Regional economics – an established discipline for several decades – has undergone a period of rapid change in the last ten years resulting in the emergence of several new perspectives. At the same time the methodology of regional economics has also experienced some surprising developments. This fully revised and updated Handbook brings together contributions looking at new pathways in regional economics, written by many well-known international scholars. The aim is to present the most cutting-edge theories explaining regional growth and local development. The authors highlight the recent advances in theories, the normative potentialities of these theories and the cross-fertilization of ideas between regional and mainstream economists. It will be an essential source of reference and information for both scholars and students in the field. Learn More

Housing is one of the most pertinent issues of our time. Shaped by rapid urbanization, financialization, and various changes in demography, technology, political ideology and public policy, the provision of affordable, adequate, and suitable housing has become an increasingly challenging feat. From high-rise apartment towers constructed in global cities around the world to informal settlements rapidly expanding across the global south, this volume focuses on how political, economic, and societal changes are shaping housing in a variety of contexts. Learn More

Innovation and entrepreneurship are often considered two sides of the same coin. But are the links between innovation and entrepreneurship as inextricable as we think? From Innovation to Entrepreneurship questions this seemingly interdependent relationship, highlighting the different requirements of innovation and entrepreneurship. This book disentangles theories of innovation and entrepreneurship, empirically revealing the overlaps and differences between them. Demonstrating that the pursuit of entrepreneurship is the key to economic development, Yasuyuki Motoyama explores the concept that people are at the heart of entrepreneurship ecosystems. Learn More

This book argues that digital globalization is inducing deep and productive transformations, making industrial policy necessary in order to reorientate development towards inclusive and more sustainable growth. The book also demonstrates that industrialization remains an important development process for emerging countries. Regarding the future of jobs, the authors show how the substitution of labour in automation is not inevitable since technology is also complementary to human capital. Policymakers should pay more attention to the new skills that will be required. A particular concern is is the rapid change in technology and business compared to institutions which take time to adapt. Territories have an important role to play in order to speed-up institutional adaptation, providing they can act coherently with the other levels of government. Learn More

This book provides new dimensions and a contemporary focus on sustainable transport, urban regeneration and development in eight countries spanning four continents at different stages of development. It examines the role of transit oriented development (TOD) in improving urban sustainability and providing different transport choices, exploring how these can be implemented in modern cities. Learn More

This book analyses the dynamics of regional migration governance and accounts for why, how and with what effects states cooperate with each other in diverse forms of regional grouping on aspects of international migration, displacement and mobility. The book develops a framework for analysis of comparative regional migration governance to support a distinct and truly global approach accounting for developments in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America and the many and varying forms that regional arrangements can take in these regions. Learn More

This collection brings together the latest thinking in urban geography. It provides a comprehensive overview of topical issues and draws on experiences from across the world. Chapters have been prepared by leading researchers in the field and cover themes as diverse as urban economies, inequalities and diversity, conflicts and politics, ecology and sustainability, and information technologies. The Handbook offers a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in cities and the urban in geography and across the wider social sciences. Learn More

Everyone has an opinion on transport: it significantly affects daily lives. This book highlights key transport opportunities and challenges, and identifies research requirements to inform policy discussion and support better societal outcomes. It does this by scanning across modes, continents, technologies and socio-economic settings, looking for common threads, points of difference and opportunities to make a difference. The book should appeal to prospective post-graduate students, professionals in transport and related fields, and those interested in better places and good discussions. Learn More

The majority of people now live in cities and for many that means apartment living. Apartments are where we spend our time, make our homes, raise our families and invest our money. Apartment living requires that we try to get along with our neighbours and make decisions collectively about the management of our buildings. This book examines how different housing markets, development practices, planning regimes, legal structures and social and cultural norms affect people’s everyday experiences of apartment living. Learn More

