Editors are well known experts in the field as are many of the contributors Spatial and technological networks are of high interest and this book examines their relationship and deals with the challenges that they raise for planners and policy makers A strong focus on the political and sociological aspect of network-based societies and cities

Are all film stars linked to Kevin Bacon? Why do the stock markets rise and fall sharply on the strength of a vague rumour? How does gossip spread so quickly? Are we all related through six degrees of separation? There is a growing awareness of the complex networks that pervade modern society. We see them in the rapid growth of the internet, the ease of global communication, the swift spread of news and information, and in the way epidemics and financial crises develop with startling speed and intensity. This introductory book on the new science of networks takes an interdisciplinary approach, using economics, sociology, computing, information science and applied mathematics to address fundamental questions about the links that connect us, and the ways that our decisions can have consequences for others.

This Handbook of Cities and Networks provides a cutting-edge overview of research on how economic, social and transportation networks affect processes both in and between cities. Exploring the ways in which cities connect and intertwine, it offers a varied set of collaborations, highlighting different theoretical, historical and methodological perspectives.

This superb new book develops a knowledge-based theory of innovation, marrying three streams of literature: innovation, inter-firm collaboration and networks, and learning regions. This book will interest all those working in economic geography and the economics of innovation.

The study of universities’ role in regional engagement has traditionally been focusing on exceptional cases. This book presents a reconceptualization which embraces its underlying complexity and proposes a roadmap for a renewed research agenda. Starting from the grassroots level of universities’ everyday engagements, the book delves into the manifold ways in which university knowledge agents build connections with regional partners. Through 11 empirical chapters, the authors not only chart the diversity among case institutions, engagement mechanisms, and regional contexts but also use that diversity to advance a novel conceptual framework, centered on the process of mundaneness, for unpacking university-regions’ everyday activities, taking into account the dynamic, complex, and co-evolving interplay between (a) key social agents and institutions, (b) the contexts in which they are embedded, as well as (c) the historical trajectories and strategic ambitions underpinning context-specific social arrangements and interactions that are mediated by temporal and spatial dimensions. Drawing on evolutionary economic geography, innovation studies, management and organization studies, and historical perspectives, the volume advances a new mode of understanding university-regional engagement as a form of extendable temporary coupling, which also helps to address perennial policy and managerial questions alike of what to do with universities that do not serve local labour market needs and/or are located in regions suffering from brain drain. The book illustrates such dynamics from diverse national contexts and three continents: Brazil, Caribbean, China, Italy, Norway, and Poland. This book will be valuable reading for advanced students, researchers, and policymakers working in economic geography, regional development, innovation, and higher education management. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

With the rapid growth of the Internet as well as the increasing demand for broadband services, access networks have been receiving growing investments in recent years. This has led to a massive network deployment with the goal of eliminating the ba- width bottleneck between end-users and the network core. Today many diverse te- nologies are being used to provide broadband access to end users. The architecture and performance of the access segment (local loop, wired and wireless access n- works, and even home networks) are getting increasing attention for ensuring quality of service of diverse broadband applications. Moreover, most access lines will no longer terminate on a single device, thus leading to the necessity of having a home network designed for applications that transcend simple Internet access sharing among multiple personal computers and enable multimedia support. Therefore, the access network and its home portion have become a hot investment pool from both a fin- cial as well as a research perspective. The aim of the annual International Conference on Access Networks (AccessNets) is to provide a forum that brings together scientists and researchers from academia as well as managers and engineers from the industry and government organizations to meet and exchange ideas and recent work on all aspects of access networks and how they integrate with their in-home counterparts. After Athens in 2006, Ottawa in 2007, and Las Vegas in 2008, this year AccessNets moved to Asia for the first time.

Regional development is attracting the attention of policy makers and scientists again, as regions, urban centers and rural areas, experience substantial pressures, particularly in Europe, as a consequence of globalization and geopolitical changes which lead to changes in spatial structures and dynamics. This book is based on the contributions of Greek regional science research presented at the 2006 Congress of the European Regional Science Association at Volos, Greece. The contributions selected to be presented in this book address these changes offering a fresh look into regional development. They provide an overview of regional development concerns from Greek regional scientists but the issues discussed pervade Greek particularities and stimulate thinking about regional science, regional development and regional policy in the early twenty-first century.

Neoliberalism’s market revolution has had a tremendous effect on contemporary mega-city regions. The negative consequences of market-oriented politics for territorial growth have been recognized. While a lot of attention has been given to how planners and policy makers are fighting back political fragmentation through innovative governance and planning, little has been done to reveal such practices through an international comparative perspective. Governance and Planning of Mega-City Regions provides a comparative treatment and examination of how new approaches in governance and planning are reshaping mega-city regions around the world. The contributors highlight how European mega-city regions are evolving and how strategic intervention is being redefined to enable the integration of urban qualities in a multi-level governance environment; how traditional federal countries in North America and Australia see the promise of major policies and development initiatives finally moving ahead to herald a more strategic intervention at national and regional scales; and how transitional economies in China witness the rise of state strategies to control the articulation of scales and to reassert the functional importance of state in a growing diffused power context. This book offers case studies written from a variety of theoretical and political perspectives by world leading scholars. It will appeal to upper level undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, and policymakers interested in urban and regional planning, geography, sociology, public administrations and development studies.

This book introduces readers to essential facilitation techniques for leadership in the contexts of project and network management. It provides method-based messages, a facilitator curriculum, and a veritable arsenal of 50 carefully selected and 'reality-tested' tools for facilitation in non-hierarchical contexts. As such, readers will benefit just as much from learning by doing as from doing by learning. This book is also intended for all managers who are responsible for successful communication and co-operation in projects in and across organisations or networks of organisations, and who want to know how to share their plans effectively and improve collaboration. Though the book employs scientific principles, it is chiefly a practical guide, and draws on the authors’ extensive experience in consultancy and management.

This book offers conceptual and empirical insights from economic geography to explore how uncertainties, crises, and risks, shape, reshape, and ultimately transform the spatial arrangements of companies and regions. This book provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of economic interactions amidst contemporary challenges. It explores concepts such as global value chains, global production networks, regional resilience, and the impact of crises, risks, and uncertainties on spatial economic patterns. Case studies from various regions, nations, and industries, including lesser researched sectors such as medical technology and the restaurant and bar industry offer tangible and real-world manifestations of these dynamics. Through its comprehensive coverage and interdisciplinary approach, this book equips readers with practical knowledge applicable to academia and real-world contexts. It offers a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between economic geography and contemporary challenges at a variety of levels. The book provides valuable perspectives for academics, practitioners, and policy makers in the fields of Economic Geography, Regional Studies, Political Sciences, Economic Sociology, Economics, and International Business Studies.