Cities and Economic Change: Restructuring and Dislocation in the Global Metropolis

"An invaluable text for all those interested in cities and economic change. Empirically grounded, theoretically informed, and written in a highly accessible way to help students understand processes underlying the changing urban economy, urban governance, and the role of place."
- Lily Kong, National University of Singapore

"Editors and contributors leave readers in no doubt about the extent of the transformations coursing through urban economies in the global north and south."
- Kevin Ward, University of Manchester

"An essential read for anyone interested in the role of cities in the changing global space economy."
- James Faulconbridge, Lancaster University

"A timely and path-breaking contribution to the urban literature. It stands out as an excellent addition to the expanding urban library and a key reference on urban issues."
- George C.S. Lin, Hong Kong University

Cities and Economic Change combines a sound theoretical grounding with an empirical overview of the urban economy. Specific references are made to key emergent processes and debates including splintered labour markets, informal economies, consumption, a comparative discussion of North and South, and quantitative aspects of globalization.

The text is clear and accessible, with pedagogical features and illustrative case studies integrated throughout. The use of boxes for city examples, key questions for discussion at the end of main chapters together with suggested readings and key web sites are designed to aid learning and understanding.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Cities and Economic Change - Ronan Paddison and Tom Hutton Processes Cities, Technology and Economic Change - Kenneth E. Corey, Mark I. Wilson and Peilei Fan Cities and Rescaling - John Harrison New Economies, New Spaces - Stefan Kratke Redundant and Marginalized Spaces - Ivan Turok Splintering Labour Markets - Danny MacKinnon Informal Economies - Colin Williams Steering the Urban Economy Boostering, brokerage and uneasy bedfellows:Networked urban governance and the emergence of post-political orthodoxy - Iain Deas and Nicola Headlam The Resilient City: On the Determinants of Successful Urban Economies - Mario Polèse Imagineering the City - Marguerite van den Berg Inclusivity - Edgar Pieterse Urban Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability - Mark Whitehead Reflections Theories of Place and a Place for Theories - K.C. Ho Epilogue: Economic Change, Globalising Cities and the New Urban Order - Tom Hutton

About the Author :
Ronan Paddison is Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Glasgow. His research interests focus on the political processes driving urban change and, in particular, under what conditions local participation can contribute to the making of more inclusive and democratic cities. Recent projects have included the role of community participation in the installation of public art, and the limitations to public participation in the post-political city. He is Managing Editor of Urban Studies and of Space and Polity. Tom Hutton is Professor in the Centre for Human Settlements, School of Community & Regional Planning, Faculty of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. His principal research interests are in the ‘new economy’. Besides editing (or co-editing) special journal issues dealing with the new economy, his recent publications  include The New Economy of the Inner City (Routledge, 2008/2010), Cities and the Cultural Economy (Routledge, 2014) ; and New Economic Spaces in Asian Cities: from industrial restructuring to the cultural turn (Routledge 2012; co-edited with Peter Daniels and K C Ho). 

Review :
An invaluable text for all those interested in cities and economic change. Empirically grounded, theoretically informed, and written in a highly accessible way to help students understand processes underlying the changing urban economy, urban governance, and the role of place. In a world of many texts, this one deserves a place on the bookshelves. This exciting and informative volume provides a series of accounts on the organisation of economic activity in a globalized world. Editors and contributors leave readers in no doubt about the extent of the transformations coursing through urban economies in the global north and south, and the theoretical and methodological challenges that arise in trying to make sense of them. This book provides a timely, critical and compelling overview of some of the major economic concerns of the early twenty first century. It will be an essential read for anyone interested in the role of cities in the changing global space economy. At a time when cities have harboured the majority of the human race and the main of the global economy, there is nothing more significant than understanding the intertwine of cities and economic change.  This is an assemblage of cutting-edge scholarships in urban studies contributed all by experienced writers with authoritative expertise.  It addresses the issue of cities and economic change in such an incredible breadth and depth that students of urban studies are led to new horizons of navigation and enquiry. I have found the documentation and interpretation stimulating, provocative, and extremely well-articulated. Theoretically informed and empirically grounded, this is a collection of essays that makes a timely and path-breaking contribution to the urban literature. It stands out as an excellent addition to the expanding urban library and a key reference on urban issues I would highly recommend to anyone interested in urban and economic development. Cities and Economic Change offers a lucid and fearless look into the wide-ranging challenges posed by the on-going restructuring of urban economies in a globalizing world and leaves the reader with sober and level-headed assessment of a generation of policy change in international urban political economic development.

This collection shows how imperatives of capital and state have wrought dramatic transformations in cities around the globe, supplies timely data on urban employment, occupations and labor markets and provides critical assessments of on-going experiments in policy and governance.

The world’s cities continue to expand, sometimes with and sometimes without economic growth; urban-economic transformations are not what they used to be, either in form or effect.  Charting these shifting conditions, Cities and Economic Change brings together newly commissioned essays from leading researchers in the field.  It’s an excellent collection.

′Encompassing the Global North and the Global South, this book re-examines the rich scholarship on urbanization and cities with a twenty-first century perspective.  Through a multipolar global framework, the book gives colourful accounts of capitalism’s polarizing and politicizing outcomes, the reimaging and place-marketing of cities, and the economic and cultural reproduction of space and place in the post-industrial era.′