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This article shows how the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany have made bicycling a safe, convenient and practical way to get around their cities. The analysis relies on national aggregate data as well as case studies of large and small cities in each country. The key to achieving high levels of cycling appears to be the provision of separate cycling facilities along heavily travelled roads and at intersections, combined with traffic calming of most residential neighbourhoods. Extensive cycling rights of way in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany are complemented by ample bike parking, full integration with public transport, comprehensive traffic education and training of both cyclists and motorists, and a wide range of promotional events intended to generate enthusiasm and wide public support for cycling. In addition to their many pro-bike policies and programmes, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany make driving expensive as well as inconvenient in central cities through a host of taxes and restrictions on car ownership, use and parking. Moreover, strict land-use policies foster compact, mixed-use developments that generate shorter and thus more bikeable trips. It is the coordinated implementation of this multi-faceted, mutually reinforcing set of policies that best explains the success of these three countries in promoting cycling. For comparison, the article portrays the marginal status of cycling in the UK and the USA, where only about 1% of trips are by bike.

Research Project Visions of the Role of Walking and Cycling in 2030 The Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford, is a major partner in a £1.4m, three year project that aims to develop visions of sustainable urban futures. 'Visions of the role of walking and cycling in 2030' (Visions2030) seeks to revitalise the quality of walking and cycling in the UK and explore ways in which more people might be encouraged to use these modes in the future. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the research commenced in October 2008 and also involves the universities of Leeds, East Anglia, Salford and Manchester. It builds upon a growing recognition that walking and cycling can make a considerable contribution to sustainable transport goals, public health and the sociability of communities. The amount of walking and cycling in the United Kingdom has declined significantly over the last sixty years and previous research suggests that there are currently major obstacles preventing people from using these modes. Visions2030 is unashamedly radical in its approach to this challenge and will examine the means by which a fundamental change to both the quantity and quality of such 'active travel' can occur. Public engagement with the visioning process is a key priority, and a range of participatory tools will enable people to weave their own stories in and out of expert visions, thus opening up the possibility of a richer and expanded set of visions, grounded in real experiences. James Macmillen, research fellow at the Transport Studies Unit, comments: "Urban space is an extremely precious resource and our society needs to think seriously about how we would like our cities to function. This research represents a fantastic opportunity to improve the conditions for pedestrians and cyclists in the UK." Further Information For more information and output from this research project, please see the Visions2030 website.

Welcome to Visions 2030 Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), this research commenced in October 2008 and involves the universities of Leeds, Oxford, East Anglia, Salford and Manchester, in consultation with local walking and cycling groups in four UK cities. It builds upon a growing recognition that walking and cycling can make a considerable contribution to sustainable transport goals, public health and the sociability of communities. The amount of walking and cycling in the United Kingdom has declined significantly over the last sixty years and previous research suggests that there are currently major obstacles preventing people from using these modes. Visions2030 is unashamedly radical in its approach to this challenge and will examine the means by which a fundamental change to both the quantity and quality of such 'active travel' can occur. Public engagement with the visioning process is a key priority, and a range of participatory tools will enable people to weave their own stories in and out of expert visions, thus opening up the possibility of a richer and expanded set of visions, grounded in real experiences. This research assesses the potential in the UK for achieving substantial increases in walking and cycling by 2030. Evidence based pathways will be developed with input from a new range of participatory tools to determine the suitability of alternative packages of measures. Through innovative approaches to analysis, more challenging longer term targets can be reached and the step changes necessary to fully maximise the potential of walk and cycling in achieving a sustainable transport system and a more inclusive society can be realised.

A Life Cycle for Clusters? The Dynamics of Agglomeration, Change, and Adaption Series: Contributions to Economics Press, Kerstin 2006, XIV, 245 p. 40 illus., Softcover ISBN: 978-3-7908-1710-2 A Physica Verlag Heidelberg book Ships in 3 - 5 business days $99.00 ABOUT THIS BOOK REVIEWS The phenomenon of non-random spatial concentrations of firms in one or few related sectors (clusters) is intensively debated in economic theory and policy. The euphoria about successful clusters however neglects that historically, many thriving clusters did deteriorate into old industrial areas. This book studies the determinants of cluster survival by analyzing their adaptability to change in the economic environment. Linking theoretic knowledge with empirical observations, a simulation model (based in the N/K method) is developed, which explains when and why the cluster's architecture assists or hampers adaptability. It is found that architectures with intermediate degrees of division of labour and more collective governance forms foster adaptability. Cluster development is thus path dependent as architectures having evolved over time impact on the likelihood of future survival. Content Level » Research Keywords » Adaptation - Clusters - Complex Systems - N/K Model - Simulation Modelling Related subjects » Complexity - Economic Theory - Geography - Industrial Organization - Regional / Spatial Science TABLE OF CONTENTS Download Table of contents (pdf, 266 kB) Download Table of contents (txt, 5

