Small Cities (Questionong Cities Series)

Description: Until now, much research in the field of urban planning and change has focused on the economic, political, social, cultural and spatial transformations of global cities and larger metropolitan areas - in this topical new volume, David Bell and Mark Jayne redress this balance, focusing on urban change within small cities around the world. Drawing together research from a strong international team of contributors, this four part book is the first systematic overview of small cities. A comprehensive and integrated primer with coverage of all key topics, it takes a multi-disciplinary approach to an important contemporary urban phenomenon. The book addresses: political and economic decision making; urban economic development and competitive advantage; cultural infrastructure and planning in the regeneration of small cities; and identities, lifestyles and ways in which different groups interact in small cities. Centering on urban change as opposed to pure ethnographic description, the book's focus on informed empirical research raises many important issues. Its blend of conceptual chapters and theoretically directed case studies provides an excellent resource for a broad spectrum of undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as providing a rich resource for academics and researchers. Table of Contents: 1 Conceptualizing small cities DAVID BELL AND MARK JAYNE Part 1 The political economy of small cities 2 On the dynamics of ambivalent urbanization and urban productivity in Port Louis, Mauritius ABDOUMALIQ SIMONE 3 Temp Town: temporality as a place promotion niche in the world's furniture capital JOHN JOE SCHLICHTMAN 4 Jumping scale: from small town politics to a 'regional presence'? Re-doing economic governance in Canada's technology triangle JOSEPH LEIBOVITZ 5 Tourism in a reluctantly small city-island-nation: insights from Singapore T.C. CHANG Part 2 The urban hierarchy and competitive advantage 6 The festival phenomenon: festivals, events and the promotion of small urban areas ANDREW BRADLEY AND TIM HALL 7 Gentrifying down the urban hierarchy: 'the cascade effect' in Portland, Maine LORETTA LEES 8 The re-construction of a small Scottish city: re-discovering Dundee GREG LLOYD, JOHN MCCARTHY AND DEBORAH PEEL 9 Urban myth: the symbolic sizing of Weimar, Germany FRANK ECKARDT Part 3 The cultural economy of small cities 10 Garden Cities and city gardens MALCOLM MILES 11 Small cities for a small country: sustaining the cultural renaissance? GRAEME EVANS AND JO FOORD 12 Creative small cities: cityscapes, power and the arts GORDON WAITT 13 Rethinking small places -- urban and cultural creativity: examples from Sweden, the USA and Bosnia-Herzegovina TOM FLEMING, LIA GHILARDI AND NANCY K. NAPIER Part 4 Identity, lifestyle and forms of sociability 14 Caudan: domesticating the global waterfront TIM EDENSOR 15 De-centring metropolitan youth identities: boundaries, difference and sense of place GORDON WAITT, TIM HEWITT AND ELLEN KRALY 16 Small city -- big ideas: culture-led regeneration and the consumption of place STEVEN MILES 17 Afterword -- sizing up small cities DAVID BELL AND MARK JAYNE