This book demonstrates both successes and failures in attempts to get closer to the ideal of good urban governance in cities in North-America, Europe, and Asia. It presents a value menu and deliberately does not come up with “one best way” for improving urban governance. Good urban governance is presented as a balancing act, an interplay between government, business and civil society in which the core values need careful and timely attention. The authors address questions such as “What is deemed “good” in urban governance, and how is it being searched for?”, and “What (re)configurations of interactions between government, private sector and civil society are evolving, and to what results?”.

A passionate examination of why international anti-corruption fails to deliver results and how we should understand and build good governance.

"Reigning theories of urban power suggest that in a world dominated by footloose transnational capital, cities have little capacity to effect social change. In City Power, Schragger challenges this conventional wisdom, arguing that cities can and should pursue aims other than making themselves attractive to global capital. Using the municipal living wage movement as an example, Schragger explains why cities are well-positioned to address issues like income equality and how our institutions can be designed to allow them to do so"--

The study of urban governance provides a valuable insight into economic, social, and political forces and how they shape city life. But who and what are the real drivers of change? This innovative text casts new light on the issues and re-examines the state of urban governance at the start of the twenty-first century. Jon Pierre analyses four models of urban governance: 'management', 'corporatist', 'pro-growth' and 'welfare'. Each is assessed in terms of its implications for the major issues, interests and challenges in the contemporary urban arena. Distinctively, Pierre argues that institutions – and the values which underpin them – are the driving forces of change. The book also assesses the impact of globalization upon urban governance. The long-standing debate on the decline of urban governance is re-examined and reformulated by Pierre, who applies a wider international approach to the issues. He argues that the changing cast of private and public actors, combined with new forms of political participation, have resulted in a transformation – rather than a decline – of contemporary urban governance.

Some have suggested that the turmoil in the eurozone "proves" the deficiencies in the welfare state. This book argues that the superior performance of the Scandinavian countries arises from their superior systems of social protection, which allow their citizens to undertake greater risk and more actively participate in globalization. Others suggest that we can address terrorism or transnational crimes through the strengthening of borders or long distance wars. This book develops the proposition that such approaches have the opposite effect and that only through spreading the kind of human security experienced in well-ordered societies can these dangers be managed. This book also examines how these global changes play out not only in the relations among countries and the management of globalization but at every level of our society--

In recent decades, China has used urbanization as an economic development tool to reconstruct the country's traditional institutions, culture, and society. The downside of these many changes is that they have presented the country's government with a massive challenge: how can it maintain basic stability? China's Urban Future and the Quest for Stability examines the complexities of Chinese cities. Together, the essays in this book explore how the relatively recent onset of urbanization has altered the country, and how that experience is similar to and distinct from developments in other times and places. Each chapter analyzes one facet of China's transformation, focusing on three main themes: urbanization and the rapid growth of Chinese cities; mobility, in both the abstract and the literal sense; and marginalization, evidenced by growing residential segregation in cities and diminishing access to education, health care, and jobs. Underlying these themes is the issue of governance – the systems by which a state attempts to maintain control and achieve its ends, often in ways that differ significantly from what one might expect. An up-to-date, concise, and multidisciplinary collection, China's Urban Future and the Quest for Stability discusses the social, economic, and political forces at work in the urbanization of a modern superpower.