Pushing ahead with mega-events: the housing outcomes of mega-event hosting on low-income families in China Contemporary cities increasingly compete for hosting mega-events such as the Olympic Games. While their economic benefits are often discussed, little attention is paid to the social impact of hosting mega-events on poor residents and changes in their housing conditions. To fill this gap, this pilot research examines the experience of mega-event hosting in three Chinese cities: Beijing and Tianjin in relation to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, and Xining in Qinghai Province as the host city of annual international cycling race. The research finds that mega-event hosting is pursued as a catalyst for spatial restructuring and beautification in already rapidly urbanising cities. Poor residents and migrants in dilapidated neighbourhoods are the hardest hit by those projects related to mega-event preparation. The severity of negative effects induced by neighbourhood demolition tends to vary according to housing tenure and household registration status. Private tenants and migrants tend to be the most disadvantaged. Staff member: Hyun Bang Shin, with Bingqin Li, Department of Social Policy, LSE, Huamin Peng, Nankai University, Tianjin and Wenjiang Chen, Lanzhou University Project period: February 2008 to January 2009 Funding: The British Academy Small Research Grant Related publications: Shin, H. B. (2009) 'Life in the shadow of mega-events: Beijing Summer Olympic and its impact on housing', Journal of Asian Public Policy, Vol 2., No. 2, pp. 122-141 Shin, H. B. (in progress) 'Mega-events and housing: the survival of 'urban villagers' in Beijing Shin, H. B. and Li, B. (in progress) 'Go-West' policy and event-driven urban regeneration: the case of Xining, China © Hyun Bang Shin Copyright © LSE 2011Freedom of information | About this site | Comment on this page | Page last updated on 14 July 2010 Use of this website is sub

Frame Analysis: Theoretical PreliminariesThomas KönigFrame analysis is neither a full-fledged theoretical paradigm, nor a coherent methodological approach. Rather, frame analyses are a number of related, even though sometimes partially incompatible methods for the analysis of discourses (Scheufele 1999: 118). What unifies these analyses is a (fairly loose) theoretical connection to Goffman's (1974) work on framing. These pages will overview: the theoretical development of frame analyses;the measurement of frames;important conceptsin frame analysis;software suitable to aid frame analysis;a bibliography of frame analysis.Theoretical DevelopmentInitially frame analysis was initially predicted to become a niche method at best. One Contemporary Sociology reviewer complained that Frame Analysis is cumbersome to read (Davis 1975: 603), the other one wondered, if an adequate systematization of frame analysis would be feasible (Gamson 1975: 605). 1Probably the single most important factor for the success of Goffman's frame analysis despite this initial skeptical assessment is its unorthodox appropriation by scholars from very different traditions. Frame analysis is no longer Goffman's frame analysis, but is frequently only loosely connected to the original formulation. Notwithstanding the recurrent symbolic nods to Goffman, today's "frame analysis" spans a number of disparate approaches (D'Angelo 2002; Fisher 1997; Hallahan 1999; Maher 2001: 81f; Scheufele 1999: 103, 118). Three subject areas stand out in the development of frame analyses since Goffman: Management and organizational studies, social movement studies, and media studies. Each subject area has, of course, focused on different areas of framing theory and has approached the subject with different methods. Following the the work of 2002 Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and his associate Amos Tversky (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), management and organizational studies have focused on the behavioral effects of different

