Social Geography and Urban Studies

The factors that make some cities more successful has become an increasingly important policy issue. This book is the first to explore facets of competitiveness in a systematic way that combines theory, evidence and policy implications. Bringing together experts on urban economic performance, it provides a new look at urban competitiveness.

Home zones (areas where cars travel slowly and space has been created for children and environmental improvement) are a common feature of the urban landscape. This handbook explains how to plan and design a home zone in an existing street or as part of a new residential area, including advice and illustrations derived from recent home zone schemes.

The report presents the conclusions of a major research programme on strategic, city-wide urban regeneration. Building on case studies in Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh, it proposes an agenda of organisational innovation for the 21st century. Innovations include a long-term process of neighbourhood visioning as a right of all citizens.

Using Detroit as a case study, this important book argues that cycles of neoliberal policy-led expansion and contraction created hollow shells of once vibrant industrial centres, and explores the potential for large scale cooperative networks to promote urban regeneration and sustain local economies