This book discusses and analyzes past and ongoing national urban policy development efforts from around the globe, particularly those that can lead the way toward smart and green cities. In view of the adoption of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially the goal to have cities that are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, urban policies that can help achieve this goal are urgently needed. The UN-Habitat (HABITAT III) puts national urban policies at the heart of implementing and rethinking the urban agenda, and identifies them as being integral to the equitable and sustainable development of nations. Against this background, this important book, which gathers contributions from academics, planners and urban specialists, reviews existing urban policies from developing and developed nations, discusses various countries’ smart and green urban policies, and outlines the way forward. As such, it is essential reading for all social scientists, planners, designers, architects, and policymakers working on urban development around the world.

Written in a clear and concise style, this Modern Guide provide a timely overview and comparison of urban challenges and national urban policies in 13 European countries, addressing key issues such as housing, urban regeneration and climate change. A team of international contributors explore the gap between the rise of international urban agendas and variegated national urban policies, examining whether a more bespoke approach is better than the traditional ‘one size fits all’.

First published in 1998, this collection of essays compares the implementation of urban policies in 15 different countries across the European Union, with most articles’ contributors hailing from their subject nation. The contributors include experts in geography and spatial, town, transport and urban planning, and their contributions reflect fundamental changes in the economy, technology, demography and politics of European towns and cities. They ask four main questions: what the urban development pattern is, what administrative and financial relations between national authorities and cities exist, which issues the national authorities consider to be prominent and how this impacts on the national urban planning policies. Through the provision of national perspectives, they ask what can be learned through the comparison of how each region has tailored its perspective and strategy.

With his background as a community organizer and as a state legislator representing Chicago's South Side, Barack Obama became America's most "urban" president since Teddy Roosevelt. But what has been his record in dealing with the issues most impacting our metropolitan areas today? Looking past the current administration, what are the future prospects of the nation's cities, and how have they been shaped by our policies in this century? Seeking to answer these questions, the contributors to Urban Policy in the Time of Obama explore a broad range of policy arenas that shape, both directly and indirectly, metropolitan areas and urbanization processes. This volume reveals the Obama administration's surprisingly limited impact on cities, through direct policy initiatives such as Strong Cities, Strong Communities, Promise Neighborhoods, and Choice Neighborhood Initiatives. There has been greater impact with broader policies that shape urban life and governance, including immigration reform, education, and health care. Closing with Cedric Johnson's afterword illuminating the Black Lives Matter movement and what its broader social context says about city governance in our times, Urban Policy in the Time of Obama finds that most of the dominant policies and policy regimes of recent years have fallen short of easing the ills of America's cities, and calls for a more equitable and just urban policy regime. Contributors: Rachel G. Bratt, Tufts University; Christine Thurlow Brenner, University of Massachusetts Boston; Karen Chapple, University of California, Berkeley; James Fraser, Vanderbilt University; Edward G. Goetz, University of Minnesota; Dan Immergluck, Georgia Tech; Amy T. Khare, University of Chicago; Robert W. Lake, Rutgers University; Pauline Lipman, University of Illinois at Chicago; Lorraine C. Minnite, Rutgers University-Camden; Kathe Newman, Rutgers University; Deirdre Oakley, Georgia State; Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York; Hilary Silver, Brown University; Janet Smith, University of Illinois at Chicago; Preston H. Smith II, Mount Holyoke Colle≥ Todd Swanstrom, University of Missouri-St. Louis; Nik Theodore, University of Illinois at Chicago; J. Phillip Thompson, MIT.

This popular text mixes the best classic theory and research on urban politics with the most recent developments in urban and metropolitan affairs. Its very balanced and realistic approach helps students to understand the nature of urban politics and the difficulty of finding effective solutions in a suburban and global age. The eighth edition provides a comprehensive review and analysis of urban policy under the Obama administration and brand new coverage of sustainable urban development. A new chapter on globalization and its impact on cities brings the history of urban development up to date, and a focus on the politics of local economic development underscores how questions of economic development have come to dominate the local arena. The book traces the changing style of community participation, including the emergence of CDCs, BIDs, and other new-style service organizations. It analyzes the impacts of the New Regionalism, the New Urbanism, and much more at an approachable level. The eighth edition is significantly shorter and more affordable than previous editions, and the entire text has been thoroughly rewritten to engage students. Boxed case studies of prominent recent and current urban development efforts provide material for class discussion, and concluding material demonstrates the tradeoff between more ideal and more pragmatic urban politics. Source material provides Internet addresses for further research.

This significant text examines the factors, both internal and external to the World Bank that have influenced its urban development agenda, and is essential reading for those involved in the areas of urban and development studies.

Cities are not only home to around half of the global population but also major centers of economic activity and innovation. Yet, so far there has been no consensus of what a city really is. Substantial differences in the way cities, metropolitan, urban, and rural areas are defined across countries hinder robust international comparisons and an accurate monitoring of SDGs. The report Cities in the World: A New Perspective on Urbanisation addresses this void and provides new insights on urbanisation by applying for the first time two new definitions of human settlements to the entire globe: the Degree of Urbanisation and the Functional Urban Area.