Ray Oldenburg’s concept of third place is re-visited in this book through contemporary approaches and new examples of third places. Third place is not your home (first place), not your work (second place), but those informal public places in which we interact with the people. Readers will come to understand the importance of third places and how they can be incorporated into urban design to offer places of interaction – promoting togetherness in an urbanised world of mobility and rapid change. Learn More

This study explores the Europe 2020 strategy and the role of European political entrepreneurship in debating, shaping and implementing this strategy within the EU. The book sets out to explore the content, conditions and consequences of Europe 2020 by analysing the plan for a future prosperous EU economy. The main focus is on European political entrepreneurship and how the strategy has been debated and decided on, and then implemented from a governance perspective with multiple European actors. Learn More

The book explores the relationship between cultural heritage and local economic development by introducing the original idea that one possible mediator between the two can be identified as creativity. The book econometrically verifies this idea and demonstrates that cultural heritage, through its inspirational role on different creative talents, generates an indirect positive effect on local economic development. These results justify important new policy recommendations in the field of cultural heritage. Learn More

Financialising City Statecraft and Infrastructure addresses the struggles of national and local states to fund, finance and govern urban infrastructure. It develops fresh thinking on financialisation and city statecraft to explain the socially and spatially uneven mixing of managerial, entrepreneurial and financialised city governance in austerity and limited decentralisation across England. As urban infrastructure fixes for the London global city-region risk undermining national ‘rebalancing’ efforts in the UK, city statecraft in the rest of the country is having uneasily to combine speculation, risk-taking and prospective venturing with co-ordination, planning and regulation. Learn More

Large infrastructure projects often face significant cost overruns and stakeholder fragmentation. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) allow governments to procure long-term infrastructure services from private providers, rather than developing, financing, and managing infrastructure assets themselves. Aligning public and private interests and institutional logics for decades-long service contracts subject to shifting economic and political contexts creates significant governance challenges. We integrate multiple theoretical perspectives with empirical evidence to examine how experiences from more mature PPP jurisdictions can help improve PPP governance approaches worldwide. Learn More

Offering a geographical political economy analysis, this book explores the mechanisms, institutions, and spaces of subnational economic development. Martin Jones innovatively examines how policy-makers frame problems and offer intervention solutions in different cities and regions.Drawing on different approaches to state intervention, neoliberalism, crisis and contradiction theories, and notions of depoliticisation, this book explains policy failure and how it is impacted by flux surrounding economic development. With constant changes to legislation, institutional initiatives, and ministerial responsibility, local and regional economic development is shown to be at a critical crossroads. Learn More

Presenting an analytical approach to assessing the socioeconomic impact of high speed rail in China, and using a multilevel spatial analysis approach at both the national and the regional level, this book emphasizes capturing the spatial spillover effects of rail infrastructure development on China’s economic geography in terms of land use, housing market, tourism, regional disparity, modal competition, the economy and environment. Learn More

‘Giving’ time and money to the community indicates the existence of relationships that draw people together, and ‘who people give to’ indicates how inclusive these relational networks are. Using UK data for the analysis, Zischka argues that a person’s willingness to ‘give' is not only influenced by social cohesion; it also helps to generate social cohesion. For thriving communities, we therefore need to consider our ‘giving’ as well as our ‘getting’. Learn More

Exploring the history of the Internet, from pre-conception, to the possibilities of an Internet-based future, The Internet City presents ways in which the Internet and urban life intersect. The book interprets how the contemporary city is becoming fully based on Internet technologies in all of its major dimensions: the daily activities of urbanites and urban companies, the operations of urban systems, and the functioning of the upcoming driverless vehicles. Learn More

This book addresses unexpected disasters and shocks in cities and urban systems by providing quantitative and qualitative tools for impact analysis and disaster management. Including environmental catastrophes, political turbulence and economic shocks, Resilience and Urban Disasters explores a large range of tumultuous events and key case studies to thoroughly cover these core areas. In particular, the socio-economic impacts on urban systems that are subject to disasters are explored. Learn More