeln sich immer mehr Städte zu Smart Cities. Sie wollen technologisch fortschrittlicher, effizienter und vernetzter sein, um sich den Herausforderungen unserer Zeit – dem Klimawandel, der zunehmenden Urbanisierung und den demografischen Veränderungen unserer Gesellschaft – zu stellen. Dafür werden zahlreiche Maßnahmen in der Stadtentwicklung initiiert, die die Lebensräume der Menschen verbessern. Dieses essential zeigt, wie die Vision einer zukünftigen Stadt, die für die Bürgerinnen und Bürger entwickelt wird, nachhaltig erfolgreich sein kann. Und es erläutert, welche Rolle die Partizipation der Bewohnenden, die Stadtverwaltung sowie der Einsatz von Technologie und Daten dabei spielen. .Table of ContentsZeigt Herausforderungen und Potenziale der Partizipation von Bewohnenden bei der digitalen Transformation von Städten auf.- Liefert konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen für Politik & Verwaltung, Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft & Forschung und alle Bürgerinnen und Bürger.- Basiert auf wissenschaftlichen Studien und wertvollen Hinweisen von Expertinnen und Experten.

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Book SynopsisGlobal Urban Competitiveness Ranking.- Global Urban Value Chain in History of Human Civilization.- Themed Report: Urban Competitiveness and SDGs.- Progress in the Pursuit of Global Urban Sustainable Development Goals.- From the Perspective of Sustainable Urban Competitiveness.- Progress in the Implementation of Global Urban Sustainable Development.- From the Perspective of Sustainable Urban Competitiveness.- Case Analysis of Typical Cities with SDGs.- Global Urban Economic Competitiveness Report.- Global Urban Economic Competitiveness in 2020.- Analysis of Global Urban Economic Competitiveness in 2020.- Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness Report.- Manifestation of Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness in 2020.- Interpretation of Global Urban Sustainable Competitiveness.

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Book Synopsis The New Localism provides a roadmap for change that starts in the communities where most people live and work. In their new book, The New Localism, urban experts Bruce Katz and Jeremy Nowak reveal where the real power to create change lies and how it can be used to address our most serious social, economic, and environmental challenges. Power is shifting in the world: downward from national governments and states to cities and metropolitan communities; horizontally from the public sector to networks of public, private and civic actors; and globally along circuits of capital, trade, and innovation. This new locus of powerthis new localismis emerging by necessity to solve the grand challenges characteristic of modern societies: economic competitiveness, social inclusion and opportunity; a renewed public life; the challenge of diversity; and the imperative of environmental sustainability. Where rising populism on the right and the left exploi

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Book SynopsisProtracted economic crises, accelerating inequalities, and increased resource scarcity present significant challenges for the majority of Africa's urban population. Limited state capacity and widespread infrastructure deficiencies common in cities across the continent often require residents to draw on their own resources, knowledge, and expertise to resolve these life and livelihood dilemmas. DIY Urbanism in Africa investigates these practices. It develops a theoretical framework through which to analyze them, and it presents a series of case studies to demonstrate how residents invent new DIY tactics and strategies in response to security, place-making, or economic problems. This book offers a timely critical intervention into literatures on urban development and politics in Africa. It is valuable to students, policymakers, and urban practitioners keen to understand the mechanisms and political implications of widespread dynamics now shaping Africa's expanding urban environments.Trade ReviewThis lively and important new collection pushes the study of the politics of urban development in African cities in to new terrain. A must-read for students of the African city. * Claire Mercer, London School of Economics, UK *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Conceptual Framing 1. DIY Urbanisms Old and New 2. DIY Urbanism in Distressed Cities in Africa 3. Reconnaissance Discourse of DIY and Urban Living in Nigeria 4. DIY Urbanism in an African Context and its Potential as a Collaborative Placemaking Tool for Bridging Africa’s Urban Infrastructure Deficit Part II: Case Studies 5. Political Economy of Community-led Security Provisioning in Urban Africa 6. The Production of Urban Space through Multi-scaled Political Networks in Lagos, Nigeria 7. Historicizing Precarity and DIY Urbanism in Accra, Ghana 8. Exploring Street Informality as Design Method: Experiences from Nigerian and Ghanaian Cities 9. Self-made Urbanism Handbook: The Case of Freetown, Sierra Leone 10. Resistance or Utopia? DIY Eco-communities in Durban, South Africa 11. Disability and Urbanism in Malawi 12. DIY Urbanism in Boom and Bust: a Perspective from Africa’s Copperbelt Conclusion

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Book SynopsisIn an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Waste and the City is a call to action on one of modern urban life's most neglected issues: sanitation infrastructure. The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the devastating consequences of unequal access to sanitation in cities across the globe. At this critical moment in global public health, Colin McFarlane makes the urgent case for Sanitation for All.The book outlines the worldwide sanitation crisis and offers a vision for a renewed, equitable investment in sanitation that democratises and socialises the modern city. Adopting Henri Lefebvre's concept of 'the right to the city', it uses the notion of 'citylife' to reframe the discourse on sanitation from a narrowly-defined policy discussion to a question of democratic right to public life and health. In doing so, the book shows that sanitation is an urbanizing force whose importance extends beyond hygiene to the very foundation of urban social life.Trade ReviewIn this brilliant book bristling with ideas and evidence from around the Global South, Colin McFarlane maps the world's sanitation crisis as well as a way out of it through a manifesto of rights to the city that connects up vernacular strategies of making infrastructure, a public right to wellbeing, and city efforts to improve systems. The book is full of hope and possibility without ever losing sight of the sanitation catastrophe we face.' -- Ash Amin, Emeritus 1931 Chair of Geography, Cambridge UniversityInteresting, insightful, sometimes surprising, beautifully written, challenges us to look at sanitation (and lack of it) in new ways. -- David Satterthwaite, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)In this immensely well written and accessible book, Colin McFarlane draws on over two decades of his research on sanitation, setting out his argument as to why access to toilets is fundamental not only to reducing poverty and inequality but also to what he refers to as citylife, or the right to a liveable urban life. His superb command of his subject starts with the fleshy, messy feminist understanding of sanitation as a bodily act and of the millions of people living through the crisis of sanitation, at the centre of which lies the social reproductive labour of women and girls. From people he moves