Analyses European Union governance from the perspective of polycentric theory, aimed at improvements in achieving individual self-governance.

Illustrated by case studies from Europe, North America and the Middle East, this book examines how non-market values can be identified, measured and incorporated into planning evaluation methodologies. The traditional means of assessing planning options, benefit-cost analysis, requires that all effects be expressed in monetary terms and this volume offers alternative approaches. It presents strategies for accomplishing the major purposes of planning evaluation - including the provision of an explicit, replicable basis for public assessment - in alternative ways. Growing demand for public involvement and for accountability in decision making requires better means for accommodating a broad range of concerns in planning evaluation. Methodologies examined include effectiveness-cost and multicriteria analysis, and the book explores how these have been applied in practice in developing special-issue plans, complex regional development strategies, and efforts to analyze the environmental justice implications of major infrastructure projects. Use of scenarios and problem structuring methods by stakeholder groups are also explored.

A study of the impact of European governance on the time of national policymakers and institutions. A theoretical approach to the changing demands of policy-planning as the focus shifts to the present and new demands and rhythms influence European decision-making.

The twenty-first century will be the age of global interaction and organized patterns of networks. This important book addresses the strategic dimensions of networks, especially in transportation and information communication technology in Europe. The authors examine the challenges brought about by European unification and accession, through which a coherent and efficient European network system will need to be implemented. The topics addressed include the emergence of new network structures and strategies, the implications of European integration policies for network operations and developments, and the assessment of network synergy effects.

This book presents a unique overview of urban policy conducted by national authorities in the fifteen 'old' member states of the EU. Focussing on recent changes in the development of the larger cities and changes in policymaking by national authorities with respect to urban development, the book is structured around 15 'country chapters', written by national experts in the field of urban development. The book provides an up-to-date source of information, and will be of importance to anyone involved in the role and development of European cities as well as the formulation and delivery of associated national 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.

Can regional identities create a more sustainable alternative to the increasingly standardised environments in which we live? Is bottom-up rather than top-down planning possible?

This Handbook offers an unrivalled overview of current research into how globalization is affecting the external relations and internal structures of major cities in the world. By treating cities at a global scale, it focuses on the 'stretching' of urban functions beyond specific place locations, without losing sight of the multiple divisions in contemporary world cities. The book firmly bases city networks in their historical context, critically discusses contemporary concepts and key empirical measures, and analyses major issues relating to world city infrastructures, economies, governance and divisions. The variety of urban outcomes in contemporary globalization is explored through detailed case studies. Edited by leading scholars of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network and written by over 60 experts in the field, the Handbook is a unique resource for students, researchers and academics in urban and globalization studies as well as for city professionals in planning and policy.