Product Description: Introducing the major theories, issues and concepts in contemporary Political Theory, this text is a comprehensive and engaging introduction to the field. The book examines a range of topics to explore questions such as:• What kinds of political community best support democracy?• Do members of wealthy societies have duties to eradicate global poverty?• Who or what should be the authority on human rights?Chapters are carefully organized to enhance learning by first setting out rival perspectives on key political issues which are then compared and analysed through a series of key debates...read more

Product Description: This book is about changing the way we do public administration. It is about the wielding of administrative discretion in the implementation of a constitutional power: eminent domain, taking private property for public use. Administrative Discretion in Action: A Narrative of Eminent Domain, emphasizes the normative, constitutional perspective of public administration to study administrators’ decision-making process that balances economic, political, and community interests—often in that order...read more

Product Description: Kristina Ford argues that almost no part of the common perception of 'city planning' is accurate. Drawing on her close knowledge of New Orleans, she puts forward several innovations that might play a crucial role in restoring that devastated city, or any other place in which citizens are troubled by the proposals in the city plan...read more

Product Description: Despite roughly thirty years of experience with growth management programs, which are basically land-use planning tools, most U.S. communities do not plan for how best to limit or manage rapid growth; in fact, most communities do not plan at all...read more

Product Description: Nowhere on Earth is the challenge for ecological understanding greater, and yet more urgent, than in those parts of the globe where human activity is most intense - cities. People need to understand how cities work as ecological systems so they can take control of the vital links between human actions and environmental quality, and work for an ecologically and economically sustainable future...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Assesses the state of America's largest cities and traces the changes of the past two decades, identifying new initiatives that spell progress (view table of contents)

In a rapidly transforming world, America's cities occupy a strategic position in the global web and play an increasing role in determining the quality of local citizenship. In this book, we move beyond scholarly debates and political disputes to survey the remarkable transformations in local economies as local citizens and leaders face the twenty-first century".Are cities obsolete relics of an earlier era? In this pathbreaking book, Susan E. Clarke and Gary L. Gaile contend that contrary to this conventional wisdom, cities are growing in importance. Far from irrelevant, local governments are vital political arenas for the new work of cities -- empowering their citizens to adapt and serve as catalysts for the global economy.Using Robert Reich's The Work of Nations as a point of departure, the authors argue that globalism, coupled with increasing disparities of wealth and power, changes not only the work of nations but also the role of communities. Clarke and Gaile begin by detailing the transformation of the United States to a postindustrial economy situated in a "global web". They then examine the emergence of local entrepreneurial policy choices in the context of economic and political restructuring and in the absence of federal resources.Using empirical data to test assumptions about what leads cities to choose new policies, Clarke and Gaile explore local context through four case studies: Cleveland, Tacoma, Syracuse, and Jacksonville. They discuss human capital as the linchpin of globalization, arguing that analytical ability, information skills, and the capacity to innovate are all key to wealth creation. In conclusion, they contend that inattention to the decline in humanand social capital will ultimately undermine any local development efforts -- unless local policymakers craft responses to globalization that integrate rather than isolate citizens.The Work of Cities is both bold and nuanced, pragmatic yet compassionate in its recommendations. It is essential reading for anyone who cares about the fate of our metropolitan communities and the people who live there. (view table of contents)

Looks at the stories behind the creation of such monumental achievements as the Holland Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge

Product Description: This work represents the first broad evaluation of the implications and impacts of community efforts to manage or limit rapid growth. It describes the major types of growth management programs, placing them for the first time in four categories...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Governments at all levels know from experience the importance of a coordinated approach to information technology, and recent and rapid changes in these technologies are allowing authorities to improve decision-making, planning and administration in cities...read more

Product Description: This book describes the origin and concept of the Integrated Urban Infrastructure Development Programme (IUIDP) in Indonesia. It describes the emerging issues of urban management and training, of local resource mobilization, of public-private partnership projects, of community participation, and looks at the results of the first years of IUIDP and provides a medium-term outlook for IUIDP in the future...read more