comprehensively across sanitation's material infrastructures (the 'things' of sanitation) and lives (the urban ecologies of human and non-human animals and microbes and the politics of the body), to protest (human waste is political!) and allocation (who gets what sanitation resources, where). It is this networked view of sanitation, as far more than a simple technical or policy issue, that underpins the democratic right to citylife. This is a brilliantly incisive book, setting a global agenda for all of us who care about cities, poverty and inequality. For those urban researchers and activists for whom the urban sanitation crisis is not yet on that agenda it will be after reading this book. -- Linda Peake, Director, The City Institute, York University, TorontoMarks the culmination of his path-breaking research on the global sanitation crisis. Waste and the City is both a sober assessment of the scale of the challenge and also an affirmation of multiple social and political possibilities to create better urban worlds. -- Matthew Gandy, Professor of Geography, University of CambridgeWith both a conceptually wide-ranging lens and empirical precision, Colin McFarlane show how and why sanitation lies at the heart of contemporary urban inequalities, injustices, and ecologies. Drawing on cases from both rich and poor countries alike, this book makes clear that how societies understand, address, or ignore such daily necessities as sewage and the provision of toilets says a lot about whose lives matter. Beyond highlighting the unspoken gender and class biases in the provision of sanitation, the focus on new environmental and infrastructural urgencies set in motion by climate change makes this book particularly timely. -- Diane E. Davis, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

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Book SynopsisThis book is the first coherent quantified assessment of the economy of the Roman Empire. George Maher argues inventively and rigorously for a much higher level of growth and prosperity than has hitherto been imagined, and also explains why, nonetheless, the Roman Empire did not achieve the transition which began in Georgian Britain. This book will have an enormous impact on Roman history and be required reading for all teachers and students in the field. It will also interest and provoke historians of the medieval and early modern periods into wondering why their economies failed to match the Roman level. Part of the problem in assessing the Roman economy is that we do not have much in the way of numerical data, but Roman historians, who rarely have much statistical expertise, have not always recognised the potential of the data we do have. Dr Maher's reassessment of the economy of the Roman Empire has to use the same data as everyone else, but he is able to draw strikingly novel conclusions in two ways: first, by more statistically sophisticated use of a few crucial datasets and, second, by correlating and drawing a coherent picture across the whole economy. On grain yields, firstly, instead of getting bogged down in details of individual cases, George Maher shows how there is a remarkably consistent pattern from which outliers can be excluded, showing yields were much higher than normally assumed. He then demonstrates that high yields are in fact necessary to explain the exceptional urbanization of the Empire. Urbanization at this level in turn, as George Maher shows, has implications for consumption and commerce. He takes this further to show how high levels of trade imply high levels of sophistication in economic practices and mentality. In one of his most methodologically novel chapters, George Maher develops a new and simpler way of assessing average life expectancy and argues for a life expectancy almost double the traditional view. This book, Dr George Maher's doctoral thesis, is the theoretical underpinning of his book Pugnare: Economic Success and Failure.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The agricultural sector and comparisons to other economies Chapter 3: Levels of urbanization and economic output Chapter 4: The extent of trade and why it changed over time Chapter 5: The expectation of life as a measure of economic progress Chapter 6: Productive knowledge and the potential for growth Chapter 7: The money system and its weaknesses Chapter 8: The system of state finances and fiscal incompetence Chapter 9: Conclusions Appendices Bibliography

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Book SynopsisDuring the Great Recession, the housing bubble took much of the blame for bringing the American economy to its knees, but commercial real estate also experienced its own boom-and-bust in the same time period. In Chicago, for example, law firms and corporate headquarters abandoned their historic downtown office buildings for the millions of brand-new square feet that were built elsewhere in the central business district. What causes construction booms like this, and why do they so often leave a glut of vacant space and economic distress in their wake? In From Boom to Bubble, Rachel Weber debunks the idea that booms occur only when cities are growing and innovating. Instead, she argues, even in cities experiencing employment and population decline, developers rush to erect new office towers and apartment buildings when they have financial incentives to do so. Focusing on the main causes of overbuilding during the early 2000s, Weber documents the case of Chicago's Millennial Boom, showing that the Loop's expansion was a response to global and local pressures to produce new assets. An influx of cheap cash, made available through the use of complex financial instruments, helped transform what started as a boom grounded in modest occupant demand into a speculative bubble, where pricing and supply had only tenuous connections to the market. Innovative and compelling, From Boom to Bubble is an unprecedented historical, sociological, and geographic look at how property markets change and fail-and how that affects cities.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Weber gives us a compelling book that cements her reputation as one of the top urban planners in the field of urban political economy. Her sophisticated and nuanced understanding of complex systems like global finance and real estate markets is conveyed easily and accessibly to those both inside and outside of academia. From Boom to Bubble is a major contribution, one that will most certainly be widely read and discussed for years to come.” * Joel Rast, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee *“Weber offers an innovative and valuable approach, contributing important new insights and understanding to a multidisciplinary audience. From Boom to Bubble will be widely read as it contributes to the long standing and enduring scholarly focus on Chicago as the paradigmatic city and as a timely explication of financialization, the defining moment of the twenty-first century. Weber has an extraordinary depth of knowledge and she writes in an engaging and readable style that explains complex material in an accessible and understandable manner. This book solidifies Weber’s position as one of the leading scholars of the urban built environment.” * Robert W. Lake, Rutgers University *“In her focus on the role of property developers and their interactions with other agents in the construction process, Weber brilliantly shows the determining and indeterminate factors that create real estate booms and busts. A must-read for planners, geographers, urban sociologists, and political scientists—and anyone concerned with