Europe is in a troubled state. The macroeconomic situation looks grim, national governments are close to dysfunction, and Europeans are facing austerity and relative decline. The one bright spot on the horizon is the potential for positive action at the level of the city and urban regions. In this book, the editors have assembled a collection of original contributions by scholars from Europe, North America and Asia who offer insights as to how local authorities in Europe might be able to chart a course for their city or urban region during this period of extraordinary difficulty. The volume begins with an Introduction, followed by a set of three papers in Part Two examining European urban competitiveness from the standpoints of measurement and policy. This section also provides a case study of the cities of one country _ Italy _ from which the reader can gain an understanding of the current position of European cities as well as what might be possible going forward. Experience has shown that perhaps the most crucial element in competitiveness enhancement is good and effective governance. To that end, Part Three examines structural aspects of urban government, including polycentric regions, wide metropolitan cooperation, the role of social actors and territorial aggregation. Part Four treats issues of innovation from two perspectives and provides a case study from Eindhoven, while also covering social issues such as demographics, participation, social exclusion and mobility. This set of scholarly reflections will be of considerable benefit to urban practitioners, researchers and students of public policy.

Cities of Europe is a unique combination of book and CD-ROM examining the effects of recent socio-economic transformations on western European cities. A unique combination of book and CD-ROM examining the effects of recent socio-economic transformations on western European cities. Focuses on the interplay between segregation, social exclusion and governance issues in these cities. Takes a comparative approach by highlighting the specifics of European cities vis-à-vis other urban contexts and analysing the intra-European differences. The CD-ROM features a series of 2,000 photographs from seventeen cities (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Brussels, Bucharest, Helsinki, London, Milan, Naples, New York, Paris, Rotterdam, Tirana, Turin, and Utrecht). Also features 126 thematic maps, interviews with established scholars, and literature reviews. The book and the CD-ROM are linked through an extensive cross-referencing system.

Governance of Europe's City Regions considers the changing role of the European Union in regional issues, explores how national governments have become increasingly involved at the regional scale and examines the constitutional and political contexts in which regional and local governments operate. Detailed case studies of regionals in Germany and England illustrate contrasts in European approaches to the scale of government, and the complex interactions of international, national, regional and local scales of policy intervention. The book offers a unique perspective, which links together an analysis of both regional Europe and the local economic and political factors that shape successful regions.

Are pandemics the end of cities? Or, do they present an opportunity for us to reshape cities in ways making us even more innovative, successful and sustainable? Pandemics such as COVID-19 (and comparable disruptions) have caused intense debates over the future of cities. Through a series of investigative studies, Designing Smart and Resilient Cities for a Post-Pandemic World: Metropandemic Revolution seeks to critically discuss and compare different cases, innovations and approaches as to how cities can utilise nascent and future digital technology and/or new strategies in order to build stronger resilience to better tackle comparable large-scale pandemics and/or disruptions in the future. The authors identify ten separate societal areas where future digital technology can impact resilience. These are discussed in individual chapters. Each chapter concludes with a set of proposed "action points" based on the conclusions of each respective study. These serve as solid policy recommendations of what courses of action to take, to help increase the resilience in smart cities for each designated area. Securing resilience and cohesion between each area will bring about the metropandemic revolution. This book features a foreword by Nobel laureate Peter C. Doherty and an afterword by Professor of Urban Technologies, Carlo Ratti. It provides fresh and unique insights on smart cities and futures studies in a pandemic context, offers profound reflections on contemporary societal functions and the needs to build resilience and combines lessons learned from historical pandemics with possibilities offered by future technology.

What has been the impact on social cohesion of contemporary cities in Europe, of the rise of new social risks and of the recent economic crisis? Focussing on 20 European urban contexts, this book provides an empirical analysis of the socio-economic transformations driving the emergence of new social risks and of the capacity of welfare policies.

This edited volume provides an innovative contribution to the debate on contemporary European geopolitics by tracing some of the new political geographies and geographical imaginations emergent within - and made possible by - the EU's actions in the international arena. Drawing on case studies that range from the Arctic to East Africa, the nine empirical chapters provide a critical geopolitical reading of the ways in which particular places, countries, and regions are brought into the EU's orbit and the ways in which they are made to work for 'EU'rope. The analyses look at how the spaces of 'EU'ropean power and actorness are narrated and created, but also at how 'EU'rope's discursive (and material) strategies of incorporation are differently appropriated by local and regional elites, from the southern shores of the Mediterranean to Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The question of EU border management is a particularly important concern of several contributions, highlighting some of the ways in which the Union's border-work is actively (re)making the European space.