City Solutions The City Solution Why cities are the best cure for our planet's growing pains By Robert Kunzig Photograph by Chia Ming Chien At the time of Jack the Ripper, a hard time for London, there lived in that city a mild-mannered stenographer named Ebenezer Howard. He's worth mentioning because he had a large and lingering impact on how we think about cities. Howard was bald, with a bushy, mouth-cloaking mustache, wire-rim spectacles, and the distracted air of a seeker. His job transcribing speeches did not fulfill him. He dabbled in spiritualism; mastered Esperanto, the recently invented language; invented a shorthand typewriter himself. And dreamed about real estate. What his family needed, he wrote to his wife in 1885, was a house with "a really nice garden with perhaps a lawn tennis ground." A few years later, after siring four children in six years in a cramped rental house, Howard emerged from a prolonged depression with a scheme for emptying out London. London in the 1880s, you see, was booming, but it was also bursting with people far more desperate than Howard. The slums where the Ripper trolled for victims were beyond appalling. "Every room in these rotten and reeking tenements houses a family, often two," wrote Andrew Mearns, a crusading minister. "In one cellar a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children, and four pigs! … Elsewhere is a poor widow, her three children, and a child who had been dead thirteen days." The Victorians called such slums rookeries, or colonies of breeding animals. The chairman of the London County Council described his city as "a tumour, an elephantiasis sucking into its gorged system half the life and the blood and the bone of the rural districts." Urban planning in the 20th century sprang from that horrified perception of 19th-century cities. Oddly, it began with Ebenezer Howard. In a slim book, self-published in 1898, the man who spent his days transcribing the ideas of others articu

Mechanisms of Growth Today, there are four primary mechanisms that have fueled the current growth pattern within our towns and neighborhoods. None of these are financially sustainable. 1. Transfer payments between governments. Nearly every city in America is reliant, to one degree or another, on intergovernmental subsidies to finance infrastructure. Whether the money comes through an established program, an earmark or a block grant, the result is the same: a land use pattern that does not reflect local economic realities. Local values and priorities are distorted when there is little pressure to generate a return on public infrastructure investments. The result: inefficient growth patterns that cannot be financially sustained. At the same time our infrastructure maintenance liabilities are ballooning, our federal and state legislatures are struggling to reconcile huge budget shortfalls. Even if it were good policy, the reality is that we do not have the ability to build Strong Towns with intergovernmental transfer payments as they are currently designed. 2. Demand-driven transportation spending. Transportation improvements today are made primarily to increase safety and reduce congestion. After two generations of trying to build our way out of congestion, we not only have massive maintenance liabilities but congestion is actually worse. An approach to transportation spending that pits federal and state priorities (transportation) against local priorities (land use) when we should be linking them is a recipe for waste and inefficiency. To add to this disconnect, federal transportation policy actually rewards states with additional funds for building additional roads, regardless of their efficiency. Political meddling, often in the form of earmarks, further distorts transportation spending by prioritizing improvements based on political clout, not overall return on the public investment.  3. Debt, both public and private. Where we once paid for infrastructure

Building the ecological city Rodney R. White 0 Resenhas Woodhead, 2002 - 238 páginas Our cities are plagued by problems of congestion, waste, and pollution that deplete natural resources, damage the environment, and reduce the quality of life for their citizens. The irony is, as this fascinating new study shows, it doesn't have to be like this. Building the Ecological City describes the problems we face and puts forward solutions to the question - how can we build cities that provide an acceptable standard of living for their inhabitants without depleting the ecosystems and bio-geochemical cycles on which they depend?The book suggests and examines the concept of urban metabolism which characterizes the city as a set of interlinked systems of physical flows linking air, land, and water. A series of chapters looks at the production and management of waste, energy use and air emissions, water supply and management, urban land use, and air quality issues. Within the broader context of climate change, the book then considers a range of practical strategies for restoring the health of urban ecosystems from the remediation of 'brownfield' land to improving air quality and making better use of water resources.A major contribution to better urban management and planning for both citizens and the environment, Building the Ecological City is an invaluable sourcebook for urban and national planners, architects, and environmental agencies

