This book project highlights creative approaches to planning and local development. The dynamic complexity, diversity and fluidity which characterize contemporary society represent challenges for planning and development endeavours. While research and policy work has extensively focused on large cities and on metropolitan regions, there has been relatively little work on ‘smaller places’. This book shows that if these new challenges affect all places and regions, small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) are suffering many specific problems that call imperatively for the design and implementation of very imaginative, creative approaches to planning and local development. What could enhance creativity in local development and planning? Is it possible to talk about creative capacity building at the level of a town that might release imaginative and innovative activities? Under what local and non-local conditions is creativity being initiated and flourishing? What are the major obstacles and in what way can these be contained in order to safeguard pockets of creative action? Interdisciplinary and with case studies from France, Norway and other European countries, this volume presents a wide range of approaches and territorial contexts of small cities and towns in which spatial dynamics and the consequences of the city-region for urban planning theory and practice in Europe are highlighted, with a special focus on the challenges for - and understanding of - planning and development of SMSTs. It provides a significant body of critical, comparative and contextual perspectives on the quest for urban sustainability and resilience in SMSTs, therefore emphasizing collaborative and potentially innovative approaches that can be detected, but also the shortcomings, pitfalls and 'traps' that can lie behind the approaches aimed at concerting ecological, economic, and socio-cultural concerns, and the discourses promoting them.

This book project highlights creative approaches to planning and local development. The dynamic complexity, diversity and fluidity which characterize contemporary society represent challenges for planning and development endeavours. While research and policy work has extensively focused on large cities and on metropolitan regions, there has been relatively little work on ‘smaller places’. This book shows that if these new challenges affect all places and regions, small and medium-sized towns (SMSTs) are suffering many specific problems that call imperatively for the design and implementation of very imaginative, creative approaches to planning and local development. What could enhance creativity in local development and planning? Is it possible to talk about creative capacity building at the level of a town that might release imaginative and innovative activities? Under what local and non-local conditions is creativity being initiated and flourishing? What are the major obstacles and in what way can these be contained in order to safeguard pockets of creative action? Interdisciplinary and with case studies from France, Norway and other European countries, this volume presents a wide range of approaches and territorial contexts of small cities and towns in which spatial dynamics and the consequences of the city-region for urban planning theory and practice in Europe are highlighted, with a special focus on the challenges for - and understanding of - planning and development of SMSTs. It provides a significant body of critical, comparative and contextual perspectives on the quest for urban sustainability and resilience in SMSTs, therefore emphasizing collaborative and potentially innovative approaches that can be detected, but also the shortcomings, pitfalls and 'traps' that can lie behind the approaches aimed at concerting ecological, economic, and socio-cultural concerns, and the discourses promoting them.

Summary: "Creative Community Planning provides clear access to emerging innovations in artistic, narrative, embodied and technological methods, exploring the frontiers of community engagement within a fresh sustainability framework. Academics, professionals and community members increasingly acknowledge that multiple perspectives enrich planning outcomes. Furthermore, it's acknowledged that the engagement process itself can create imaginative forums and spaces to nurture understanding and empathy for ourselves and for our environments. Reflecting on the wide continuum of participatory practice, the authors of Creative Community Planning discuss the work of planning theorists, researchers and practitioners engaging a diversity of people living in ever changing communities. The authors discuss how engagement practices are enhanced using practices such as visioning and participatory research processes, poetry, theatre, film, websites and exercises to access the creative ideas of all ages, including children and young people."--Publisher description.

Since the appearance of the first edition in 1990, Planning Local Economic Development has become the foundation for an entire generation of planners and academics teaching planning. Building on the success of its predecessors, the Fourth Edition continues to explore the theories of local economic development and address the dilemmas communities face. The authors investigate planning processes, analytical techniques, business and human resource development, as well as high-technology economic development strategies. Written by authors with many years of academic, regional, and city planning experience, this book will prove invaluable to professors of economic development, urban studies, and public administration. Economic development specialists in local and municipal government, as well as nonprofit organizations, will also find this an essential reference. New to the Fourth Edition: - Completely revised and updated with current research - Provides more guidance oriented to third world readers - Includes more on issues of urban sustainability such as energy and brown field development - Contains added material on the redesign of neighborhoods for sustainable purposes to include new firms and recycling techniques and technologies as new economic engines

Economic development and planning practitioners around the world are focusing on the producers and consumers of the creative economy as the basis for growing vibrant and successful cities. This creative movement calls for an interdisciplinary approach to planning where a break in the rules that govern 'normal' planning practice contribute to environments that breed creativity, innovation and ultimately, economic growth. While it is still too early to measure the economic impacts of the movement, many cities have begun to engage in a creative city planning approach to urban revitalization. This thesis investigates the translation of the creative city concept into urban revitalization policies and programs in Providence, Boston and Baltimore. These case studies illustrate the range of strategies for putting the ideas of the creative city in place, the new difficulties that arise when the planning community attempts to reframe planning practice, and provides recommendations for overcoming these implementation challenges.

Containing papers presented at the 13th International Conference on Urban Regeneration and Sustainability, this volume includes latest research providing solutions that lead towards sustainability. The series maintains its strong reputation and contributions have been made from a diverse range of delegates, resulting in a variety of topics and experiences.

Design and the Built Environment of the Arctic is a concise introductory guide to the design and planning of the built environments in the Arctic region. As the global forces of change are becoming more pronounced in the Arctic, the future trajectories for living environments, city-making processes, and their adaptive capacities need to be addressed directly. This book presents 11 new and original contributions from both leading and emerging scholars and practitioners, positioning the Arctic as a dynamic, diverse, and lived place at the nexus of unprecedented socioenvironmental transformations. The volume offers key concepts for understanding and spatializing Arctic cities and landscapes; similarities and differences in the development of design and planning approaches responsive to specific climatic and cultural conditions; and historical and geographic case studies that provide unique perspectives for the management of the built environment, from the scales of a building and infrastructure to cities and territories. Altogether, the contributions expand regional Arctic design scholarship to understand how the variability of the Arctic context influences the designed urban, architecture, and landscape systems, and offer numerous lessons for design and other forms of spatial practice both within and beyond the Arctic. This is a unique resource for researchers, creative practitioners, policymakers, and community decision-makers, as well as for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.