Democratic Governance

Democratic Governance PDF Author: Séverine Bellina
Publisher: Hurst & Company
ISBN: 9781849040198
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Book Description
'Governance' has become a key word in the lexicon of international relations over the last twenty years. It is used, loosely, and invariably in a liberal idiom, by scholars, activists, civil society organizations, politicians and the voluntary sector. In many respects it has attained the status of a fetish, yet 'governance' remains a notion that has multiple definitions, a concept in-the-making. Notwithstanding the imprecision with which the term is employed, it has become an inescapable paradigm for the politics of development. The contributors to this book, drawn from among some of the world's best area studies specialists, from North and South, offer a diverse global critique of 'governance' as deployed in several key areas: institutions and state actors; the rule of law, democracy and human rights; decentralization and state power; development and, last but not least, international cooperation and the role of the World Bank, the IMF and NGOs. The geographical spread of the volume ranges from Africa to Latin America, from Asia to the Middle East. Their objectives include: a reassessment of 'governance' in its many manifestations; an attempt to free the term from its often unhelpful linkage to the state, and thereby apply it to other organizations and actors; a re-evaluation of the Western-dominated use of the term politically and an attempt to broaden its application beyond issues such as transparency and the fight against corruption; and a search for innovative applications of the term, driven by a consensus that transcends current economic and political inequalities.

Cities, War, and Terrorism

Cities, War, and Terrorism PDF Author: Stephen Graham
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470753021
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
Cities, War and Terrorism is the first book to look critically at the ways in which warfare, terrorism and counter-terrorism policies intersect in cities in the post Cold-War period. A path-breaking exploration of the intersections of war, terrorism and cities Argues that contemporary cities are the key strategic sites of geopolitical conflict Written by the world’s leading analysts of the intersections of urban space and military and terrorist violence Draws on cutting-edge research from geography, history, architecture, planning, sociology, critical theory, politics, international relations and military studies Provides up-to-date empirical analyses of specific conflicts, including 9/11, the “War on Terrorism”, the Balkan wars, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and urban antiglobalization battles Offers lay readers a sophisticated perspective on the violence that is engulfing our increasingly urbanised world

Accounting for Culture

Accounting for Culture PDF Author: Caroline Andrew
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
ISBN: 0776618636
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Many scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers in the cultural sector argue that Canadian cultural policy is at a crossroads: that the environment for cultural policy-making has evolved substantially and that traditional rationales for state intervention no longer apply. The concept of cultural citizenship is a relative newcomer to the cultural policy landscape, and offers a potentially compelling alternative rationale for government intervention in the cultural sector. Likewise, the articulation and use of cultural indicators and of governance concepts are also new arrivals, emerging as potentially powerful tools for policy and program development. Accounting for Culture is a unique collection of essays from leading Canadian and international scholars that critically examines cultural citizenship, cultural indicators, and governance in the context of evolving cultural practices and cultural policy-making. It will be of great interest to scholars of cultural policy, communications, cultural studies, and public administration alike.

Planning, Connecting, and Financing Cities — Now

Planning, Connecting, and Financing Cities — Now PDF Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821398393
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 132

Book Description
"This report was written by a team led by Somik V. Lall"--P. xi.

The European Landscape Convention

The European Landscape Convention PDF Author: Michael Jones
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048199328
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
This important and insightful book provides, for the first time, a broad presentation of ongoing research into public participation in landscape conservation, management and planning, following the 2000 European Landscape Convention which came into force in 2004. The book examines both the theory of participation and what lessons can be learnt from specific European examples. It explores in what manner and to what extent the provisions for participation in the European Landscape Convention have been followed up and implemented. It also presents and compares different experiences of participation in selected countries from northern, southern, eastern and western Europe, and provides a critical examination of public participation in practice. However, while the book’s focus is necessarily on Europe, many of the conclusions drawn are of global relevance. The book provides a valuable reference for researchers and advanced students in landscape policies and management, as well as for professionals and others interested in land-use planning and environmental management.

