"The Network Society" looks the challenges that the new paradigm of the Network Society creates Urban and Regional Planning. Chapters grouped into five themes discuss theoretical and practical perspectives on the contemporary organization of social, economic, cultural, political and physical spaces.
The first section looks at models of the Network Society. The second looks at the impact of physical networks such as transport. The third discusses challenges for Planners raised by society's increased reliance on new technology. The fourth examines local networks including community networks and the possibilities of setting up local networks for disaster recovery. The final part compares spatial and policy networks and looks at the institutions involved.
This book is essential reading for graduate level courses in urban studies, city and regional planning, and urban design. With its clear structure - unitary sections but a diversity of perspectives - the book can be used easily in courses such as Planning Theory, Urban Infrastructure and Public Policy.

Energy has become a central concern of many strands of geographical inquiry, from global climate change to the effects of energy decisions on our lives. However, many aspects of the ‘black box’ of relationships at the energy-society interface remain unopened, especially in terms of the spatial underpinnings of energy production and consumption within nations, cities and regions. Debates focusing on the location and nature of energy flows frequently fail to consider the multiple geographical networks that illustrate and explain the distribution of fuels and services around the world. Providing an integrated perspective on the complex interdependencies between energy and geography, The Routledge Research Companion to Energy Geographies offers a timely conceptual framework to study the multiple facets of energy geography, including security, space and place, planning, environmental science, economics and political science. Illustrating how a geographic approach towards energy can aid decision-making pathways in the domains of social justice and environment, this book provides insights that will help move the international community toward greater cooperation, stability, and sustainability.

A cultural portrait of the Mid-Atlantic coastal ecosystem

A coastal region's oldest inhabitants, particularly families of watermen and commercial fishers, often possess the deepest knowledge about a region and its ecological problems. Because of this, assaults on watermen lifeways and commercial fishing families -- whether from organized recreational interests, real estate developers, or public policy makers -- reduce the cultural and biological diversity of the coast and often upset the delicate environmental balance. Through the lens of the Mid-Atlantic Coast, especially the Chesapeake Bay and the Albermarle and Pamlico Sounds of North Carolina, David Griffith develops the theme that environmental degradation follows the loss of the most intimate understandings of coastal ecosystems.

In The Estuary's Gift, Griffith traces the development of Mid-Atlantic cultures from the Algonquins and the earliest European families who hunted whales and netted herring, to present-day commercial fishing families who work the complex estuarine systems of the coast. In the process, he chronicles a series of developments that erode communities across American landscapes: the wearing away of local and regional history that results when national retail and restaurant chains convert local merchants into clerks and busboys, or the loss of biological diversity that follows the reconfiguration of countrysides to support monocrop agriculture, industrial chicken production, hog farming, forestry, and mining.

Griffith insists that we heed the ways we treat one another in light of the ways we treat nature, measuring both by the standards we invoke when we give and receive gifts. Stories of conflict amongfishers, of Mexican immigrant women brought to seafood houses to pick the meat from cooked, cooled crab -- displacing and replacing African-American women -- and of the slow yet steady attempts to criminalize family fishing practices that reach back thirteen generations show the ways in which the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of gift exchange have eroded. Only when we consider human relations as an integral part of the natural cycles will we begin to restore the balance.

More than an account of the decline of fishing families or stressed natural resources, The Estuary's Gift illustrates how pressing social problems, such as environmental degradation and assaults on working families, play out in local contexts and local history.

Twenty-five years into transformation, Central and Eastern European regions have undergone substantial socio-economic restructuring, integrating into European and global networks and producing new patterns of regional differentiation and development. Yet post-socialist modernisation has not been without its contradictions, manifesting in increasing social and territorial inequalities. Recent studies also suggest there are apparent limits to post-socialist growth models, accompanying a new set of challenges within an increasingly uncertain world. Aiming to deliver a new synthesis of regional development issues at the crossroads between 'post-socialism' and 'post-transition', this book identifies the main driving forces of spatial restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe, and charts the different regional development paths which take shape against the backdrop of post-crisis Europe. A comparative approach is used to highlight common development challenges and the underlying patterns of socio-economic differentiation alike. The issues investigated within the Handbook extend to a discussion of the varied economic consequences of transition, the social structures and institutional systems which underpin development processes, and the broadly understood sustainability of Central and Eastern Europe's current development model. This book will be of interest to academics and policymakers working in the fields of regional studies, economic geography, development studies and policy.