the forces building and rebuilding cities.” * Susan S. Fainstein, Harvard Graduate School of Design and author of The City Builders *“The downtown Chicago skyline added many high-rise office structures during the first decade of the 2000s, even though existing buildings provided sufficient space for their tenants. Why this happened and whether it was justified is the concern of Weber. Her findings identify this ‘speculative bubble’ as a composite product of the abundant global supply of capital, the ambitions of a host of real estate professionals to inflate demand for new office space, and the pro-growth Chicago government’s fiscal incentives for such expansion. They promoted the ideology that the constant renewal of a city is socially and economically beneficial and necessary to progress. This is a well-documented analysis of a trend common to many other US cities. Weber’s challenge is that such overbuilding is wasteful and can be restrained. ‘Slow, smart cities’ that are environmentally more sensitive have distinct advantages over rapid downtown expansion. A concluding chapter catalogs methods by which city officials can practice life-cycle and reuse planning to take a broader view of building costs and their impact upon residents. This is a solid analysis and critique of this trend. Recommended.” * Choice *“Weber’s From Boom to Bubble will appeal to planners, geographers, sociologists, political scientists, and historians who appreciate a critical perspective on global real estate and capital flows and those who study global financial crises. This is outstanding scholarship, and offers deep insights into the dynamic real estate markets of this Millennial era.” * Journal of the American Planning Association *“Weber offers a conceptually, theoretically and methodologically innovative and empirically detailed account of the operation of the commercial real estate market in Chicago, drawing on a longitudinal ‘elite ethnography’ in a lucid and engaging way. . . . She has not just given us a valuable analysis of what happened in Chicago in the 2000s, but has sketched an extensive research agenda. This book deserves to be widely read.” * LSE Review of Books *“Weber’s subject matter in this very good book is a phenomenon that has fascinated and vexed urban scholars and economists of various hues for at least a century: city-building booms and subsequent busts. Although at various points, especially in the book’s final chapter, Weber observes and reflects upon the consequences of these boom-and-bust cycles––indeed in the same chapter she even boldly ponders potential ‘solutions’, in the form of possible methods of modulating these all-too-familiar development frenzies––consequences are not her main concern. Causes are what principally animate this book and its author. How, in short, can we explain the repeating tendency, particularly in the United States, for urban overbuilding? Weber explores and attempts to answer this question largely through a marvelously informed and detailed case study of Chicago.” * International Journal of Urban and Regional Research *“From Boom to Bubble is a careful, convincing, and very readable account of how the real estate bubble that fueled the Great Recession happened, and Weber indicates, could well happen again. Weber builds a case for how all the stakeholders in the process – developers, mortgage brokers, real estate brokers, appraisers, building managers, real estate lawyers, permit expediters, mayors, and planners – face incentives to fuel a boom to such an extent that it becomes a bubble, with real estate investment continuing unabated even when demand no longer exists and vacancy rates are high.” * Planning Perspectives *“Weber’s recent book offers a landmark contribution to the scholarship of urban studies. Written in a sharp and vivid style, and drawing from an intimate knowledge of Chicago, From Boom to Bubble constitutes an impressive work. Combining empirically-rich material with theoretically-informed research, Weber achieves the feat of bringing a strikingly new perspective to the much-debated question of why urban development is prone to overbuilding.” * Planning Theory and Practice *“This superb, well-written book should be required reading for anyone studying or practicing in the field of real estate. It will also be of interest to planners and government officials; those with an interest in urban sociology, geography, economics, and planning; and general readers who want a clear explanation of the commercial real estate boom to sit beside the cornucopia of books about the residential real estate bubble or who are taxpayers in the City of Chicago. Weber asks the hard questions and gets readers to rethink the taken-for-granted ideas that underlie the heuristics we use for modeling and explaining the real estate process, narrowing the gap between the academic literature and the everyday work of real estate development.” * Journal of Real Estate Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Why We Overbuild Part 1 Real Estate Speculations 1 The Rhythm of Urban Redevelopment 2 Fast Money Builds the Speculative City 3 Out with the Old: How Professional Practices Construct the Desire for New Construction Part 2 Chicago in the 2000s 4 Downtown Chicago’s Millennial Boom 5 Who Overbuilt Chicago? 6 Making the Market for Chicago’s New Skyscrapers Part 3 Building the Future 7 The Slow Build Epilogue: Why We Will Continue to Overbuild Appendix Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTom Alberg, a venture capitalist who was one of the first investors in Amazon, draws on his experience in Seattle’s tech boom to offer a vision for how cities and businesses can build a brighter future together. He explores how cities can soar to prosperity by creating the conditions that encourage innovation.Trade ReviewTom saw something in Amazon before most people did. . . . That leap of faith led to a long-term partnership as Tom continued to collaborate with me over more than two decades on Amazon’s board. -- Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO, AmazonEmpowering everyone and every organization on the planet to achieve more begins locally. In Flywheels, Tom Alberg delves into how the Seattle area and other communities are building tech platforms that drive innovation while also doing good, providing a thoughtful approach to building livable communities that we can all learn from. -- Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, MicrosoftThroughout his distinguished career, Tom Alberg has been at the center of companies that have come to define Seattle, including Boeing, McCaw, and Amazon. In Flywheels, Alberg provides a view into the boardroom decisions that shaped these companies combined with a citizen's view of both the resulting prosperity and problems. Alberg provides insightful analysis of the key inputs to the flywheel for creating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation in other cities as well as solutions to the resulting traffic and housing crisis in Seattle. A must-read for any business and civic-minded leader. -- Bill Carr, coauthor of Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside AmazonIf you really want to understand how to build a tech hub, read this book. Tom Alberg, a leading venture capitalist, tells the inside story of how and why Seattle's culture of openness and risk propelled it to the leading ranks of global innovation centers, home to companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and more. But Alberg goes beyond tech boosterism to create a guidebook and game plan for addressing today's new urban crisis of housing