Global Urban Analysis provides a unique insight into the contemporary world economy through a focus on cities. It is based upon a large-scale customised data collection on how leading businesses use cities across the world: as headquarter locations, for finance, for professional and creative services, for media. These data - involving up to 2000 firms and over 500 cities - provide evidence for both how the leading cities, sometimes called global cities, are coming to dominate the world economy, and how hundreds of other cities are faring in this brave new urban world. Thus can the likes of London, New York and Hong Kong be tracked as well as Manchester, Cleveland and Guangzhou, and even Plymouth, Chattanooga and Xi'an. Cities are assessed and ranked in terms of their importance for various functions such as for financial services, legal services and advertising, plus novel findings are reported for the geographical orientations of their connections. This is truly a comprehensive survey of cities in globalization covering global, world-regional, and national scales of analysis: - 4 key chapters outline the global structure of the world economy featuring the leading cities; - 9 regional chapters covering the whole world also feature the level of services provided by 'medium' cities; - 22 chapters on selected countries and sub-regions indicate global-ness and local-ness and feature an even wider range of cities. Written in an easy to understand style, this book is a must read for anybody interested in their own city in the world and how it relates to other cities.

Livable Cities from a Global Perspective offers case studies from around the world on how cities approach livability. They address the fundamental question, what is considered "livable?" The journey each city has taken or is currently taking is unique and context specific. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to livability. Some cities have had a long history of developing livability policies and programs that focus on equity, economic, and environmental concerns, while other cities are relatively new to the game. In some areas, government has taken the lead while in other areas, grassroots activism has been the impetus for livability policies and programs. The challenge facing our cities is not simply developing a livability program. We must continually monitor and readjust policies and programs to meet the livability needs of all people. The case studies investigate livability issues in such cities as Austin, Texas; Helsinki, Finland; London, United Kingdom; Warsaw, Poland; Tehran, Iran; Salt Lake City, United States; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sydney, Australia; and Cape Town, South Africa. The chapters are organized into such themes as livability in capital city regions, livability and growth and development, livability and equity concerns, livability and metrics, and creating livability. Each chapter provides unique insights into how a specific area has responded to calls for livable cities. In doing so, the book adds to the existing literature in the field of livable cities and provides policy makers and other organizations with information and alternative strategies that have been developed and implemented in an effort to become a livable city.

The book investigates the impact on the competitiveness of cities developing creative industries (arts, media, entertainment, creative business services, architects, publishers, designers) and knowledge-intensive industries (ICT, R&D, finance, law). It provides significant new knowledge to the theoretical and practical understanding of the conditions necessary to stimulate "creative knowledge" cities. The editors compare the socio-economic developments, experiences and strategies in 13 urban regions across Europe: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia and Toulouse. These have different histories and roles; include capital and non-capital cities of different sizes; represent cities with different economic structures; and different cultural, political and welfare state traditions. Through this wide set of examples, Making Competitive Cities informs the debate about creative and knowledge-intensive industries, economic development, and competitiveness policies. It focuses on which metropolitan regions have a better chance to develop as "creative knowledge regions" and which do not, as well as investigating why this is so and what can policy do to influence change. Chapter authors from thirteen European institutions rigorously evaluate, reformulate and empirically test assumptions about cities and their potential for attracting creative and knowledge-intensive industries. As well as a systematic empirical comparison of developments related to these industries, the book examines the pathways that cities have followed and surveys both the negative and positive impacts of different prevailing conditions. Special Features: Analyses link between knowledge-intensive sectors and urban competitiveness Offers evidence from 13 European urban regions drawn from a major research project Establishes a new benchmark for academic and policy debates in a fast-moving field

This nine-volume set LNCS 14104 – 14112 constitutes the refereed workshop proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications, ICCSA 2023, held at Athens, Greece, during July 3–6, 2023. The 350 full papers and 29 short papers and 2 PHD showcase papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 876 submissions. These nine-volumes includes the proceedings of the following workshops: Advances in Artificial Intelligence Learning Technologies: Blended Learning, STEM, Computational Thinking and Coding (AAILT 2023); Advanced Processes of Mathematics and Computing Models in Complex Computational Systems (ACMC 2023); Artificial Intelligence supported Medical data examination (AIM 2023); Advanced and Innovative web Apps (AIWA 2023); Assessing Urban Sustainability (ASUS 2023); Advanced Data Science Techniques with applications in Industry and Environmental Sustainability (ATELIERS 2023); Advances in Web Based Learning (AWBL 2023); Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers: Technologies and Applications (BDLTA 2023); Bio and Neuro inspired Computing and Applications (BIONCA 2023); Choices and Actions for Human Scale Cities: Decision Support Systems (CAHSC-DSS 2023); and Computational and Applied Mathematics (CAM 2023). /div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div /div