Drawing Parallels expands your understanding of the workings of architects by looking at their work from an alternative perspective. The book focuses on parallel projections such as axonometric, isometric, and oblique drawings. Ray Lucas argues that by retracing the marks made by architects, we can begin to engage more directly with their practice as it is only by redrawing the work that hidden aspects are revealed. The practice of drawing offers significantly different insights, not easily accessible through discourse analysis, critical theory, or observation. Using James Stirling, JJP Oud, Peter Eisenman, John Hejduk, and Cedric Price as case studies, Lucas highlights each architect's creative practices which he anaylses with reference to Bergson's concepts of temporality and cretivity, discussing ther manner in which creative problems are explored and solved. The book also draws on a range of anthropological ideas including skilled practice and enchantment in order to explore why axonometrics are important to architecture and questions the degree to which the drawing convention influences the forms produced by architects. With 60 black-and-white images to illustrate design development, this book would be an essential read for academics and students of architecture with a particular interest in further understanding the inner workings of the architectural creative process.

Mountain regions are subject to a unique set of economic pressures: they act as collective enterprises which have to valorize rare resources, such as spectacular landscapes. While primarily rural in nature, they often border large cities, and the development of industries such as hydroelectric power and the rapid development of tourism can bring about sweeping socio-economic change and vast demographic alterations. The Spatial and Economic Transformation of Mountain Regions describes the socio-economic changes and spatial impacts of the last four decades, with the transformation of mountain areas held up as an example. Much of the real-world context draws on the Alps, spanning as they do the significant economies of France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Chapters address academic discourse on regional development in these mountain areas and suggest alternative approaches to the liberal-productivist societal model. This book will be essential reading for professionals, institutions, and NGOs searching for counter-models to the existing marketing approaches for peripheral areas. It will also be of interest to students of regional development, economic geography, environmental studies, and industrial economics.

Transnational learning has become a buzz phrase in European policy-making and in multi-national business. Learning from the experiences of others is an idea that captivates practitioners and academics alike due to its simplicity and availability in a world that is increasingly characterised by cross-border and global connections. European regions in particular offer a diverse range of solutions to often shared challenges. This provides a knowledge base for other regions to draw on, through regional success stories, publications of 'best practice' and EU cooperation programmes. This books explores 'transnational learning and knowledge transfer' in co-operation programmes and projects. It argues that a deeper understanding of learning needs to be central to the implementation of programmes and projects in order to successfully meet their desired outcomes and goals. By characterising some of the most important preconditions of transnational learning and introducing a process perspective to learning and transfer, this book identifies barriers to learning and knowledge transfer and contributes to a stronger conceptualisation of the topic. In doing so, it opens up the 'black-box' of transnational learning and knowledge development, providing a better understanding of its inner mechanisms. It also provides practical recommendations for policy makers and practitioners involved both at the programme and project level of transnational EU initiatives. This book will be of interest to students, researchers, and policy makers alike working in geography, political studies, legal studies and European studies.

In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis placed on local and regional integration in major planning projects and infrastructure development including roads, rail and waterways. This emphasis is not only on integrating various projects, but also integrating them with related issues such as housing, industry, environment and water. In other words, land-use planning and infrastructure management have become more spatially-oriented. This book brings together experts in the fields of spatial planning, land-use and infrastructure management to explore the emerging agenda of spatially-oriented integrated evaluation. It weaves together the latest theories, case studies, methods, policy and practice to examine and assess the values, impacts, benefits and the overall success in integrated land-use management. In doing so, the book clarifies the nature and roles of evaluation and puts forward guidance for future policy and practice.

This title was first published in 2003. Korea has had considerable success in developing its high technology industries and these have become significant employers in this region. By analysing the situation in Korea, this book explores the effects of dynamic externalities on the growth of regional employment in the high-technology industries. It puts forward innovative simultaneous equation models to test three sets of hypotheses related to so-called 'Jacobs', and 'MAR' effects, differentiated by firm size, organizational type and product. Clear evidence is found for endogenous technological progress marked by positive feedback, especially for small firms in diversified high-technology enclaves. There are technological externalities associated with knowledge spillovers, and local employment has indirect effects on employment growth via dynamic externalities. The implications for local economic development policy are outlined in a concluding section. -

