Martin Horak – författare

For decades, North American cities racked by deindustrialization and population loss have followed one primary path in their attempts at revitalization: a focus on economic growth in downtown and business areas. Neighborhoods, meanwhile, have often been left severely underserved. There are, however, signs of change. This collection of studies by a distinguished group of political scientists and urban planning scholars offers a rich analysis of the scope, potential, and ramifications of a shift still in progress. Focusing on neighborhoods in six cities-Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Toronto-the authors show how key players, including politicians and philanthropic organizations, are beginning to see economic growth and neighborhood improvement as complementary goals. The heads of universities and hospitals in central locations also find themselves facing newly defined realities, adding to the fluidity of a new political landscape even as structural inequalities exert a continuing influence.While not denying the hurdles that community revitalization still faces, the contributors ultimately put forth a strong case that a more hospitable local milieu can be created for making neighborhood policy. In examining the course of experiences from an earlier period of redevelopment to the present postindustrial city, this book opens a window on a complex process of political change and possibility for reform.

When faced with the rapid and disorienting transition from communism to democracy, many eastern European leaders sought simple, immediately rewarding answers to complex policy problems. Undoubtedly, this hurried approach had a significant impact on the quality of democratic government in formerly communist countries. Through an analysis of urban politics in Prague between 1990 and 2000, Governing the Post-Communist City sheds new light on the factors that shaped policy in eastern Europe at the time of its democratic transformation.The first book-length study of post-communist urban politics in a city outside of Russia, Governing the Post-Communist City links the difficulties of democratic government in 1990s Prague to decisions made shortly after the fall of communism. Focusing on the issues of road infrastructure and downtown development, Martin Horak argues that local leadership was more concerned with insulating policy-making processes from public influence than with creating new policies suited to post-communist urban development. This set a precedent for the whole institutional environment of post-communist Prague and entrenched itself in the city’s politics throughout the 1990s.Original, engaging, and authoritative, this study has much to say about the political climate in Prague after the downfall of communism, and makes insightful conclusions about the factors that contributed to present political circumstances in the region.

Canada’s big cities are at the forefront of social and economic change. They account for most of Canada’s population growth, they are magnets for immigrants from all parts of the world, and they have led Canada’s shift from an industrial to a post-industrial economy. Today, perhaps more than ever, Canada’s cities are the places where new policy problems, new political movements, and new demands for representation first emerge. In City Politics in Canada: Forty Years of Continuity and Change, co-editors Martin Horak, Jack Lucas, and Zack Taylor and their team of authors explore how these great transformations have reshaped the practice of politics in seven large Canadian cities: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Calgary. In doing so, they revisit and carry forward the ambition of City Politics in Canada, edited by Warren Magnusson and Andrew Sancton and published by UTP in 1983. That landmark volume was the first to offer an in-depth view of Canadian city politics. Forty years later, a new generation of scholars take up the same expansive, cross-country goal. The editors’ introduction presents a holistic picture of urban change in Canada, complete with up-to-date social, economic, fiscal, and electoral data, and identifies important questions. The city chapters, written by local experts, illuminate the dynamics of political continuity and change over four transformative decades. In the closing chapter, the editors synthesize the findings to draw out new insights about the nature of Canadian urban politics.