Terry Nichols Clark is professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. His books include Citizen Politics in Post-Industrial Society,City Money, The New Political Culture, and Urban Innovation.

The City as an Entertainment Machine brings together a number of research projects conducted largely in America and one in the UK, which seek to assess the impacts of ‘amenities’ on urban growth. The thesis is that the consumer is the all-powerful figure who can generate a level of economic growth for a place and it is therefore important to understand this consumer in more detail, in order that places know how to meet consumer demand. The volume as a whole considers policy to be a straightforward and one-way set of discourses in which, providing the amenities are present, the consumer will continue obediently to demand commodities. How these policies are understood, ignored and resisted by different groups in the public sphere is not up for consideration, which limits the insights offered.

• Chapter 1 Introduction: Taking Entertainment SeriouslyChapter 2 Chapter 1: A Political Theory of ConsumptionChapter 3 Chapter 2: Urban Amenities: Lakes, Opera, and Juice Bars: Do They Drive Development?Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Consumers and CitiesChapter 5 Chapter 4: The New Political Culture and Local Government in EnglandChapter 6 Chapter 5: Technology and Tolerance: The Importance of Diversity to High-Technology GrowthChapter 7 Chapter 6: Gays and Urban Development: How Are They Linked?Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Starbucks, Bicycle Paths, and Urban Growth Machines: Emails Among Members of the Urban and Community Section of the American Sociological Association ListservChapter 9 Chapter 8: Amenities Drive Urban Growth: A New Paradigm and Policy LinkagesChapter 10 Chapter 9: Scenes: Social Context in an Age of Contingency

Terry Nichols Clark is professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. His books include Citizen Politics in Post-Industrial Society,City Money, The New Political Culture, and Urban Innovation.

The City as an Entertainment Machine brings together a number of research projects conducted largely in America and one in the UK, which seek to assess the impacts of ‘amenities’ on urban growth. The thesis is that the consumer is the all-powerful figure who can generate a level of economic growth for a place and it is therefore important to understand this consumer in more detail, in order that places know how to meet consumer demand. The volume as a whole considers policy to be a straightforward and one-way set of discourses in which, providing the amenities are present, the consumer will continue obediently to demand commodities. How these policies are understood, ignored and resisted by different groups in the public sphere is not up for consideration, which limits the insights offered.

• Chapter 1 Introduction: Taking Entertainment SeriouslyChapter 2 Chapter 1: A Political Theory of ConsumptionChapter 3 Chapter 2: Urban Amenities: Lakes, Opera, and Juice Bars: Do They Drive Development?Chapter 4 Chapter 3: Consumers and CitiesChapter 5 Chapter 4: The New Political Culture and Local Government in EnglandChapter 6 Chapter 5: Technology and Tolerance: The Importance of Diversity to High-Technology GrowthChapter 7 Chapter 6: Gays and Urban Development: How Are They Linked?Chapter 8 Chapter 7: Starbucks, Bicycle Paths, and Urban Growth Machines: Emails Among Members of the Urban and Community Section of the American Sociological Association ListservChapter 9 Chapter 8: Amenities Drive Urban Growth: A New Paradigm and Policy LinkagesChapter 10 Chapter 9: Scenes: Social Context in an Age of Contingency