SAM’s Books is pleased to be able to pass on to you some great deals on Comedia titles. This is a great offer – with substantial savings – at least 50% off almost all titles – and some at just one third of their original price. Most titles cover urban cultural policy. There are two on libraries, one on cemeteries and the working papers from the Richness of Cities research project.
The Richness of Cities: Urban Policy in a new landscape
Working Papers
(mostly from 1998)
This study addressed major issues of concern to local and national government politicians, urban planners and policy advisers, senior local government officers, business strategists and others interested in city administration and governance.
'A series of working papers which have brought international leading edge thinking on cities into the British policy arena, all written in a readable and accessible form.' Professor Patsy Healey, University of Newcastle.
Working Paper 1: New Departures by Liz Greenhalgh, Charles Landry, William Solesbury & Ken Worpole
This paper sets out to challenge the received understanding of cities at the end of the 20th Century as declining centres of power, influence, and economic and social disintegration. Instead, it argues, cities retain their capacity to reinvent themselves, to adapt to new technologies and sources of economic growth, and to create settings where individuals and communities of all kinds can flourish. It is the very flexibility of urban life that makes it a laboratory for new kinds of lifestyles, economies and cultures.
ISBN 1 873667 38 8 was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 2: Nothing to Fear? Trust & respect in urban communities by Ken Worple.
This paper looks at some of the formal and structural changes in British society and culture which have left many kinds of public life unregulated and unmanaged, and the ways in which traditionally valued public goods have been marginalized by market forces. It argues that public values are shaped by all kinds of influences - from playgrounds to architecture, from the rule of silence in libraries to the principle of social trust - and notes that environmentalism is itself challenging people to behave in more co-operative ways. It concludes by looking at new forms of democracy and decision-making now evident in the planning process and in community development.
ISBN 1 873667 43 4 was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 3: Net Effects: urban planning and the technological future of cities by Stephen Graham and Simon Marvin
This paper explores the relationship between the spread of the new information technologies, and the changing form and development of cities and systems of physical mobility and location. The paper challenges the technological determinism of so much writing about IT, and the authors provide a detailed examination of the subtle trade-offs emerging between increased electronic mobility and exchange, and physical transport, face-to-face contact, and the economic, cultural and community development of cities. ISBN 1 873667 48 5 was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 4: Partnerships & Power: Leadership and accountability in urban governance, by Deborah Jenkins
This paper questions the nature of leadership and the meaning of partnership in cities. It argues the case for a new type of leadership based on power-sharing rather that control, and examines why local government seems unable to meet the hunger for vision from its citizens, and looks at the contribution to urban management that can be made by quangos, business people, and the voluntary sector, pleading for an inclusive leadership style which will draw on all the resources available to a community. Finally, it makes the case for much greater openness and truth in public life in pursuit of both efficiency and effectiveness. ISBN 1 873667 53 1 was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 6: LIVELIHOOD: work in the new urban economy by Melissa Benn
The paper looks at the new meaning of work in urban life, and how this might reshape the rhythms and patterns of the city. Traditional ways of thinking about employment are changing. Some families and individuals have too much work to the point of overload; others have little nor any hope of finding any. A new concept of livelihood - one which extends our definition of work beyond what we 'do' for a living into how we live, in the broadest sense - would help both groups. Such a notion of livelihood connects more closely to education, housing and the private world of 'caring' than conventionally conceived definitions of work. ISBN 8 873667 63 9 was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 7: Britain's urban boom: the new economics of cities by Diane Coyle
Diane Coyle argues that most economic activity takes place in cities, and their role as places where particular industries and sectors cluster is not likely to diminish. Technological communications and business networking will still need to be supported by opportunities for face to face meetings which cities have always offered. Service industries and those associated with knowledge, culture and science will continue to gain in economic importance. New forms of finance and investment will continue to be needed at city level, and the current over-centralisation of economic and political power in Britain in London poses problems for strong regional urban economies. Creating new networks within cities to address issues of future economic performance is likely to be essential, as competition between cities is not going to go away. ISBN 1 873667 68 X was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 8: At home with strangers: public space and the new urbanity by Kathrine Shonfield.
This paper argues for a huge expansion in our definition of public space, suggesting that all time spent outside of work, and outside the home is public time, and that all the places where this time is spent is public space. It is also argued that everyone excluded temporarily or permanently from work or home, must have full recognition as a citizen of the city's third space, its public space. This is the basis of the new urbanity. More attention is needed in the planning and management of cities to develop fine-grained networks and spaces, including a greater re-integration or interior and exterior space, especially in public buildings, and to programme such places and spaces according to more sophisticated timetables or activities and opportunities. ISBN 1 873667 73 6 wa £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 9: Good Connections: Helping people to communicate in cities by William Solesbury
This paper argues that the qualities that makes cities unique places are all about connections - between people, between activities, between parts or the city and between the city and the world beyond. This connectedness - not just the infrastructure of road and rail and phone but also the systems and mentalities that operate them - is an essential support to a vibrant city economy, to the development of communities in cities, and to a strong civic society. Making the most of these networks requires some changes in policy thinking: to recognise that communication is now as much an end in itself as a means, to universalise access, to maximise network capacity, to maintain the diversity of networks, and to exploit their substitutability. ISBN 1 873667 78 7 was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 11: Making Difference Matter: ethnic minority cultures and city vitality by Raj Patel
This paper explores the growing impact that ethnic minority business plays in modern British cities, which are increasingly multi-cultural cities. It then looks at the role that immigration plays in other cities around the world, exploring the ideas that economic development is inseparable from the movement of populations in a global economy. The social and spatial segregation - as well as the integration - of ethnic minority communities is then discussed, followed by a consideration as to how the presence of minority communities in British cities is impacting on housing, education and cultural policy. ISBN 1 873667 93 0 Was £7.50 now £2.50
Working Paper 12: Towards the Ecopolis: sustainable development and urban governance by Roger Levett & Ian Christie
The world is waking up to the immense challenges of moving towards a path of ecologically sustainable development. At first sight the city is the most obvious source of unsustainability, with its heavy demands on resources, its deep-seated 'joined-up problems', and its great population of consumers. But the city is also a source of hope in that its concentration of people, ideas, innovations and resources makes it potentially a laboratory for the experiments, social learning and transfers of good practice essential to sustainable development. Most of all, the city at its best is the classical site of co-operation and recognition of the need to limit certain forms of individual freedom so that millions can achieve a higher quality of life through common services and sharing. ISBN 1 873667 98 1 Was £7.50 now £2.50
