This timely and important book, which won a special citation from the American Political Science Association's Urban Affairs Section for its "major theoretical development," analyzes the effect of competition among suburban communities to attract residents and business with the best public services and the lowest taxes. Using data from a large sample of suburban cities, Mark Schneider offers a theoretical extension of the Tiebout-Peterson approach to understanding public policies and integrates this perspective with recent work on the power of bureaucrats to control budgets.

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

Competitive Citites is an assessment of the way in which `partnership', a word much used by politicians, has helped to shape the economic futures of four cities on both sides of the Atlantic - Atlanta, Toronto, Birmingham and Rotterdam.

Urban policy makers are increasingly striving to strengthen the economic competitiveness of their cities. Currently, they do that mainly in the field of the creative knowledge economy - arts, media, entertainment, creative business services, architecture, publishing, design; and ICT, R&D, finance, and law. This book is about the policies that help to realise such objectives: policies driven by classic location theory, cluster policies, ‘creative class’ policies aimed at attracting talent, as well as policies that connect to pathways, place and personal networks. The experiences and policy strategies of 13 city-regions across Europe have been investigated: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Birmingham, Budapest, Dublin, Helsinki, Leipzig, Milan, Munich, Poznan, Riga, Sofia and Toulouse. All have different histories and roles: capital cities and secondary cities; cities with different economies and industries; port-based cities and land-locked cities. And all 13 have different cultural, political and welfare state traditions. Through this wide set of contexts, Place-making and Policies for Competitive Citiescontributes to the debate about the development of creative knowledge cities, their economic growth and competitiveness and advocates the development of context-sensitive tailored approaches. Chapter authors from the 13 European cities rigorously evaluate, reformulate and test assumptions behind old and new policies. This solidly-grounded and policy-focused study on the urban policy of place-making highlights practices for different contexts in managing knowledge-intensive cities and, by drawing on the varied experiences from across Europe, it establishes the state-of-the-art for both academic and policy debates in a fast-moving field.

The term innovation has been a concept excessively manipulated by government leaders, important businessmen, academicians, consultants and journalists, trying to sell a motive to those who want or need a change, whether they are accustomed to buying products in an exaggerated way with no other purpose than supporting consumer habits, or to those who practically do not need them. We have observed in innumerable cases of world stature that innovation is prompted by the desire to enter and remain in economies of marked consumer capitalism, and in all these cases it has been noted that if the entrepreneurs, companies, cities, regions or countries are not ready to promote and support innovation in a socially inclusive and democratic fashion, these efforts are useless and only superficial changes, not administered to democratize in any true depth, are achieved.

Copyright: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.

Much economic and urban research lends increasing support to the view that local government authorities could actually improve their 'competitiveness' by not being required to engage in the 'business' of local economic development and rather by concentrating on their 'core' activities such as maintaining sound, basic infrastructure within their jurisdiction.

Shows how digital media connects people to their lived environments Every day, millions of people turn to small handheld screens to search for their destinations and to seek recommendations for places to visit. They may share texts or images of themselves and these places en route or after their journey is complete. We don’t consciously reflect on these activities and probably don’t associate these practices with constructing a sense of place. Critics have argued that digital media alienates users from space and place, but this book argues that the exact opposite is true: that we habitually use digital technologies to re-embed ourselves within urban environments. The Digital City advocates for the need to rethink our everyday interactions with digital infrastructures, navigation technologies, and social media as we move through the world. Drawing on five case studies from global and mid-sized cities to illustrate the concept of “re-placeing,” Germaine R. Halegoua shows how different populations employ urban broadband networks, social and locative media platforms, digital navigation, smart cities, and creative placemaking initiatives to turn urban spaces into places with deep meanings and emotional attachments. Through timely narratives of everyday urban life, Halegoua argues that people use digital media to create a unique sense of place within rapidly changing urban environments and that a sense of place is integral to understanding contemporary relationships with digital media.