Industrial Heritage Sites in Transformation

Industrial Heritage Sites in Transformation PDF Author: Harald A. Mieg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317755219
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
The management of industrial heritage sites requires rethinking in the context of urban change, and the issue of how to balance protection, preservation/conservation, and development becomes all the more crucial as industrial heritage sites grow in number. This brings into play new challenges—not only through the known conflicts between monument preservation and contemporary architecture, but also with the increasing demand for economic urban development by reusing the built heritage of former industrial sites. This book explores the conservation and change of industrial heritage sites in transformation, presenting and examining ten European and Asian case studies. The interdisciplinary approach of the book connects a diversity of rationales and discourses, including monument protection, World Heritage conventions, urban regeneration, urban planning and design, architecture, and politics. This is the first book to deepen the understanding of industrial heritage site management as a networked, multi-dimensional task involving diverse social agents and societal discourses.

Politics, Property and Production in the West African Sahel

Politics, Property and Production in the West African Sahel PDF Author: Tor Arve Benjaminsen
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171064769
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Book Description
Through a number of case studies from the West African Sahel, this book links and explores natural resources management from the perspectives of politics, property and production.

The Geography of Innovation

The Geography of Innovation PDF Author: M.P. Feldman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401733333
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 178

Book Description
This book offers a geographic dimension to the study of innovation and product commercialization. Building on the literature in economics and geography, this book demonstrates that product innovation clusters spatially in regions which provide concentrations of the knowledge needed for the commercialization process. The book develops a conceptual model which links the location of new product innovations to the sources of these knowledge inputs. The geographic concentration of this knowledge fonns a technological infrastructure which promotes infonnation transfers, and lowers the risks and the costs of engaging in innovative activity. Empirical estimation confinns that the location of product innovation is related to the underlying technological infrastructure, and that the location of the knowledge inputs are mutually reinforcing in defining a region's competitive advantage. The book concludes by considering the policy implications of these fmdings for both private finns and state governments. This work is intended for academics, policy practitioners and students in the fields of innovation and technological change, geography and regional science, and economic development. This work is part of a larger research effort to understand why the location of innovative activity varies spatially, specifically the externalities and increasing returns which accrue to location. xi Acknowledgements This work has benefitted greatly from discussions with friends and colleagues. I wish to specifically note the contribution of Mark Kamlet, Wes Cohen, Richard Florida, Zoltan Acs and David Audretsch. I would like to thank Gail Cohen Shaivitz for her dedication in editing the final manuscript.

New Urban Spaces

New Urban Spaces PDF Author: Neil Brenner
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190627182
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
The urban condition is today being radically transformed. Urban restructuring is accelerating, new urban spaces are being consolidated, and new forms of urbanization are crystallizing. In New Urban Spaces, Neil Brenner argues that understanding these mutations of urban life requires not only concrete research, but new theories of urbanization. To this end, Brenner proposes an approach that breaks with inherited conceptions of the urban as a bounded settlement unit-the city or the metropolis-and explores the multiscalar constitution and periodic rescaling of the capitalist urban fabric. Drawing on critical geopolitical economy and spatialized approaches to state theory, Brenner offers a paradigmatic account of how rescaling processes are transforming inherited formations of urban space and their variegated consequences for emergent patterns and pathways of urbanization. The book also advances an understanding of critical urban theory as radically revisable: key urban concepts must be continually reinvented in relation to the relentlessly mutating worlds of urbanization they aspire to illuminate.

The Sociology of the State

The Sociology of the State PDF Author: Bertrand Badie
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226035492
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

Book Description
Too often we think of the modern political state as a universal institution, the inevitable product of History rather than a specific creation of a very particular history. Bertrand Badie and Pierre Birnbaum here persuasively argue that the origin of the state is a social fact, arising out of the peculiar sociohistorical context of Western Europe. Drawing on historical materials and bringing sociological insights to bear on a field long abandoned to jurists and political scientists, the authors lay the foundations for a strikingly original theory of the birth and subsequent diffusion of the state. The book opens with a review of the principal evolutionary theories concerning the origin of the institution proposed by such thinkers as Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. Rejecting these views, the authors set forward and defend their thesis that the state was an "invention" rather than a necessary consequence of any other process. Once invented, the state was disseminated outside its Western European birthplace either through imposition or imitation. The study concludes with concrete analyses of the differences in actual state institutions in France, Prussia, Great Britain, the United States, and Switzerland.