David Kaufmann – författare

Capital cities that are not the dominant economic centers of their nations – so-called ‘secondary capital cities’ (SCCs) – tend to be overlooked in the fields of economic geography and political science. Yet, capital cities play an important role in shaping the political, economic, social and cultural identity of a nation. As the seat of power and decision-making, capital cities represent a nation’s identity not only through their symbolic architecture but also through their economies and through the ways in which they position themselves in national urban networks.The Political Economy of Capital Cities aims to address this gap by presenting the dynamics that influence policy and economic development in four in-depth case studies examining the SCCs of Bern, Ottawa, The Hague and Washington, D.C. In contrast to traditional accounts of capital cities, this book conceptualizes the modern national capital as an innovation-driven economy influenced by national, local and regional actors. Nationally, overarching trends in the direction of outsourcing and tertiarization of the public-sector influence the fate of capital cities. Regional policymakers in all four of the highlighted cities leverage the presence of national government agencies and stimulate the economy by way of various locational policy strategies.While accounting for their secondary status, this book illustrates how capital-city actors such as firms, national, regional and local governments, policymakers and planning practitioners are keenly aware of the unique status of their city. The conclusion provides practical recommendations for policymakers in SCCs and highlights ways in which they can help to promote economic development.

Cities are active policy innovators of global importance, whether responding to climate change, migration, poverty, or health disparities, or aiming to generate growth. Since cities adapt to the needs and interests of global capital, they may implement policies that slight the well-being of everyday residents and the most vulnerable. How cities choose to contribute to a democratic and sustainable future reveals dimensions of political life playing out in society at large.Global Urban Policy suggests that to understand contemporary societal transformation—and political and policy processes more generally—we need to study the policies that cities create and implement. Going beyond thinking of “urban” as a physical site, the authors show that an urban mode of life is one marked by diversity, complexity, chaos, flexibility, and ongoing change. With eleven empirical case studies, the authors examine issues including housing and urban development, migration, climate change, and crime in cities as varied as Berlin, Medellín, Chicago, Accra, Guangzhou, São Paulo, Mumbai, and Saint Etienne. The studies show how contemporary confrontations between public and private property, power and justice, participation and exclusion, wealth and poverty, and emerging technology and existing economic, social, and political structures take physical form in cities. Global Urban Policy engages with theoretical developments in public policy, urban politics, and urban studies to develop and demonstrate a framework for urban policy analysis.

Cities are active policy innovators of global importance, whether responding to climate change, migration, poverty, or health disparities, or aiming to generate growth. Since cities adapt to the needs and interests of global capital, they may implement policies that slight the well-being of everyday residents and the most vulnerable. How cities choose to contribute to a democratic and sustainable future reveals dimensions of political life playing out in society at large.Global Urban Policy suggests that to understand contemporary societal transformation—and political and policy processes more generally—we need to study the policies that cities create and implement. Going beyond thinking of “urban” as a physical site, the authors show that an urban mode of life is one marked by diversity, complexity, chaos, flexibility, and ongoing change. With eleven empirical case studies, the authors examine issues including housing and urban development, migration, climate change, and crime in cities as varied as Berlin, Medellín, Chicago, Accra, Guangzhou, São Paulo, Mumbai, and Saint Etienne. The studies show how contemporary confrontations between public and private property, power and justice, participation and exclusion, wealth and poverty, and emerging technology and existing economic, social, and political structures take physical form in cities. Global Urban Policy engages with theoretical developments in public policy, urban politics, and urban studies to develop and demonstrate a framework for urban policy analysis.

In "Telling Stories", David Kaufmann focuses on Philip Guston's controversial figurative paintings of the late 1960s and 1970s. He looks at the early critical reception of these works to see what the artist was actually doing and, at another level, to investigate the odd alchemy of artists and their audiences. Grounding his historical approach in careful readings of the paintings, Kaufmann pays close attention to Guston's intense and complicated relationship to Judaism. At the same time, by situating Guston in the context of the fashions of the New York art world, Kaufmann provides unique insight into the workings of that world at the moment when the strictures of artistic modernism began to fade.

Capital cities that are not the dominant economic centers of their nations – so-called ‘secondary capital cities’ (SCCs) – tend to be overlooked in the fields of economic geography and political science. Yet, capital cities play an important role in shaping the political, economic, social and cultural identity of a nation. As the seat of power and decision-making, capital cities represent a nation’s identity not only through their symbolic architecture but also through their economies and through the ways in which they position themselves in national urban networks.The Political Economy of Capital Cities aims to address this gap by presenting the dynamics that influence policy and economic development in four in-depth case studies examining the SCCs of Bern, Ottawa, The Hague and Washington, D.C. In contrast to traditional accounts of capital cities, this book conceptualizes the modern national capital as an innovation-driven economy influenced by national, local and regional actors. Nationally, overarching trends in the direction of outsourcing and tertiarization of the public-sector influence the fate of capital cities. Regional policymakers in all four of the highlighted cities leverage the presence of national government agencies and stimulate the economy by way of various locational policy strategies.While accounting for their secondary status, this book illustrates how capital-city actors such as firms, national, regional and local governments, policymakers and planning practitioners are keenly aware of the unique status of their city. The conclusion provides practical recommendations for policymakers in SCCs and highlights ways in which they can help to promote economic development.

The political and symbolic centrality of capital cities has been challenged by increasing economic globalization. This is especially true of secondary capital cities; capital cities which, while being the seat of national political power, are not the primary economic city of their nation state. David Kaufmann examines the unique challenges that these cities face entering globalised, inter-urban competition while not possessing a competitive political economy.Varieties of Capital Cities offers empirically rich case studies of four secondary capital cities: Bern, Ottawa, The Hague, and Washington, D.C. Analysed with an innovative research framework, this book shows through its clearly structured analysis, that while the pressures facing these cities are the same, the mechanisms they employ to cope with them are very different. They have formulated a wide variety of policies to supplement their capital function with economically promising profiles, even though they cannot escape their destinies as government cities.This book is an impressive contribution to an area of study largely neglected by urban studies, political science, and economic geography. With vital lessons for urban policy makers, the interested practitioner will find a pool of inspiration for their urban strategies. Students and scholars of these subjects will find this book interesting, and will also find it invaluable as a lesson for how to develop and execute comparative case studies.