In the past twenty years, globalization has rendered many economic and social urban functions obsolete. Large cities face a form of implosion, which necessitates a rethinking of both contents and containers. This book will mainly concentrate on the latter aspect. Thus, the need to replace old functions with new ones is clear, especially within complex urban areas where the connections between public and private assets are strongest. In this context, new forms of urban models, Public Private Partnerships, tools and "drivers" – various decision makers who have to operate within complex urban areas – have to be considered. Hence, the creation or destruction of values depends on how new functions replace old ones. This also explains new and important forms of competitive advantage, among large globalized cities. This book presents a model of complex urban interventions. Based on a literature review, the model integrates different forms of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), new tools and instruments associated with governance (issues/challenges), and new profiles of public drivers. By analyzing a number of European urban centers, this book illustrates the implementation of the general model in specific case studies and, furthermore, shows the essential differences between post-socialist and Western cities.

In the past twenty years, globalization has led to an obsolescence of economic and social urban functions. Large cities face an implosion of old functions and, thus, have a clear need to replace old functions with new ones, especially within complex urban areas with a high concentration of both public and private assets. In this context, new forms of policies, participation models, exclusion as well as the integration of public and private needs need to be considered. Hence, the creation or destruction of values depends on how new functions replace old ones. In this book, an applicative model of complex urban interventions is presented. Based on a literature review, the model integrates different forms of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), new types of tools and instruments associated with governance (issues/challenges) as well as new profiles of public "drivers". Various case studies of different European urban centres are being explored in detail to illustrate the effects of the general model on specific cases and, furthermore, to show differences between post-socialists and Western cities.

The book deals with the concept of urban infrastructure and the strong evolution of globalization, in particular the driving force taken by global cities. Urban infrastructure is a constituent part of the global cities, both have a synergistic evolution. The main reference is to western global cities in the intertwining of financialization, settling and brownfield which is a little different from the urbanization of other global cities of other non- developed countries, or emerging countries. There is therefore a significant link between globalization and urban infrastructure. The occurrence of slowbalization can have consequences on urban areas infrastructures and more generally on the different dichotomy between global city and nation. With the pandemic infectious and the post COVID, there is already a different configuration between the global city and the rest of the national territory. A driving element of the urban infrastructure and the global city has been the financialization and identification of assets within global cities. Urban infrastructure as an asset has grown considerably in the last two decades, in the wake of what has already been highlighted previously for real estate. There are contiguous issues that affect the concept of urban infrastructures and they are the enormous growth of finance and the landings of this in the great cities of the world with investments that first involved Real Estate and then urban infrastructures. There has also been a technological revolution that has merged the ubiquitous technological infrastructure with other more traditional components of the infrastructure, even apparently recent themes, such as smart cities, come from this evolutionary trend and merge with urban infrastructures. The theme of smart cities, if properly interpreted, gives strength to the concept of urban infrastructure.

This book addresses the topic of urban models with reference to large western cities and particularly to global cities. In the current transitional phase, the use of language and the systematization of phenomena has become important. The book’s matrix examines two important and strongly connected themes: urban models and public-private partnerships (PPP) determined by urban functions which are transformed in an increasingly rapid and complex manner as a result of globalization. PPPs represent the new border of the modern global state. The book focuses on two principal urban models (renewal and restructuring) through PPPs and subsequently the relationship between state and market in fourteen Italian cities (renewal) and two central European cities, Leipzig and Budapest (restructuring). CoUrbIT (Complex Urban Investment Tools) and the book 'Globalization and Urban Implosion: Creating New Competitive Advantage' by the same author serve as points of reference.

Arguing that the focus in global urban studies on cities such as New York, London, Tokyo in the global North, Mexico City and Shanghai in the developing world, and other major nodes of the world economy, has skewed the concept of the global city toward economics, this volume gathers a diverse group of contributors to focus on smaller and less economically dominant cities. It highlights other important and relatively ignored themes such as cultural globalization, alternative geographies of the global, and the influence of deeper urban histories (particularly those relating to colonialism) in order to advance an alternative view of the global city.