unaffordability, inequality, and homelessness. Drawing on examples like Tulsa's pioneering efforts to harness remote workers, new models of public-private partnership are required to truly keep the urban flywheel turning for post-pandemic prosperity. -- Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class and The New Urban CrisisA fascinating first-person account of the companies, people, and regional assets that made Seattle into a global tech powerhouse, written by someone who knows its innovation ecosystem better than any other. Alberg shows not only how it was done but also how high-tech capitals—and cities everywhere—can do it even better through strong leadership, long-term thinking, and a commitment to livability for all. Essential reading for navigating times of extraordinary change and tech-driven disruption. -- Margaret O’Mara, author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of AmericaIn Flywheels, the venture capitalist Tom Alberg makes a powerful case for business and government to work together to solve our most pressing urban problems—problems that can’t be solved by either alone. I have watched Tom put this belief into practice, moving leaders from corporate and civic life toward our common goals through Challenge Seattle, a group of twenty-one CEOs that I lead. Tom was one of the first members. At our roundtable discussions, he has pressed some of our region’s most successful business leaders to put their appetite for innovation toward finding solutions to homelessness, transportation, and a host of other urban challenges. This book pushes that work forward in ways that will resonate in cities across the country. -- Christine Gregoire, former governor of Washington and CEO of Challenge SeattleSeattle’s emergence as a global hub of creativity and innovation is a history that had not been written—until now. Uniquely positioned to write it, Tom Alberg simultaneously offers a guide for others who would create similar flywheels of prosperity in their own regions. His curiosity, appreciation for research institutions, and humanity shine through on every page. -- Ed Lazowska, Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of WashingtonExceptionally well written, organized and presented. * Midwest Book Reviews *Table of ContentsForeword by John StantonPart I. Prelude to Jeff Bezos’s Day 11. Opportunities and Challenges of Cities2. Foundations of the Economic Flywheel3. Seattle’s Flywheels Begin Spinning4. Microsoft and Amazon Innovate to SuccessPart II5. On the Precipice of the Future6. Investing in the Future: Talent and Capital7. Models for Success: Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Kansas CityPart III8. Livable Cities9. Public Safety and Privacy10. Homelessness and PreK–12 Education11. Transportation and EnvironmentPart IV12. Government and Business: Conflicts and Cooperation13. The Future of CitiesAcknowledgmentsNote on SourcesNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewFor the railfan, you'll receive an insider view of this historically important period and a better understanding of how and why Conrail came into being and what it meant for rail transportation. * Model Railroad News *The fact that the book was very hard to put down once you got started with it says something about the author's ability to both enlighten his readers as well as tell a good story. * Michigan Railfan *Table of ContentsForeword by John C. SpychalskiList of AbbreviationsList of Important NamesIntroduction1. The Age of Innocence2. The Gathering Storm3. A Time of Waiting4. The Beginning5. The Plot Thickens6. Fear and Exhaustion7. Detailed Case Preparation8. The Times That Try Men's Souls9. The Rail Use Case: Ours and the Government's10. The Government's Case11. End GameEpilogueNotes

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Book SynopsisA brilliant analysis of the troubled history and uncertain future of mass transitTrade ReviewJones ultimately attributes mass motorization to consumer preferences—for single- family home ownership, suburban living, and sun belt metropolises where low-density development and dispersed employment made automobiles essential.Vol. 96.2 September 2009 -- Thomas G. Andrews * University of Colorado Denver *David Jones does a great job of dispelling myths that many of us hold about the advent of the automobile and the decline of public transit in the United States. * publictransport.about.com *Jones documents well the politics of postwar efforts by big city mayors to obtain federal aid for rail systems. . . . He provides good evidence for transit's very limited potential to solve the pressing problems of congestion, energy use, and global warming. . . . Highly recommended.March 2009 -- D. Brand * formerly, Harvard University *In this sweeping history of urban transportation modernization and post-modernization in the United States, David Jones debunks popular explanations for the decline of mass transit and the rise of mass motorization. . . . offers a solid foundation for debating alternative theses that seek to account for technological change.Vol. 50 July 2009 -- Gregory Thompson * Technology and Culture *This is a valuable and topical book which brings transport issues to the fore in American domestic and foreign policy. 43 2009 -- Margaret Walsh * University of Nottingham *Table of ContentsContentsList of TablesList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPart 1. U.S. Motorization in International Context1. Motorization in the United States and Other Industrial NationsPart 2. U.S. Motorization in Historical Context2. Transit's American History, 1880–19293. The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Pivotal Epoch in U.S. Transportation History4. World War II and Its Immediate Aftermath: The End of the Streetcar Era and the Beginnings of the Freeway Era5. The Interstate and Pervasive Motorization, 1956–806. Transit's Conversion to Public Ownership7. U.S. Motorization since the OPEC Embargo8. The Competitive Difficulties of the U.S. AutomakersPart 3. Evolving Challenges in an Evolved Environment9. The Changing Valance of U.S. Motorization10. The Road to Sustainable Motorization11. Motorization and Sustainability: History and ProspectGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHow is it possible for a town to exist where the median household income is about $73,000, but the median home price is about $4,000,000? Boring into the impossiblemath of Aspen, Colorado,Stuberexplores how middle-class people have found a way to live in thissupergentrified town. Interviewing a range of residents, policymakers, and officials,Stubershows that what resolves the math equation between incomes and home values in Aspen, Coloradothe X-factorthat makes middle-class life possibleis the careful orchestration of diverse class interests within local politics and the community. She explores how this is achieved through a highly regulatory and extractive land use code that provides symbolic and material value to highly affluent investors and part-year residents, as well as less-affluent locals, many of whom benefit from an array of subsidiesincluding an extensive affordable housing programthat redistribute economic resources in ways that make it possible for middle-class residents to live there. Stuberfurther examines how Latinos, who provide much of the service work in Aspen and who tend to live outside the town, fit into the social geography of one of the most unequal places in the country. Overall,Stuberargues that the Aspen's ability to balance the interests of its diverse class constituencies is not a foregone conclusion; rather, it is the result of efforts by local stakeholderscitizens, government, developers, and vacationersto preserve the town's unique feel and value, and keep Aspen, Aspen in all its complex dynamics.Trade Review "Stuber does an excellent job of providing answers." * CHOICE *“Astounding. . . .Aspen and the American Dream is a wonderful book for students of social class and of urban sociology and for anyone who wonders how the material landscape is made.” * American Journal of Sociology *Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables Introduction: The Impossible Math of Aspen, Colorado 1. Place-Based Class Cultures 2. Living the "Aspen Dream"? Redefining and Realizing the Good Life 3. Steadying the Pendulum 4. Place-Making and the Construction of "Small-Town Character" 5. "But Does It Deliver Value?": Negotiating Aspen's Land Use Code 6. A Mall at the Base of a Mountain? 