As we move further into the 21st century, the prominence of regions can no longer be taken for granted. A certain skepticism has developed with regard to the feasibility of marginal regions achieving self-sustained growth and states have maintained their role as regulators of economic and social activities. Thus, the notion of the region and its significance is currently much debated and contested. Illustrated with a wide range of European case studies, this volume brings together the main strands of these contestations, as economic, political and social actors attempt to institutionalise their vision of their region as the dominant form of territorial governance. It questions both the external delimitation and the internal constitution of regions and critically analyses the societal processes circumscribing ways in which regions are created, maintained and undermined. The volume provides a wide range of analytical perspectives to enable an understanding of the current mosaic of regionalism in Europe.

Food insecurity in the US is a critical issue that is experienced by approximately 15% of the population each year. Hunger is not caused by an inability to produce enough food for the population, but is instead a manifestation of federal agricultural policies that support the overproduction of commodity crops and neoliberal social policies that seek to lower the amount of benefits dispersed to those in need. This book focuses on how four different food-based community programs address both the physical sensation of hunger as well as the political and economic disempowerment that work against the ability of people experiencing food insecurity to mobilize as a political force. Confronting Hunger in the USA argues that most food programs do more to create community among their volunteers than among program participants and tend to reinforce neoliberal understandings of citizenship. Community food programs reach out to the most vulnerable members of society in caring and gentle ways and often use the language of alternative economies to articulate a different relationship between the individual and the state. However, the projects in this study act as individual pieces of the state's insufficient social safety net and are only beginning to articulate a new relationship between food and society.

Smart Evaluation and Integrated Design in Regional Development puts forward an alternative approach to evaluation in spatial planning - one that focuses on 'territory' and 'landscape'. The book introduces an innovative evaluation approach, namely Territorial Integrated Evaluation (TIE), a meta-evaluation methodology for designing regional development scenarios. A research team from the Politecnico di Torino applied this methodology experimentally to the practices of spatial planning in Trentino in order to aid the Province in a process of institutional innovation that is still going on today. TIE defines territorial scenarios serving the need for regional economic development as well as the conservation of nature and landscape. A cross-border region, Trentino has a special need to harmonize economic development with the exceptional and internationally renowned value of its landscape which includes the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Therefore TIE set out to design regional development scenarios that integrated various topics - retail, tourism, infrastructures, nature and landscape. By testing out TIE in practice in this extraordinarily dynamic institutional context, the book makes a significant contribution to the discussion about newly emerging approaches to spatial planning that involve multidisciplinary vision, new paradigms in regional development, and institutional learning and capability in decision-making.

Life Cycle Approaches to Sustainable Regional Development explains the ways life cycle methodologies and tools can be used to strengthen regional socio-economic planning and development in a more sustainable manner. The book advocates the adoption of systematic and long-term criteria for development decision-making, taking into account the full life cycle of materials and projects. It describes life cycle practices from both a scientific and a practitioner point of view, highlighting examples and case studies at regional level. The applications are relevant to key economic sectors, as well as for internal planning and administrative procedures. It concludes with a synthesis chapter that distills the key messages from the authors into practical guidance points on how best to use such approaches to enhance sustainability in regional development. The book is essential reading for regional and urban planners who are integrating life cycle thinking into their policy regimes, as well as for researchers working to further evolve life cycle methodologies.

* The only comprehensive international sourcebook of SEA principles, approaches, and instruments with coverage of all major industrialized countries including the U.S., the U.K./Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Korea, and more than 50 transitional and developing countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Pacific * The essential reference for all impact assessment practitioners, researchers, policymakers, aid and development agencies, and funders* Written by two world-renowned practitioners with support from the OECD, UNEP, and IIEDThis unique sourcebook provides a global, state-of-the-art review of the rapidly evolving field of strategic environmental assessment (SEA), describing trends in application and experience and practice across the globe in a variety of agencies and contexts. Drawing on published and unpublished material, and contributions from a wide range of individual experts, organizations, and agencies, it provides an unparalleled and invaluable understanding of what constitutes SEA and how and when it can be applied. It includes an international review of experience, practice, terminology, approaches, and tools of SEA, covering developed, transitional, and developing countries. A collection of case studies illustrates SEA practice in a range of countries and contexts. Included also: a full set of references and several appendices.

