The book offers new theoretical perspectives on innovation, analyzes innovation processes in diverse innovation fields, and presents case studies that reflect the diversity of innovations fields. To what extent and in what sense does innovation characterize our societies today? Innovations are no longer limited to the economic sphere; we find them in almost all areas of society today. Diverse actors generate innovations in different, increasingly reflexive ways. New concepts, practices, and institutional forms such as open source, crowdfunding, or citizen panels expand the spectrum.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of several urban related aspects that are of central importance to successful territorial cohesion processes. In essence, it sheds new light on issues concerning urban polycentrism, functional urban regions, integrated sustainable urban development, and the EU Urban Agenda; and on how they can help to achieve territorial cohesion policy goals. As an elusive and fairly recent concept, territorial cohesion has to date only been vaguely debated in the available literature, which for the most part focuses on its historical origins and its relevance for EU policymaking. Instead, this book synthesizes, for the first time, a range of perspectives that place urban elements and policies at the core of territorial cohesion analysis. As such, and given the fact that territorial cohesion is a holistic concept, the book will appeal to a broad readership from both the academic and policymaking arenas.

Climate change is predicted to increase the frequency and magnitude of coastal storms around the globe, and the anticipated rise of sea levels will have enormous impact on fragile and vulnerable coastal regions. In the U.S., more than 50% of the population inhabits coastal areas. In Planning for Coastal Resilience, Tim Beatley argues that, in the face of such threats, all future coastal planning and management must reflect a commitment to the concept of resilience. In this timely book, he writes that coastal resilience must become the primary design and planning principle to guide all future development and all future infrastructure decisions. Resilience, Beatley explains, is a profoundly new way of viewing coastal infrastructure—an approach that values smaller, decentralized kinds of energy, water, and transport more suited to the serious physical conditions coastal communities will likely face. Implicit in the notion is an emphasis on taking steps to build adaptive capacity, to be ready ahead of a crisis or disaster. It is anticipatory, conscious, and intentional in its outlook. After defining and explaining coastal resilience, Beatley focuses on what it means in practice. Resilience goes beyond reactive steps to prevent or handle a disaster. It takes a holistic approach to what makes a community resilient, including such factors as social capital and sense of place. Beatley provides case studies of five U.S. coastal communities, and “resilience profiles” of six North American communities, to suggest best practices and to propose guidelines for increasing resilience in threatened communities.