7. Buscando el Sueño Americano: Latinos in the Valley Conclusion: The Limits and Possibilities of Place-Making in the Era of Supergentrification Acknowledgments Appendix: Methodology Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisFocuses on the staples of American welfare system such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, Head Start, WIC, and public housing. This book maintains that these programs form an effective, if largely invisible and haphazard safety net, and yet they are the very programs most vulnerable to political attack and misunderstanding.Trade Review"Currie's book ... is engaging and free of both jargon and ideology... [S]he has laid out a reform agenda that could guide modern-day Moynihans in their fight against political pressure to sacrifice the safety net on the altar of national security."--Michael Brus, RealChangeNews.org "In-kind programs have long been neglected in discussions of the welfare system in the United States... At a time when funding and other support for public assistance is shrinking, [Currie] contends, the profile of this safety net must be raised, lest it be dismantled before its importance is realized."--Education Week "[Janet Currie] offers specific reforms for improving ... [anti-poverty] programs ... and concludes with an overview of an integrated safety net that would fight poverty more effectively and prevent children from slipping through holes in the net."--International Social Security Review "Currie has performed a commendable service to readers of multiple disciplines. This volume traces changes to the welfare system as it issues a warning about the potential for undercutting the ability of poor children and families to thrive and develop as the welfare system is transformed. [This book] provides a wonderful primer on public policy for psychologists and others who are interested in the welfare of children and families."--Michael B. Blank and Marlene M. Eisenberg, PsycCRITIQUES "Currie's book will never be mistaken for beach reading. But it is engaging and free of both jargon and ideology."--Michael Brus, Big Issue in the NorthTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Welfare vs."Making Work Pay" 11 Chapter 2: In Sickness and in Health: The Importance of Public Health Insurance 33 Chapter 3: Feeding the Hungry: Food Stamps, School Nutrition Programs, and WIC 61 Chapter 4: Home Sweet Home? 90 Chapter 5: Who's Minding the Kids? 113 Chapter 6: Defending and Mending the Safety Net 139 Appendix: Table 1 157 Notes 159 Index 197

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Book SynopsisMore than half the world's population lives in cities, and that proportion is expected to rise to three-quarters by 2050. Urbanization is a global phenomenon, but the way cities are developing, the experience of city life, and the prospects for the future of cities vary widely from region to region. The Atlas of Cities presents a unique taxonomy ofTrade ReviewWinner of the 2014 AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography, Association of American Geographers One of The Globe and Mail 75 Book Ideas for Christmas 2014 "This fascinating survey effectively complemented and enriched by color maps, charts, and illustrations, celebrates the urban landscape's past, present, and potential for the future. Intended for the general reader, Knox's reference is recommended to anyone interested in urban studies and geography."--Library Journal (Starred Review) "[T]he large format of this coffee-table book provides room for a stunning abundance of photographs, charts, graphs, maps, and other enhancements that make Atlas of Cities as much a visual experience as a narrative one."--Ray Bert, Civil Engineering "This elegantly illustrated volume is a feast of maps and graphics... Geographers, sociologists, architects, and urban planners have contributed clear thematic chapters, and the result is a book that will encourage readers to think differently about many cities, including their own."--Graeme Wood, Pacific Standard "A cartographic buffet that lays out how our metropolises came to be and what makes them tick."--John King, San Francisco Chronicle "[T]his is a volume that could excite exploration of those more flexible sources, and its prose, design and illustration will surely achieve that for some who come across it--perhaps in libraries or classrooms."--Alan Mabin, Urban Africa "A lavish, exhaustive look at the history, transformation, and future of urban centres around the globe. The perfect book for the Richard Florida--who, coincidentally, wrote the foreword--in your life."--Globe and Mail "Much more than a book. Through innovative maps, charts, info-graphics and tables, Atlas lays out the cycles of consumption, creation, and decay that drive the living spaces that will soon house three-fourths of the human race, up from today's half. This book doesn't tell you about cities, it lets you understand them."--Dan Bischoff, Newark Star-Ledger "This atlas does not graph the usual geographic shapes of cities, but tries to diagram the many other dimensions within cities around the world. Taking example from many specific cities (such as Istanbul, or Cairo) it tries to dissect, almost like an x-ray, the many organs, tissues, cells, and anatomy of a typical city... This book will likely illuminate your world."--Kevin Kelly, Wink "The kind of book I imagine anyone in the field of Urban Studies would like to own... Atlas of Cities is not just a well-edited book full of useful didactical maps but also the kind of book that the members of our map-loving species want to have."--Manuel B, Aalbers, Urban StudiesTable of ContentsFOREWORD Richard Florida 8 INTRODUCTION Paul Knox 10 THE FOUNDATIONAL CITY Lily Leontidou, Guido Martinotti 16 Core cities Athens and Rome Secondary cities Knossos, Santorini, Sparta, Pella, Syracuse, Marseille, Alexandria, Constantinople, Babylon THE NETWORKED CITY Raf Verbruggen, Michael Hoyler, Peter Taylor 34 Core cities Augsburg, London, Venice, Florence, Innsbruck, Lubeck, Bruges, Paris, Ghent THE IMPERIAL CITY Asil Ceylan Oner 52 Core city Istanbul Secondary cities Rome, St. Petersburg, Vienna, London, Beijing THE INDUSTRIAL CITY Jane Clossick 70 Core city Manchester Secondary cities Berlin, Chicago, Detroit, Dusseldorf, Glasgow, Sheffield THE RATIONAL CITY Andrew Herod 88 Core city Paris Secondary cities Vienna, New York, London, Budapest, Washington, D.C. THE GLOBAL CITY Ben Derudder, Peter Taylor, Michael Hoyler, Frank Witlox 106 Core cities London and New York Secondary cities Frankfurt, San Francisco, Geneva, Mumbai, Nairobi THE CELEBRITY CITY Elizabeth Currid-Halkett 124 Core city Los Angeles Secondary cities New York, London, Milan, Mumbai, Las Vegas THE MEGACITY Jan Nijman, Michael Shin 140 Core city Mumbai Seconday cities Cairo, Mexico City, Jakarta, Karachi, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, New York THE INSTANT CITY Lucia Cony-Cidade 158 Core city Brasilia Secondary cities Abuja, Chandigarh, Canberra THE TRANSNATIONAL CITY Jan Nijman, Michael Shin 176 Core city Miami Secondary cities Vancouver, Hong Kong, Dubai, Singapore, Dublin, Los Angeles THE CREATIVE CITY Paul Knox 194 Core city Milan Secondary cities Paris, New York, London, Portland, Los Angeles THE GREEN CITY Heike Mayer 210 Core city Freiburg Secondary cities Stockholm, Portland, Curitiba, Masdar City, Gussing, Wildpoldsried THE INTELLIGENT CITY Kevin C. Desouza 226 Core city London Secondary cities Amsterdam, Tokyo, New York, Singapore, Seoul, San Francisco, Chicago, Sydney, Vienna APPENDICES Glossary 224 Resources 246 Contributors 250 Index 252 Acknowledgements 256