Museums and Design for Creative Lives questions what we sacrifice when we allow economic imperatives to shape public museums, whilst also considering the implications of these new museum realities. It also asks: how might we instead design for creative lives? Drawing together 28 case studies of museum design spanning 70 years, the book explores the spatial and social forms that comprise these successful examples, as well as the design methodologies through which they were produced. Re-activating a well-trodden history of progressive museum design and raising awareness of the involvement of the built forms in how we feel, think and act, MacLeod provides strategies and methods to actively counter the economisation of museums and a call to museum makers to work beyond the economic and advance this deeply human history of museum making. Museums and Design for Creative Lives will be of great interest to academics and students in museum studies, gallery studies, heritage studies, arts management, communication and architecture and design departments, as well as those interested in understanding more about design as a resource in museums. The book provides a valuable resource for museum leaders and practitioners.

Museums and Design for Creative Lives questions what we sacrifice when we allow economic imperatives to shape public museums, whilst also considering the implications of these new museum realities. It also asks: how might we instead design for creative lives? Drawing together 28 case studies of museum design spanning 70 years, the book explores the spatial and social forms that comprise these successful examples, as well as the design methodologies through which they were produced. Re-activating a well-trodden history of progressive museum design and raising awareness of the involvement of the built forms in how we feel, think and act, MacLeod provides strategies and methods to actively counter the economisation of museums and a call to museum makers to work beyond the economic and advance this deeply human history of museum making. Museums and Design for Creative Lives will be of great interest to academics and students in museum studies, gallery studies, heritage studies, arts management, communication and architecture and design departments, as well as those interested in understanding more about design as a resource in museums. The book provides a valuable resource for museum leaders and practitioners.

This book is about the unprecedented challenges facing the worlds cities as they expand and develop in response to demographic change, human aspirations and the forces of globalization. Most of that growth is taking place in the developing countries and it is here that the megacities (places with over ten million people) seem destined to emerge during the next few decades. While there are considerable variations in the rates of city expansion between and within the different world regions, much of that growth has taken place as formless urban sprawl, as well as the slums and squatter settlements to be found in many of the worlds cities. These urbanizing areas face acute economic, social and environmental problems. They stem from, amongst other things, fundamental changes in the nature of work, the economic crisis that began in 2008, the continuing, and often growing, inequalities within the urban population and from the severe pollution and hazardous living conditions that afflict many urban communities. Without suitable action to address them, those problems are likely to worsen as the effects of human induced climate change become ever more apparent. So how can our cities become truly liveable places? Published in tandem with ISOCARP's 47th World Congress held in Wuhan, China, the many case studies in this publication describe new planning and other approaches that seek to create more sustainable, more liveable, cities.

Habitus is a concept developed by the late French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, as a 'sense of one's place...a sense of the other's place'. It relates to our perceptions of the positions (or 'place') of ourselves and other people in the world in which we live and how these perceptions affect our actions and interactions with places and people. Habitus implies that a web of complex processes links the physical, the social and the mental. Inspired by this concept, this compelling book brings together leading scholars from interdisciplinary fields to examine ways in which spaces and places are constructed, interpreted and used by different people. This second edition contains updated chapter material, together with an entirely new introduction and revised conclusions which recognise the importance of Bourdieu's work. This publication is a tribute to Pierre Bourdieu's remarkable contribution to the fields of sociology, anthropology, geography, political philosophy and urban planning.

A gap has long existed between construction professionals a " such as architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and consultants a " and the property development process. The underlying development structures, expressed in terms of legal obligation and accountability, are all too little understood.

This practical guide by a highly experienced lawyer identifies the role of the construction professional in a wider context and looks beyond their relationship with their immediate employer. It provides the development professional with an understanding of the many relationships involved in projects, both in terms of contractual obligation and duty of care. This encourages more effective communication between those involved, including joint venture partners, bankers, funders, landowners with an interest in the outcome and tenants.

Mass transportation has become central to the lifestyle of developed societies - but with what consequences for the environment and, ultimately, human health? Transport and the Environment investigates the major aspects of this emotive subject, with contributions from authors with international reputations for their research in the field. Discussions encompass air transport and its contribution to global pollution, the possible consequences of using hydrogen as a fuel, performance indicators and policy instruments for sustainable transport, the contamination of the atmosphere and surface waters by road vehicles, the impact of surface transport on climate, and the effects of transport pollutants on public health. This authoritative review of the current state of knowledge will be of great value to scientists, policy-makers and students on environmental science and engineering courses.

