"There is currently a popular view that the world is undergoing profound changes in the fundamental relationships upon which it is organized. In particular, there is widespread talk of a 'globalized' economy, facilitated by and associated with 'new' techno"

Lazonick explores the origins of the new era of employment insecurity and income inequality, and considers what governments, businesses, and individuals can do about it. He also asks whether the United States can refashion its high-tech business model to generate stable and equitable economic growth. --from publisher description.

Today, the Bay Area is home to the most successful knowledge economy in America, while Los Angeles has fallen progressively further behind its neighbor to the north and a number of other American metropolises. Yet, in 1970, experts would have predicted that L.A. would outpace San Francisco in population, income, economic power, and influence. The usual factors used to explain urban growth—luck, immigration, local economic policies, and the pool of skilled labor—do not account for the contrast between the two cities and their fates. So what does? The Rise and Fall of Urban Economies challenges many of the conventional notions about economic development and sheds new light on its workings. The authors argue that it is essential to understand the interactions of three major components—economic specialization, human capital formation, and institutional factors—to determine how well a regional economy will cope with new opportunities and challenges. Drawing on economics, sociology, political science, and geography, they argue that the economic development of metropolitan regions hinges on previously underexplored capacities for organizational change in firms, networks of people, and networks of leaders. By studying San Francisco and Los Angeles in unprecedented levels of depth, this book extracts lessons for the field of economic development studies and urban regions around the world.

This volume expands on the standard economic framework of 'global economy' by looking at the way in which economic life is framed by society and social relationships and investigates how social values influence and help determine economic values.

The politics and economics of the United States are wedded in the political economy of the nation state and the nationalist economic policies. This `nationalist paradigm' is, however, showing the following signs of fatigue: the role of the nation state is diminishing as the economy globalizes; US national accounting systems are less effective, technology forces change; trading blocs are emerging; there is less control of exchange rates; regional economies are restructuring; and competitive environments are changing. This book proposes that political jurisdictions are not economies but polities, and explores the complex and important economic implications of this thesis.

Going beyond the celebrated 'hot-spots' of economic development, this book draws upon evidence from a broader range of cities and regions to help fill some important gaps in our knowledge of how clusters operate within the contemporary global economy. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

Despite traditionally being a strong research topic in urban studies, inter-city relations had become grossly neglected until recently, when it was placed back on the research agenda with the advent of studies of world/global cities. More recently the ‘external relations’ of cities have taken their place alongside ‘internal relations’ within cities to constitute the full nature of cities. This collection of essays on how and why cities are connecting to each other in a globalizing world provides evidence for a new city-centered geography that is emerging in the twenty-first century. Cities in Globalization covers four key themes beginning with the different ways of measuring a ‘world city network’, ranging from analyses of corporate structures to airline passenger flows. Second is the recent European advances in studying ‘urban systems’ which are compared to the Anglo-American city networks approach. These chapters add conceptual vigour to traditional themes and provide findings on European cities in globalization. Thirdly the political implications of these new geographies of flows are considered in a variety of contexts: the localism of city planning, specialist ‘political world cities’, and the ‘war on terror’. Finally, there are a series of chapters that critically review the state of our knowledge on contemporary relations between cities in globalization. Cities in Globalization provides an up-to-date assembly of leading American and European researchers reporting their ideas on the critical issue of how cities are faring in contemporary globalization and is highly illustrated throughout with over forty figures and tables.

The city is the home of prosperity. It is the place where human beings find satisfaction of basic needs and access to essential public goods. The city is also where ambitions, aspirations and other material and immaterial aspects of life are realized, providing contentment and happiness. It is a locus at which the prospects of prosperity and individual and collective well-being can be increased. However, when prosperity is restricted to some groups, when it is used to pursue specific interests, or when it is a justification for financial gains for the few to the detriment of the majority, the city becomes the arena where the right to shared prosperity is claimed and fought for. As people in the latter part of 2011 gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, in front of London’s St Paul’s cathedral, or in New York’s Zuccotti Park, they were not only demanding more equality and inclusion; they were also expressing the need for prosperity to be shared across all segments of society. What this new edition of State of the World’s Cities shows is that prosperity for all has been compromised by a narrow focus on economic growth. UN-Habitat suggests a fresh approach to prosperity beyond the solely economic emphasis, including other vital dimensions such as quality of life, adequate infrastructures, equity and environmental sustainability. The Report proposes a new tool – the City Prosperity Index – together with a conceptual matrix, the Wheel of Prosperity, both of which are meant to assist decision makers to design clear policy interventions. The Report advocates for the need of cities to enhance the public realm, expand public goods and consolidate rights to the 'commons' for all as a way to expand prosperity. This comes in response to the observed trend of enclosing or restricting these goods and commons in enclaves of prosperity, or depleting them through unsustainable use. The Report maps out major policy steps to promote a new type of city – the city of the twenty-first century – that is a 'good', people-centred city. One that is capable of integrating the tangible and more intangible aspects of prosperity, and in the process shedding off the inefficient, unsustainable forms and functionalities of the city of the previous century. By doing this, UN-Habitat plays a pivotal role in ensuring that urban planning, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks become instruments of prosperity and well-being.

This innovative volume explores the role of networks and variation in their forms of governance in delivering successful local and regional economic development. Written by experts from different disciplines, it offers a judicious mix of general theoretical reflections and specific case studies of different places, sectors, and scales. The result is an important contribution to an emerging research agenda on networked governance and the governance of networks and their influence on competitiveness in and across different scales of economic activities. Bob Jessop, Lancaster University, UK Networks, Governance and Economic Development represents one of the most authoritative compilations on the role of networks. The editors have brought together an impressive group of scholars who, from different disciplinary approaches, provide a fantastic overview of the key aspects in the governance of networks and on how they affect local economic development. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UK This compact and authoritative book brings together the topical themes of networks and governance to advance understanding of the determinants of local economic development in the context of increasingly global relationships. Analyzing the governance of networks is critical in understanding how individual localities are able to promote development and consolidate positions within global production systems. In addressing such issues, this book accomplishes a significant bridging of disciplinary boundaries, incorporating different theoretical and empirical perspectives on the meanings and roles of territory, economic development and different forms of networks and governance. Networks, Governance and Economic Development brings together the analysis of leading researchers in their fields, following their interactions at a European Science Foundation exploratory workshop. The chapters will be an invaluable resource to researchers working in the fields of regional economic development, economic geography and economic policy as well as postgraduate students taking modules that specialize in aspects of the above themes.