This book presents a critical analysis of the ‘resource curse’ doctrine and a review of the international evidence on oil and urban development to examine the role of oil on property development and rights in West Africa’s new oil metropolis - Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. It seeks answers to the following questions: In what ways did the city come into existence? What changes to property rights are oil prospecting, explorations, and production introducing in the 21st century? How do the effects vary across different social classes and spectrums? To what extent are local and national institutions able to shape, restrain, and constrain trans-national oil-related accumulation and its effects on property in land, property in housing (residential, leisure, and commercial), and property in labour? How do these processes connect with the entire urban system in Ghana? This book shows how institutions of varying degrees of power interact to govern land, housing, and labour in the city, and analyses how efficient, sustainable, and equitable the outcomes of these interactions are. It is a comprehensive account of the tensions and contradictions in the main sectors of the urban economy, society, and environment in the booming Oil City and will be of interest to urban economists, development economists, real estate economists, Africanists and urbanists.

This book presents a critical analysis of the ‘resource curse’ doctrine and a review of the international evidence on oil and urban development to examine the role of oil on property development and rights in West Africa’s new oil metropolis - Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. It seeks answers to the following questions: In what ways did the city come into existence? What changes to property rights are oil prospecting, explorations, and production introducing in the 21st century? How do the effects vary across different social classes and spectrums? To what extent are local and national institutions able to shape, restrain, and constrain trans-national oil-related accumulation and its effects on property in land, property in housing (residential, leisure, and commercial), and property in labour? How do these processes connect with the entire urban system in Ghana? This book shows how institutions of varying degrees of power interact to govern land, housing, and labour in the city, and analyses how efficient, sustainable, and equitable the outcomes of these interactions are. It is a comprehensive account of the tensions and contradictions in the main sectors of the urban economy, society, and environment in the booming Oil City and will be of interest to urban economists, development economists, real estate economists, Africanists and urbanists.

The Nigeria Urbanization Review serves the critical and timely purpose of understanding the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in Nigeria. The country’s rapid urban population growth and expansion is examined in relation to the account of its recent urban economic growth in order to seek for ways to finance urban development, particularly the provision of urban public goods and services. The objective of this analytical program is to provide diagnostic tools to inform policy dialogue and investment priorities on urbanization. This report serves the critical and timely purpose of focusing attention on the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in Nigeria. The executive summary at the front summarizes the key trends of Nigeria’s urbanization and sets out a framework to structure core urban challenges in view of underlying causes. Detailed analyses follow in the subsequent four chapters. In Chapter 1, the dynamics of Nigeria’s urbanization process are presented, with particular attention to the country’s rapid urban population growth, the very large-scale urban expansion, and the stubborn persistence of high levels of urban poverty, inequality and regional disparity. Chapter 2 provides an account of Nigeria’s recent urban economic growth, in view of the nature of the concentration of economic activity across the country’s states and cities, and of the limited performance of urban and regional economies in generating higher levels of employment and improving business climates. Chapter 3 turns to description and assessment of land management, urban planning and housing provision procedures and systems, which face a variety of challenges with regard to costs, affordability, capacity, equity and efficiency. Finally, Chapter 4 deals with the financing of urban development, particularly the provision of urban public goods and services, which is in need of both substantial finance and institutional and systemic improvements and reform.

In a globalizing, knowledge-based economy, innovation and creative capacity lead to economic prosperity. Starting in 2006, the Innovation Systems Research Network began a six year-long study on how city-regions in Canada were surviving and thriving in a globalized world. That study resulted in the “Innovation, Creativity, and Governance in Canadian City-Regions” series, which examines the impact of innovation, talent, and institutions on sixteen city-regions across Canada. This volume explores how the social dynamics that influence innovation and knowledge flows in Canadian city-regions contribute to transformation and long-term growth. With case studies examining cities of all sizes, from Toronto to Moncton, Innovating in Urban Economies analyzes the impact of size, location, and the regional economy on innovation and knowledge in Canada's cities.

This report presents the continent’s current state of affairs and forecasts its situation for the coming two years. It examines Africa’s performance in crucial areas: macroeconomics, financing, trade policies and regional integration, human development, and governance.

“A stunning piece of work—perhaps the best single book ever produced about our energy economy and its environmental implications” (Bill McHibbon, The New York Review of Books). Petroleum is so deeply entrenched in our economy, politics, and daily lives that even modest efforts to phase it out are fought tooth and nail. Companies and governments depend on oil revenues. Developing nations see oil as their only means to industrial success. And the Western middle class refuses to modify its energy-dependent lifestyle. But even by conservative estimates, we will have burned through most of the world’s accessible oil within mere decades. What will we use in its place to maintain a global economy and political system that are entirely reliant on cheap, readily available energy? In The End of Oil, journalist Paul Roberts talks to both oil optimists and pessimists around the world. He delves deep into the economics and politics, considers the promises and pitfalls of oil alternatives, and shows that—even though the world energy system has begun its epochal transition—we need to take a more proactive stance to avoid catastrophic disruption and dislocation.

"Building for Oil is a historical account of the development of the oil town of Daqing in northeastern China during the formative years of the People’s Republic, describing Daqing’s rise and fall as a national model city. Daqing oil field was the most profitable state-owned enterprise and the single largest source of state revenue for almost three decades, from the 1950s through the early 1980s. The book traces the roots and maturation of the Chinese socialist state and its early industrialization and modernization policies during a time of unprecedented economic growth.The metamorphosis of Daqing’s physical landscape in many ways exemplified the major challenges and changes taking place in Chinese state and society. Through detailed, often personal descriptions of the process of planning and building Daqing, the book illuminates the politics between party leaders and elite ministerial cadres and examines the diverse interests, conflicts, tensions, functions, and dysfunctions of state institutions and individuals. Building for Oil records the rise of the “Petroleum Group” in the central government while simultaneously revealing the everyday stories and struggles of the working men and women who inhabited China’s industrializing landscape—their beliefs, frustrations, and pursuit of a decent life."