The past ten years have seen local government in the UK facing two major challenges: to survive in the face of Thatcher government hostility, and to adapt to enormously powerful forces of economic restructuring which have also been encouraged by government policies. The key aspects of these changing fortunes of British towns explored in this important new book is the ability of individual localities to exercise any control over their own growth and decline. Place, Policy and Politics examines local political initiatives seeking to influence economic and social development in seven sharply contrasting localities, ranging from the outer council estates of Merseyside to the boom towns of Cheltenham and Swindon. Throughout their analysis, the contributors, drawn from a wide range of social science disciplines, address the vital questions in the debate over local policy initiatives, including: * To what extent are localities able to harness trends in the national and international economy to provide jobs and a better standard of living for their inhabitants? * Why do local authorities vary in their capacity to initiate economic policy? * To what extent do national urban and other policies inhibit or encourage their efforts? * How might central government modify its policies to facilitate the prospering of localities?

This book explores the political significance of tourism. It discusses the implications of different political theories on how we perceive the politics of tourism and examines the relationships between the political aspects of tourism at different levels of analysis.

Thomas Jefferson envisioned a nation of citizens deeply involved in public life. Today Americans are lamenting the erosion of his ideal. What happened in the intervening centuries? Daniel Kemmis argues that our loss of capacity for public life (which impedes our ability to resolve crucial issues) parallels our loss of a sense of place. A renewed sense of inhabitation, he maintains —of community rooted in place and of people dwelling in that place in a practiced way—can shape politics into a more cooperative and more humanly satisfying enterprise, producing better people, better communities, and better places. The author emphasizes the importance of place by analyzing problems and possibilities of public life in a particular place— those northern states whose settlement marked the end of the old frontier. National efforts to “keep citizens apart” by encouraging them to develop open country and rely upon impersonal, procedural methods for public problems have bred stalemate, frustration, and alienation. As alternatives he suggests how western patterns of inhabitation might engender a more cooperative, face-to-face practice of public life. Community and the Politics of Place also examines our ambivalence about the relationship between cities and rural areas and about the role of corporations in public life. The book offers new insight into the relationship between politics and economics and addresses the question of whether the nation-state is an appropriate entity for the practice of either discipline. The author draws upon the growing literature of civic republicanism for both a language and a vantage point from which to address problems in American public life, but he criticizes that literature for its failure to consider place. Though its focus on a single region lends concreteness to its discussions, Community and the Politics of Place promotes a better understanding of the quality of public life today in all regions of the United States.

The first part of the book is concerned with developing the place perspective. Three dimensions of place are put forward: locale and sense of place describe the objective and subjective dimensions of local social arrangements within which political behaviour is realized; location refers to the impact of the ‘macro-order’, to the fact that a single place is one among many and that the social life of a place is embedded in theworkings of the state and the world economy. The second part of the book provides detailed examinations of American and Scottish politics, using the place perspective. Contrary to the view that place or locality is important only in ‘traditional societies’, this book argues that place is of continuing significance in even the most ‘advanced’ societies.

How do the places where people live help structure and restructure their sociopolitical identities and interests? In this book, renowned political geographer John A. Agnew presents a theoretical model that addresses the relation of place to politics and applies it to a series of historicogeographical case studies set in modern Italy. For Agnew, place is not just a static backdrop against which events occur, but a dynamic component of social, economic, and political processes. He shows, for instance, how the lack of a common "landscape ideal" or physical image of Italy delayed the development of a sense of nationhood among Italians after unification. And Agnew uses the post-1992 victory of the Northern League over the Christian Democrats in many parts of northern Italy to explore how parties are replaced geographically during periods of intense political change. Providing a fresh new approach to studying the role of space and place in social change, Place and Politics in Modern Italy will interest geographers, political scientists, and social theorists.

Break with convention - An original look at policymaking Policymaking is a messy business. It entails more than the traditional policy cycle discussed in most textbooks. And it involves more than presidents and members of Congress. Judges, bureaucrats, corporate leaders, journalists, and voters all influence and participate in the process, and at all levels of government. Each group practices a different kind of politics, which very often results in different policies and outcomes. By looking at six distinct, yet connected, policy domains, your students will see a more comprehensive and realistic view of policymaking: Boardroom Politics - decisions by professional and business leaders Bureaucratic Politics - rule-making and adjudication by administrators Cloakroom Politics - lawmaking by legislators Chief Executive Politics - decision making by presidents, governors, mayors, and their advisers Courtroom Politics - rulings by judges Living Room Politics - opinions expressed by and through the mass media, grassroots movements, political activists, and voters Policymakers are faced with tough choices. With this text, students are better prepared to evaluate their leaders' performance given the book'ss unique framework linking how policies are chosen with what policy is chosen. Thoroughly updated to reflect the issues of the early 21st century, this new edition also incorporates new and important scholarship. Recommended for classes in: Public Policy and American Government

What futures are we designing by default? What collaborations are we complicit in? How can we incorporate an active civic engagement into our professional and creative practice – into our everyday lives? Esther Anatolitis presents a dynamic snapshot of her own practice from a distinctly Australian context but with a global perspective, offering tools and techniques for integrating civic engagement into daily practice. Taking leaps across spatial, creative, professional and political work, this is an unsettling text.