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThe first book to consolidate the history, evolution, current practice, and future prospects for regional planning in Canada.Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Regional Planning in PerspectivePart 1: Foundations of Regional Planning1 Roots of Regional Planning 2 Key Features of Regional Planning3 The Imperative of Regional Boundaries4 Formal Bases of Regional PlanningPart 2: Planning Practice in Rural and Non-Metropolitan Regions5 Planning Rural Regions and Their Communities6 Regional Economic Development Planning7 Regional Planning for Resource Conservation and Development and the EnvironmentPart 3: Planning and Governing Practice in Urban-Based Regions8 Planning and Governing Metropolitan Areas9 Planning and Governing City-RegionsPart 4: The Future of Regional Planning in Canada10 The Continuing Need for Regional Planning11 The Future Shape of Regional Planning Appendix Notes; References; Index

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Book SynopsisPlanning Canadian Regions is the first book to consolidate the history, evolution, current practice, and future prospects for regional planning in Canada. As planners grapple with challenges wrought by globalization, the evolution of massive new city-regions, and the pressures for sustainable and community economic development, a deeper understanding of Canada's approaches is invaluable.Hodge and Robinson identify the intellectual and conceptual foundations of regional planning and review the history and main modes of regional planning for rural regions, economic development regions, resource development regions, and metropolitan and city-regions. They draw lessons from Canada's past experience and conclude by proposing a new paradigm addressing the needs of regional planning now and in the future, emphasizing regional governance, greater inclusiveness and integration of physical planning with planning for economic sustainability and natural ecosystems.PlaTrade Review"Two senior scholars have written an illuminating work on the origins, concepts, scope, practice, and potential of regional planning in Canada. Its coverage is truly national, and its spirit, appropriately, is universal, critical, and exploratory." - Len Gertier, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, School of Planning, University of WaterlooTable of ContentsPreface Introduction: Regional Planning in Perspective Part 1: Foundations of Regional Planning 1 Roots of Regional Planning 2 Key Features of Regional Planning 3 The Imperative of Regional Boundaries 4 Formal Bases of Regional Planning Part 2: Planning Practice in Rural and Non-Metropolitan Regions 5 Planning Rural Regions and Their Communities 6 Regional Economic Development Planning 7 Regional Planning for Resource Conservation and Development and the Environment Part 3: Planning and Governing Practice in Urban-Based Regions 8 Planning and Governing Metropolitan Areas 9 Planning and Governing City-Regions Part 4: The Future of Regional Planning in Canada 10 The Continuing Need for Regional Planning 11 The Future Shape of Regional Planning Appendix Notes; References; Index

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Book SynopsisHe offers policy options that can enable state and federal governments to increase investment in higher education.Trade ReviewAn important contribution that not only provides a diagnosis of the main problems facing US higher education but also offers some solutions. Times Higher Education Supplement McMahon has written a serious and important book on the economics of higher education... This book is a must-read for students interested in the economics of higher education and should be included as a required reading in such courses... McMahon's extension and revitalization of human capital theory in higher education should be of interest to a general readership in the field. Journal of Higher Education This extraordinary book patiently, thoughtfully, and thoroughly provides the conceptual framework for understanding the higher education market, the empirical findings about what that market produces and the policy prescriptions needed to make it work better in the future. Review of Higher Education No one else before McMahon has systematically and comprehensively presented the whole picture of higher education benefits and provided a valuation of the private and social non-market benefits. Higher Education This is a significant contribution to both theory and research findings in the study of investment in higher education... Highly recommended. Choice The overwhelming success of this work is that McMahon has articulated clearly and succinctly what students, their families, and governments are getting for their investment in higher education. Journal of Education Finance A timely and insightful text... Academic advisors who want to show their students that a college degree offers benefits beyond starting salaries and career opportunities will find this book to be a valuable resource. NACADA Journal It is not surprising that there is a growing interest in the private and social benefits of higher education and discussion of who should pay for what. Professor McMahon's book... is central to this debate. Academic Matters The first book to systematically identify and develop the evidence necessary to measure comprehensively the benefits of higher education and to estimate their economic value. RorotokoTable of ContentsPreface1. What Is the Problem?2. Challenges Facing Higher Education Policy3. Higher Education and Economic Growth4. Private Non-Market Benefits of Higher Education and Market Failure5. Social Benefits of Higher Education and Their Policy Implications6. University Research7. New Higher Education Policies8. New Strategies for Financing Higher EducationAppendixesA. Correcting for Ability Bias in Returns to Higher EducationB . A Simplified Dynamic Model with Higher Education ExternalitiesC. Valuing the Effects of Higher Education on Private Non-Market OutcomesD. Higher Education and Growth, U.S. and OECD Countries, 1960–2005E. Valuing the External Social Benefi ts of Higher EducationReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisFinancing Higher Education Worldwide combines sophisticated economic explanations with sensitive political and cultural analyses of the financial pressures facing higher education throughout the world.Trade ReviewThis book is a must read for policy-makers, researchers, educationalists, journalists and students of financing higher education worldwide for the theoretical insight and empirical data. -- Asha Gupta Journal of Educational Planning and Administration 2010 This is a book full of detail and informed comment that should be read by all who want to understand and be informed about many