Urban Studies Monographs – serie

This book contains a collection of cutting-edge chapters that explore various connections between urban living, sexuality and sexual desire around the world. The key themes featured address a number of topical issues including:the controversies and debates raging around the evolution, defining patterns and appropriate regulation of commercial sex zones and markets in the urban landscapehow gay public spaces, districts and 'gay villages' emerged and developed in various towns and cities around the worldhow changing attitudes to, and the usage of urban sexual spaces, as depicted in iconic television series such as Sex and the City and Queer as Folk, reflect the reality of working women's or gay men's changing life experiences.With detailed case studies, and a strong interdisciplinary appeal, this book will be a valuable reference for postgraduates and advanced students in the fields of cultural studies as well as human, urban and social geography.This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

In both academic scholarship and the popular imagination, the globality of modern society has been represented by global cities as the corporate and financial epicentres for capital accumulation, cosmopolitan cultures and innovative change. This has created an image of the globalised world as empty beyond cities which make it into the global league as paradigmatic 'celebrity' cities. As a counterpoint this book give interpretive weight elsewhere, in 'other' places, cities and regions, drawing on a range of examples from both the developed and developing worlds. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

The concept of employability has provided a foundation for much current labour market policy. It has also provided a useful framework for analyzing national and urban labour markets and related policies in a variety of different circumstances both for those in and out of work.The papers in this book help progress the concept of employability, demonstrating the importance of the geographic and spatial context, and showing its flexibility and usefulness as a basis for theory, analysis and policy. The papers are divided into two main sections:understanding the concept of employabilitylessons for labour market policy in changing labour markets.The chapters also provide general insights into many current labour market policy debates. As employability continues to be the foundation of many labour market policies, this volume considers the economic and geographical dimensions of employability in local labour market analysis and policy.This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

The idea that culture can be employed as a driver for urban economic growth has become part of the new orthodoxy by which cities seek to enhance their competitive position. Such developments reflect not only the rise to prominence of the cultural sphere in the contemporary (urban) economy, but how the meaning of culture has been redefined to include new uses in order to meet social, economic and political objectives. This significant book focuses on the ability of cultural investment to meet the rhetoric of social inclusion and the extent to which it offers sustainable solutions to the problems of the city. To this end it focuses on the meanings and practice of culture-led policy within the city and its evaluation is proposed. Paddison and Miles have edited an innovative book which presents a series of diverse case studies to challenge the ‘one size fits all’ model of culture-led urban regeneration - a key concern being the extent to which culture-led regeneration can genuinely fulfil the expectations that policy-makers and urban commentators have of it.This book was previously published as a special issue of Urban Studies.

This book contains a collection of cutting-edge chapters that explore various connections between urban living, sexuality and sexual desire around the world. The key themes featured address a number of topical issues including:the controversies and debates raging around the evolution, defining patterns and appropriate regulation of commercial sex zones and markets in the urban landscapehow gay public spaces, districts and 'gay villages' emerged and developed in various towns and cities around the worldhow changing attitudes to, and the usage of urban sexual spaces, as depicted in iconic television series such as Sex and the City and Queer as Folk, reflect the reality of working women's or gay men's changing life experiences.With detailed case studies, and a strong interdisciplinary appeal, this book will be a valuable reference for postgraduates and advanced students in the fields of cultural studies as well as human, urban and social geography.This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

Clusters have become a key focus of urban and regional policy in advanced economies as regional specialisation in particular industries has come to be regarded as advantageous in the context of debates about globalization and the knowledge economy. In particular, spatial proximity between associated firms and organisations facilities is claimed to stimulate processes of innovation and learning. Consequently, governments have promoted dynamic clusters as a means of generating competitive advantage in particular cities and regions.In this collection, these claims are critically assessed by drawing upon the work of leading specialists from Western Europe and North America. Going beyond the celebrated 'hot-spots' of economic development, the book draws upon evidence from a broader range of cities and regions to help fill some important gaps in our knowledge of how clusters operate within the contemporary global economy. Cluster dynamics are situated in time and space; interrogating both how firms, organisations and actors within clusters adapt to changes over time, and how clusters are embedded within broader spatial divisions of labour at regional, national and international scales.This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Urban Studies.

The idea that culture can be employed as a driver for urban economic growth has become part of the new orthodoxy by which cities seek to enhance their competitive position. Such developments reflect not only the rise to prominence of the cultural sphere in the contemporary (urban) economy, but how the meaning of culture has been redefined to include new uses in order to meet social, economic and political objectives. This significant book focuses on the ability of cultural investment to meet the rhetoric of social inclusion and the extent to which it offers sustainable solutions to the problems of the city. To this end it focuses on the meanings and practice of culture-led policy within the city and its evaluation is proposed. Paddison and Miles have edited an innovative book which presents a series of diverse case studies to challenge the ‘one size fits all’ model of culture-led urban regeneration - a key concern being the extent to which culture-led regeneration can genuinely fulfil the expectations that policy-makers and urban commentators have of it.This book was previously published as a special issue of Urban Studies.