Economic reform in China has resulted in a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and urban poverty has emerged as a key factor which may affect future development. This new book examines the poverty problem in relation to housing and social changes in large inland cities, and assesses the effectiveness of recent government anti-poverty policies. The book also puts the Chinese experience in the wider context of transitional economies and discusses the similarities and differences between China and Central and Eastern European countries. The book is based on a long period of research on Chinese urban development, and benefited from several research projects conducted in Chinese cities. It is an important reference for all of those interested in housing, urban studies and social change, and is a key text for students of the Chinese economy and society.

What do housing professionals, architects, estate agents and town planners do when they go home at night? Presumably they do the same as the rest of the population. They indulge in that ubiquitous and unique activity called dwelling. They use the housing planned, designed, managed, bought and sold by professionals for uses specific to themselves: and while they are doing it, so is everybody else.
Housing is something that is deeply personal to us. It offers us privacy, security and allows us to be intimate with those we are close to. This book considers this private nature by looking at the nature of privacy and how we choose to share our dwelling. The book discusses the manner in which we talk about our housing, how it manifests and assuages our anxieties and desires and how it helps us come to terms with loss.
"Private Dwelling" offers a deeply original take on housing. The book proceeds through a series of speculations, using philosophical analysis and critique, personal anecdote, film criticism, social and cultural theory and policy analysis to unpick the subjective nature of housing as a personal place where we can be sure of ourselves. The book will be of interest to students, academics and researchers in housing, architecture, planning as well as social theory and philosophy.

Housing is something that is deeply personal to us. It offers us privacy and security and allows us to be intimate with those we are close to. This book considers the nature of privacy but also how we choose to share our dwelling. The book discusses the manner in which we talk about our housing, how it manifests and assuages our anxieties and desires and how it helps us come to terms with loss.
Private Dwelling offers a deeply original take on housing. The book proceeds through a series of speculations, using philosophical analysis and critique, personal anecdote, film criticism, social and cultural theory and policy analysis to unpick the subjective nature of housing as a personal place where we can be sure of ourselves.

Contents:
PART ONE
Chapter 1
1. Introduction
2. Expert Systems: what about space?
3. Geographical Information Systems: more than display tools?
4. GIS problems and potential
5. Impact Assessment: ripe for automation?
6. The IA process
7. Environmental Statements
8. Integration: the way ahead?
REFERENCES

Chapter 2
1. Introduction
2. Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence
2.1.The classical period
2.2.The romantic period
2.3.The modern period
2. Expert systems: structure and design
3. The promise of Expert Systems?
4. From Expert Systems to Decision Support Systems
5. Conclusions: expert systems are dead, long live expert systems?
REFERENCES

Chapter 3
1. Introduction
2. Impact Assessment and Environmental Management
3. The role of GIS
4. GIS for Impact Assessment
4.1. GIS mapping for Impact Assessment
4.2. GIS linked to external models for IA
4.3. Using GIS' own functionality for IA
4.4. Multi-purpose GIS systems
5. Conclusions
REFERENCES

Chapter 4
1. Introduction
2. GIS for environmental mapping and management
3. GIS linked to external models for environmental management
3.1.Water modelling
3.2.GIS and other environmental modelling
3.3.GIS for model design and development
3.4.GIS and other modelling approaches
4. Using GIS' own functionality for environmental management
4.1.Pre-programmed GIS applications
5. General-purpose environmental management systems
6. Conclusions
REFERENCES

Chapter 5
1. Introduction
2. Expert Systems without GIS for Environmental Assessment
2.1.Expert Systems without GIS for Impact Assessment
2.2.Expert Systems without GIS for environmental management
3. Expert Systems with GIS
3.1.GIS and Expert Systems: methodological issues
3.1.1.Methodological issues: visualisation
3.1.2.Methodological issues: classification
3.2.GIS and Expert Systems in the Regional Research Laboratories
3.2.1.The RRLs Research Agenda
3.2.2.RRL-related work and publications
3.3.3.GIS and AI in the RRLs: conclusions
3.3.ES and GIS for Impact Assessment
3.4.ES and GIS for Environmental Management
4. Decision Support Systems (and ES) with GIS
4.1.GIS and DSS for Impact Assessment
4.2.GIS and DSS for Environmental Management
5. Conclusions
REFERENCES