of the major issues surrounding the financing of higher education in the 21st century. -- Johns Mace HIGHER EDUCATION REVIEW 2011 This book is a must read for the policy-makers, researchers, educationists, journalists and students of financing higher education worldwide for the theoretical insight and empirical data. Journal of Educational Planning and Administration 2010 A great overview of the financing challenges facing each country's higher education system. -- John J. Cheslock Journal of Higher Education 2011 Usefully describes various policies and different countries' approaches to dees, loans, and other financial aid. -- Claire Callender Comparative Education Review 2011Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Diverging Trajectories of Higher Education's Costs and Public Revenues Worldwide2. Financial Austerity and Solutions on the Cost Side3. The Perspective and Policy of Cost-Sharing4. Parental Contributions, Means-Testing, andFinancial Assistance5. The Spread of Tuition Fees6. Student Loan Schemes in Purpose, Form, and Consequence7. Student Loan Schemes in Practice8. Cost-Sharing, Financial Assistance, and Student Behavior9. Cost-Sharing in Practice Worldwide10. Cost-Sharing and the Future of International Higher Educational FinanceAppendix: Selected Country Examples of Cost-SharingSelected BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade 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 SynopsisIn recent decades, economically disadvantaged Americans have become more residentially segregated from other communities: they are increasingly likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods that are spatially isolated with few civic resources. Low-income citizens are also less likely to be politically engaged, a trend that is most glaring in terms of voter turnout. Examining neighborhoods in Atlanta, Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Rochester, Amy Widestrom challenges the assumption that the class gap in political participation is largely the result of individual choices and dispositions. Displacing Democracy demonstrates that neighborhoods segregated along economic lines create conditions that encourage high levels of political activity, including political and civic mobilization and voting, among wealthier citizens while discouraging and impeding the poor from similar forms of civic engagement.Drawing on quantitative research, case studies, and interviews, Widestrom shows tTrade Review"Displacing Democracy sets out to challenge and complicate a story that is often understood as an easy equation between individual resources and individual political behavior: most rich people vote, most poor people don't. Amy Widestrom's fine book recasts this as a challenge of political engagement under conditions of stark economic segregation. What matters, in the end, is where you live-and the ways in which civic infrastructure and civic resources can sustain (or sap) democratic participation." * Colin Gordon, University of Iowa *Table of ContentsIntroduction. A Theory of Economic Segregation and Civic Engagement Chapter 1. Understanding Civic Engagement in Context: Methodology and the Logic of Case Study Selection Chapter 2. Public Policy and Civic Environments in Urban America Chapter 3. Economic Segregation and the Mobilizing Capacity of Voluntary Associations Chapter 4. Economic Segregation, Political Parties, and Political Mobilization Conclusion. The Dynamics and Implications of Economic Segregation, Civic Engagement, and Public Policy Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Notes Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisIn 2008, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centers (UPMC) hoisted its logo atop the U.S. Steel Building in downtown Pittsburgh, symbolically declaring that the era of big steel had been replaced by the era of big medicine for this once industrial city. More than 1,200 miles to the south, a similar sense of optimism pervaded the public discourse around the relationship between health care and the future of Houston''s economy. While traditional Texas industries like oil and natural gas still played a critical role, the presence of the massive Texas Medical Center, billed as the largest medical complex in the world, had helped to rebrand the city as a site for biomedical innovation and ensured its stability during the financial crisis of the mid-2000s.Taking Pittsburgh and Houston as case studies, The Medical Metropolis offers the first comparative, historical account of how big medicine transformed American cities in the postindustrial era. Andrew T. Simpson explores hTrade Review"Simpson demonstrates the impressive depth and breadth of his research. He not only chronicles the major developments in the health care industry in each city, he also peels back the curtain on the internal deliberations of the major players as they made strategic decisions. These details provide useful insights for those interested in nonprofit governance and public-private partnerships, particularly in the context of urban economic development. Likewise, these case studies chronicle how national trends in American health care throughout the 20th century affected local health care industries." * Journal of Urban Affairs *"Access to health care remains near the center of American political discourse. Based on two local studies, Andrew T. Simpson deftly explains the economic imperatives of postwar urban sprawl in molding the shifting relationship between medical centers and the communities they serve." * Guenter B. Risse, author of Mending Bodies, Saving Souls: A History of Hospitals *"Well framed and full of insights for audiences in urban history, business history, health policy, and the history of medicine, this book interleaves the soaring visions and sobering realities of two American cities that sought to promote hopeful social and economic futures by investing in not-for profit health institutions. By situating the uncontrolled growth of U.S. healthcare expenditures alongside deliberate local and regional plans to realize civic improvement through healthcare revenues, Andrew T. Simpson firmly establishes the role of place, contingency, and governance in shaping the seemingly ungovernable system that threatens to bankrupt municipal economies at the same time that it promises to save them." * Jeremy Greene, author of Generic: The Unbranding of Modern Medicine *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Making the Medical Metropolis Chapter 1. Building Cities of Health: Medical Centers in Pittsburgh and Houston Before 1965 Chapter 2. The Hospital-Civic Relationship in the Shadow of the Great Society Chapter 3. City of Hearts, City of Livers: Specialty Medicine and the Creation of New Civic Identities Chapter 4. "When the Fire Dies": Biotechnology and the Quest for a New Economy Chapter 5. The Coming of the System: Changing Health Care Delivery in the Medical Metropolis Chapter 6. A Charitable Mission or a Profitable Charity? Redefining the Hospital-Civic Relationship Epilogue. The Future of the Medical Metropolis Notes Archival Collections and Abbreviations Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe State of New York is now building one of the world's longest, widest, and most expensive bridges - the new Tappan Zee Bridge - stretching more than three miles across the Hudson River, approximately thirteen miles north of New York City. Urban planner Philip Plotch offers a behind-the-scenes look at three decades of contentious planning and politics centred around this bridge.Trade Review"Philip Plotch combines a terrific story with a relentless