Paul Kantor - Böcker

Here is a book that makes sense of the L.A. riots, homelessness, tax giveaways, and the other big urban issues that are back in the national spotlight. In this streamlined and updated new edition of his classic book, The Dependent City, Paul Kantor now focuses on economic development and social welfare policies to reveal the key dilemmas of American urban politics. Returning to a political economy theme, Kantor explores how city governments have struggled to escape and accommodate the reality of their economic dependency in the policies that they've pursued. Revisiting cities across the nation, Kantor finds not only that they have become more dependent but also that the character of this dependency has changed and deepened. Exploring local regimes in the Frostbelt and Sunbelt and in suburbia, he finds that they frequently act more like captives of big business rather than as representatives of citizens. Local attempts to promote social justice increasingly run up against a wall of economic dependency created by federal policies and business power. This book signals how American cities can find ways of overcoming this dependency by working together with states and the federal government to promote healthy, democratic urban politics. The Dependent City Revisited is an accessible, provocative supplement for a wide variety of courses in urban studies and political economy as well as stimulating reading for anyone who is interested in understanding America's urban mosaic.

Here is a book that makes sense of the L.A. riots, homelessness, tax giveaways, and the other big urban issues that are back in the national spotlight. In this streamlined and updated new edition of his classic book, The Dependent City, Paul Kantor now focuses on economic development and social welfare policies to reveal the key dilemmas of American urban politics. Returning to a political economy theme, Kantor explores how city governments have struggled to escape and accommodate the reality of their economic dependency in the policies that they've pursued. Revisiting cities across the nation, Kantor finds not only that they have become more dependent but also that the character of this dependency has changed and deepened. Exploring local regimes in the Frostbelt and Sunbelt and in suburbia, he finds that they frequently act more like captives of big business rather than as representatives of citizens. Local attempts to promote social justice increasingly run up against a wall of economic dependency created by federal policies and business power. This book signals how American cities can find ways of overcoming this dependency by working together with states and the federal government to promote healthy, democratic urban politics. The Dependent City Revisited is an accessible, provocative supplement for a wide variety of courses in urban studies and political economy as well as stimulating reading for anyone who is interested in understanding America's urban mosaic.

Does globalization menace our cities? Are cities able to exercise democratic rule and strategic choice when international competition increasingly limits the importance of place? Cities in the International Marketplace looks at the political responses of ten cities in North America and Western Europe as they grappled with the forces of global restructuring during the past thirty years. H. V. Savitch and Paul Kantor conclude that cities do have choices in city building and that they behave strategically in the international marketplace. Rather than treating cities through case studies, this book undertakes rigorous systematic comparison. In doing so it provides an innovative theory that explains how city governments bargain in the capital investment process to assert their influence. The authors examine the role of economic conditions and intergovernmental politics as well as local democratic institutions and cultural values. They also show why cities vary in their approaches to urban development. They portray how cities are constrained by the dynamics of the global economy but are not its prisoners.Further, they explain why some urban communities have more maneuverability than do others in the economic development game. Local governance, culture, and planning can combine with economic fortune and national urban policies to provide resources that expand or contract the scope for choice. This clearly written book analyzes the political economy of development in Detroit, Houston, and New York in the United States; Toronto in Canada; Paris and Marseilles in France; Milan and Naples in Italy; and Glasgow and Liverpool in Great Britain.

Throughout the past thirty years a small number of city-regions have achieved unprecedented global status in the world economy while undergoing radical changes. Struggling Giants examines the transformation of four of the most significant metropolises: London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo. This volume analyzes the thorniest issues these sprawling city-regions have faced, including ameliorating social problems through public policies, the effect of globalization on local governance, and the relationships between local, regional, and national institutions.Three critical themes frame Struggling Giants. The first is the continuing struggle for governability in the midst of regional governmental fragmentation. The second theme is how the city-regions fight to manage powerful political biases. Policy-making is often selective, the authors find, and governments are more responsive to economic exigencies than to social or environmental needs. Finally, these city-regions are shown to be strong economic leaders in part because they are able to change-although the authors reveal that pragmatism and piecemeal policy solutions can still prevail.