Eloquent, practical and wise, this book by one of the world’s most important scientists—and two time Pulitzer Prize winner—should be read and studied by anyone concerned with the fate of the natural world. It "makes one thing clear ... we know what we do, and we have a choice" (The New York Times Book Review). E.O. Wilson assesses the precarious state of our environment, examining the mass extinctions occurring in our time and the natural treasures we are about to lose forever. Yet, rather than eschewing doomsday prophesies, he spells out a specific plan to save our world while there is still time. His vision is a hopeful one, as economically sound as it is environmentally necessary.

In a world on the brink of a global recession caused by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the infrastructure efforts of today and tomorrow are more crucial than ever. For one, they are an indispensable countercyclical tool to mitigate the negative effects of the economic paralysis. But they also constitute a pivotal component for a country's development, raising its competitiveness in the long term. That is why infrastructure will continue to play a critical role even when the pandemic crisis has been tamed. Rapid demographic growth, increasing urbanization, especially in developing countries, coupled with the ounting challenge posed by climate change, are trends that are not going to disappear with the virus. How to cope with these global, long-term trends? How to finance the increasing need for infrastructure? Which major international actors will take the lead? And what role will technology play in shaping the future of infrastructure?

When Henri Lefebvre published The Urban Revolution in 1970, he sketched a research itinerary on the emerging tendency towards planetary urbanization. Today, when this tendency has become reality, Lefebvre’s ideas on everyday life, production of space, rhythmanalysis and the right to the city are indispensable for the understanding of urbanization processes at every scale of social practice. This volume is the first to develop Lefebvre’s concepts in social research and architecture by focusing on urban conjunctures in Barcelona, Belgrade, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dhaka, Hong Kong, London, New Orleans, Nowa Huta, Paris, Toronto, São Paulo, Sarajevo, as well as in Mexico and Switzerland. With contributions by historians and theorists of architecture and urbanism, geographers, sociologists, political and cultural scientists, Urban Revolution Now reveals the multiplicity of processes of urbanization and the variety of their patterns and actors around the globe.

This is an important historical period in which to develop communication models aimed at creating opportunities for citizens to find a voice for new experiences and social concerns. Such basic social problems as inequality, poverty, and discrimination pose a constant challenge to policies that serve the health and income needs of children, families, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Important changes both in individual values and civic life are occurring in the United States and in many other nations. Recent trends such as the globalization of commerce and consumer values, the speed and personalization of communication technologies, and an economic realignment of industrial and information-based economies are often regarded as negative. Yet there are many signs - from the WTO experience in Seattle to the rise of global activism aimed at making biotechnology accountable - that new forms of citizenship, politics, and public engagement are emerging. The Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice presents a comprehensive overview of the field with topics of varying dimensions, breadth, and length. This three-volume Encyclopedia is designed for readers to understand the topics, concepts, and ideas that motivate and shape the fields of activism, civil engagement, and social justice and includes biographies of the major thinkers and leaders who have influenced and continue to influence the study of activism. Key Features Offers multidisciplinary perspectives with contributions from the fields of education, communication studies, political science, leadership studies, social work, social welfare, environmental studies, health care, social psychology, and sociology Provides an easily recognizable approach to topics, ideas, persons, and concepts based on alphabetical and biographical listings in civil engagement, social justice, and activism Addresses both small-scale social justice concepts and more large-scale issues Includes biography pieces indicating the concepts, ideas, or legacies of individuals and groups who have influenced current practice and thinking such as John Stuart Mill, Rachel Carson, Mother Jones, Martin Luther King, Jr., Karl Marx, Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson and Winnie Mandela, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton

DIVA special issue of PUBLIC CULTURE, this volume of essays explores the experiences and political economies of globalization in various locales./div