search for evidence and doses of humor to give us a first-rate portrayal of the political process at work. He recounts the efforts over several decades to replace the aging Tappan Zee Bridge. Through three decades of struggle and failed plans, three governors—George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, and David Paterson—kept the project alive though often on a 'death watch.' Plotch reveals how Governor Andrew Cuomo picked up the torch, manipulated the facts where he thought it necessary, and overcame many obstacles to begin construction." -- Jameson W. Doig * author of Empire on the Hudson *"We spend years in traffic yet know little of the brew of politics, bureaucracy, interests, and ideals keeping us there. Planner and political scientist Plotch examines this principle through one transportation planning debacle: the three-decade struggle to refurbish or replace the Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River north of New York City ... Anyone concerned about the place of large infrastructure projects in the modern U.S. should consider this sobering case study." * Publisher's Weekly *"Plotch has tremendous insight into the challenges of building extraordinarily complex projects in difficult political and fiscal climates. His professional experience and probing questions have enabled him to help explain Planet Albany—a place where thought defies gravity." -- David A. Paterson * Governor of New York, 2008-2010 *"Philip Plotch's political history about the replacement of New York's Tappan Zee Bridge should be on the bookshelf of planners and other practicioners, elected officials, community members, and students engaged in or entering megaproject and urban politics debates ... Plotch skillfully tells the painful story of this bridge's evolution through a three-decade saga of conflict between elected officials, engineers, planners, environmentalists, and others who held divergent views about addressing traffic congestion in the corridor. The book is carefully researched and benefits from Plotch's extensive collection of primary materials and interviews with more than 100 key actors, including governors and influential members of the public and advocacy organizations...At times, I felt witness to interviews and his discoveries in real time…At its foundation, this book is a guide to what not to do in megaproject development. …Thus, Politics Across the Hudson provides an accessible and useful primer on what one can expect to surface and evolve potentially during a megaproject's long, winding path in deference to the phrase “expect the unexpected.” * Journal of the American Planning Association *“The Tappan Zee Bridge has been a symbol of infrastructure inaction in the U.S. over the last several decades – until now! New York State's Governor Cuomo has found the way to overcome the bickering among the many stakeholders and actually get to construction of the much needed replacement for this obsolescent and heavily used structure. How he did it, and how decades of issues stood in the way, are well told by Dr. Philip Plotch. This is a treatise for policy makers, planners, engineers, community leaders. Plotch has brought to light the genius in how to get big things done. It should go on your shelf next to your copy of Caro.” -- Robert E. Paaswell * Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering (City College of New York) and Director Emeritus *“Even with my lifelong interest in traffic congestion, I had much to learn from Politics Across the Hudson. What resonated most with me is the extremely lengthy process of conflicting viewpoints among the many agencies involved in our transportation systems. Nothing gets done fast." -- Anthony Downs * author of Stuck in Traffic *“Plotch’s analytical skills are top-notch and his writing is incisive and succinct. He writes with a historian's attention to detail, a political scientist's interest in theory, and a public policy scholar's fascination with how the sausage is actually made.” -- Jeffrey Smith * assistant professor of Politics and Advocacy, The New School, New York *"Governor David Patterson held about 6 meetings a month. That's according to Professor Philip Plotch who recently published a book, Politics across the Hudson, about the Tappan Zee Bridge and the construction." -- Stephen Nesson * WNYC *"The resulting Politics Across the Hudson: The Tappan Zee Megaproject is a short, compelling account of how good politics rarely translates into good public policy. Its 191 pages make for easy reading and its 41 pages of footnotes and bibliography, for authoritative telling" * Times Herald *"Plotch, a former planning official with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., writes with depth and wit about engineering, bureaucracy and politics" * Times Union *"On list of books for Political Junkies on Your Christmas List" * Newsmax *Winner of the prestigious American Planning Association journalism award for its “in-depth research, hard hitting analysis and compelling look at the politics behind New York's first major new bridge in more than 50 years.” * American Planning Association *“Using original documents and conducting numerous interviews with key players, the author went a long distance to unravel this complex process. In so doing, he managed to eloquently, and in great detail, trace the project’s political, planning and bureaucratic evolution.” * Journal of Planning Literature *Philip Plotch gives a brief history and sums up the future of the Tapen Zee Bridge project in this short video (http://youtu.be/PltWbA1aBhI) -- for WNYC“a wonderful book about this infrastructure megaproject" * Journal of the American Planning Association *"How the governor latched onto decades of planning to achieve his new Mario M. Cuomo Bridge" by Philip Mark Plotch * Westchester Journal News *"Cuomo astride our infrastructure: He got the Second Ave. Subway and new Tappan Zee over the finish line, but how?" op-ed by Philip Plotch * New York Daily News *"Why can't we build anything? Plus Lawyers (!), SoftBank pressures and more Amazon HQ2" by Danny Crichton and Arman Tabatabai * TechCrunch *"Truck traffic surges on Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, drops at George Washington Bridge" by Thomas C. Zambito and Frank Esposito * LoHud.com *"How Gov. Thomas Dewey engineered Tappan Zee Bridge toll money to edge out Port Authority" by Thomas C. Zambito * LoHud.com *"Plotch’s Politics Across the Hudson makes abundantly clear, understanding how infrastructure declines and deteriorates is enormously important." * Journal of Planning Literature *"Saint Peter’s Resident Transportation Expert Appears on One-on-One with Steve Adubato" https://www.saintpeters.edu/news/2019/08/01/saint-peters-resident-transportation-expert-appears-on-one-on-one-with-steve-adubato/ * One-on-One with Steve Adubato *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsList of TablesAcknowledgmentsGuides to This BookIntroduction1 The I-287 Corridor: From Conception to Congestion2 Searching for Congestion Solutions (1980–1988)3 Finalizing Plans for the HOV Lane (1988–1995)4 Killing the HOV Lane (1994–1997)5 Permut’s Rail Line and Platt’s Bridge6 Pataki’s Task Force: Raising Expectations Sky High (1998–2000)7 The Thruway Authority versus Metro-North (2000–2006)8 Eliot Spitzer Doesn’t Have Enough Steam (2007–2008)9 David Paterson: The Overwhelmed Governor (2008–2010)10 Andrew Cuomo Takes Charge in 201111 Public Reaction and Cuomo’s Campaign (2011–2012)12 Lost Opportunities and Wasted ResourcesConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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