PART TWO
Chapter 6
1. Introduction
2. The logic of Project Screening
3. The SCREEN Expert System at Oxford Brookes University
4. Scoping
5. The SCOPE Expert System at Oxford Brookes University
6. Adding GIS to the SCREEN-SCOPE suite at Oxford Brookes
6.1.Procedures linking ES and GIS
6.2.Evaluating the GIS links
7. Conclusions
REFERENCES

Chapter 7
1. Intrduction
2. Air Pollution
2.1.Project design and location
2.2.Baseline assessment
2.3.Impact prediction and assessment
2.3.1.Variations in the modelling approach
2.3.2.Model output and accuracy
2.4.Mitigation measures
3. Noise
3.1.Project design
3.2.Noise baseline assessment
3.3.Noise-impact prediction
3.3.1.Construction noise
3.3.2.Traffic noise
3.3.3.Vibration
3.3.4.Re-radiated noise
3.4.Mitigation
4. Conclusions: expert systems for air-pollution and noise impact assessment
REFERENCES

Chapter 8
1. Introduction
2. Terrestrial Ecology
2.1.Project characteristics and potential impacts
2.2.Area characterisation and ecological baseline
2.3.Quality assessment
2.4.Impact assessment
2.5.Mitigation
3. Landscape impact assessment
3.1.Project characteristics
3.2.Area of study
3.3.Preliminary landscape quality assessment
3.4.Field study and baseline assessment
3.5.Impact assessment
3.6.Mitigation
4. Conclusions: the limits of expert systems
REFERENCES

Chapter 9
1. Introduction
2. Socio-economic impacts
2.1.Understanding the project
2.2.Understanding the baseline
2.3.Economic impact prediction
2.3.1.The multiplicand
2.3.2.The multiplier
2.3.2.1.Location Quotients
2.4.Social impact prediction
2.5.Impact significance
2.6.Mitigation
3. Traffic impacts
3.1.The development project
3.2.Baseline study
3.3.Traffic generation
3.4.Impact assessment
3.4.1.Loop-back
3.5.Mitigation
4. Conclusions: expert systems and models, problems and choices
REFERENCES

Chapter 10
1. Introduction
2. The project
3. Hydrogeology: the baseline
3.1.Hydrogeological impacts
3.2.Hydrogeological mitigation and monitoring
4. Water quantity and quality: the baseline
4.1.Water quantity impacts
4.2.Water quality impacts
4.3.Water use impacts
4.4.Water impact mitigation
5. Freshwater ecology impact assessment: the baseline
5.1.Freshwater ecology impacts and mitigation
6. Coastal water ecology impact assessment: the baseline
6.1.Coastal water ecology impacts and mitigation
7. Conclusions: impact sequences
REFERENCES

Chapter 11
1. Meta-assessment: reviewing Environmental Statements
2. The building blocks of the assessment
3. Evaluation
3.1.Scoring individual aspects
3.2.Overall evaluation
4. Conclusions: expert systems for highly structured quantity-quality conversions
REFERENCES

Chapter 12
1. Expert Systems for Impact Assessment
2. Conclusions: the limits of Expert Systems and GIS
2.1.GIS and IA in retrospect
2.2.Expert Systems and IA in retrospect
3. Conclusions
REFERENCES

This book investigates the iconic architectural cultural spaces of the contemporary cityscape as engines of regeneration. Promising much to their fading locales, these spaces locate culture in the space where production once ruled in order to revitalise post-industrial urban provinces. With close attention to four sites across the UK, Urban Constellations engages with the work of Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard, to read these spaces and in so doing, offer a critical intervention into the theory and experience of contemporary cityscapes. Developing the notion of surface ethnography as a methodological approach to examining the form of cultural experience produced by urban cultural spaces, the author sheds light on the manner in which they transform cultural spectatorship, express wider political and ecological concerns and offer differing views to the 'native' and the 'tourist' in the construction of local history. The book also examines the decline of the idea that iconic projects can drive regeneration, in the failures and delays that can beset such undertakings. Offering a rich examination of the legacy of urban change in its most recent formulation - that of cultural regeneration - this book reveals the fragile potential of the spaces produced by contemporary 'dream houses' and as such, will be of interest to scholars of cultural studies, sociology and social theory, urban studies, cultural geography and architecture.