A Mobile Century? Changes in Everyday Mobility in Britain in the Twentieth Century Imprint: Ashgate Published: December 2005 Format: 234 x 156 mm Extent: 270 pages Binding: Hardback ISBN: 978-0-7546-4181-0 Price : £60.00 » Website price: £54.00 BL Reference: 388.4'0941'0904 LoC Control No: 2005927751   Print friendly information sheet Send to a friend Colin G. Pooley, Lancaster University, UK, Jean Turnbull, Lancaster University, UK and Mags Adams, University of Salford, UK Series : Transport and Mobility For most people in the developed world, the ability to travel freely on a daily basis is almost taken for granted. Although there is a large volume of literature on contemporary mobility and associated transport problems, there are no comprehensive studies of the ways in which these trends have changed over time. This book provides a detailed empirical analysis of mobility change in Britain over the twentieth century. Beginning with an explanatory theoretical overview, setting the UK case studies within an international context, the book then analyses changes in the journey to school, the journey to work, and travelling for pleasure. It also looks at the ways in which changes in mobility have interacted with changes in the family life cycle and assesses the impact of new transport technologies on everyday mobility. It concludes by examining the implications of past mobility change for contemporary transport policy. Contents: The significance of travel and mobility; Mobility and society; Reconstructing mobilities; Changes in everyday mobility: an overview; Travelling to school; Travelling to work; Travel for leisure and pleasure: children playing and hanging around; Travel for leisure and pleasure: entertainment, sport, shopping and holidays; Mobility, family and the life course; Transport policies, technologies and the experience of everyday mobility; The lessons of history: mobility change and contemporary transport policy; Bibliography; Index. About the A

City Builders: Property Development in New York and London, 1980-2000 University Press of Kansas, 2001 In the last twenty years, urban centers worldwide have experienced enormous booms and busts as real-estate developers, financial institutions, and public officials first poured resources into physical redevelopment, then watched as the market collapsed before booming again in the 1990s. In this extensively revised edition of her highly regarded The City Builders, Susan Fainstein examines major redevelopment efforts in New York and London to uncover the forces behind these investment cycles and the role that public policy can play in moderating market instability. Fainstein chronicles the progress of three development projects in New York (Times Square, downtown Brooklyn, and Battery Park City) and three in London (King's Cross, Spitalfields, and Docklands). Analyzing the political and economic processes underlying physical changes in these two cities during the last two decades, she uncovers the role played by developers' perceptions and strategies in their interactions with both public policy-makers and property markets. This new edition follows each development effort to the present and places the discussion in a newly strengthened theoretical framework. In her investigation of the convergence between London and New York during the 1980s and then the divergence that began in the 1990s, Fainstein traces similarities and differences in the effects of globalization, ideology, and institutional structure in each city's experience. This comparative framework also sheds considerable light on the contributing roles of structure and agency in creating final outcomes. Fainstein concludes by assessing the impact of "theme park" development on the urban fabric and recommending a set of realistic strategies to both redevelop cities and improve the lives of urban residents. This book is part of the Studies in Government and Public Policy series. Table of Contents List

On the 'Nobel Prize in Economics' and the monopoly of neoclassical theory at university departments of economics February 12, 2010pesodLeave a commentGo to comments from Peter Söderbaum,  peter.soderbaum@mdh.se Early in October 2009 a journalist from a French business journal, Challenge, called me to discuss the so called Nobel Prize in Economics. He referred to a translated version of my critical article in Dagens Nyheter from 2004. I hope that the result from the interview was meaningful but at the same time I felt that I need to consider once more where I stand in relation to these issues. In what follows, there is a 'socially constructed' interview with myself in both roles; the person asking questions and the one responding. I hope this will clarify my position. At the final stage of writing these pages I heard of the new winners of the Economics Prize, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. A short comment on this is made as a postscript. Is economics a science as you understand it? I have nothing against thinking of economics as a science. Economics is one of the social sciences, such as political science, sociology, psychology, management science. There are also important relationships to the humanities, such as a possible focus on individuals as actors and their subjectivity. I am skeptical to the attempt to emphasize similarities between economics on the one hand and physics, chemistry, medicine on the other. The latter disciplines are too limited to positivism as a theory of science (standing outside, watching ecosystems and nature, looking for regularities in a value neutral way, making experiments etc.) You are skeptical to, if not against a Nobel Prize in economics; why is this so?For me, it is the combination of two states of affairs or facts that make me question the economics prize in its present form:  There is a dominance and monopoly for one kind of economics, 'neoclassical economics' at university departments of economics in

Malecki E. J. Global knowledge and creativity: new challenges for firms and regions, Regional Studies. As companies locate research and development in more places, they seek to tap knowledge in new, open ways, to respond to diverse customer demand and short product life cycles. The globalization of research and development has added costs as firms communicate across national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries, using both information and communication technology networks and face-to-face interaction. Intermediaries in knowledge transfer, such as knowledge brokers and gatekeepers, have become more important as new nodes join the global system of knowledge. As firms respond to the knowledge-based global economy, each region must construct a 'knowledge monopoly' to stand out in the global landscape of capabilities