Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan.

This volume examines the growth and nature of such civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance, raising important questions about the changing roles of and relations between central and local government, and between citizens and the state, in managing shared spaces. The machizukuri processes studied here can be seen as the focus of an important emerging trend toward increased civic participation in managing processes of urban change in Japan. The contributors provide a comprehensive overview of the machizukuri phenomenon through examination not only of theory and history, butalso of case studies illustrating real changes in the institutions of place making and neighbourhood governance.

Living Cities in Japan will be of particular value to readers interested in social, urban, geographical and environmental studies.

People move, individually and collectively, for a combination of economic, social, political and cultural reasons. The impact of migration on the individuals concerned, their families, the countries they leave and the societies they join raises issues that are hotly contested by academics, policymakers and politicians. By using a wide variety of analytical approaches the contributors to this book reveal the complexity and significance of this increasingly important phenomenon in Western European countries, which links these societies to the wider world. They engage directly with the challenge which human mobility represents by examining the reasons for migration, the contribution and needs of those migrating, and the ways in which public debate about migration may be manipulated for political reasons.

Assembling papers originally presented at the Resilient Cities 2011 Congress in Bonn, Germany (June 2011), the second global forum on cities and adaptation to climate change, this volume is the second in a series resulting from this annual event. These cutting-edge papers represent the latest research on the topic and reflect the intensification of the debate on the meaning of and interaction between climate adaptation, risk reduction and broader resilience. Thus, contributors offer more material related to resilience, such as water, energy and food security; green infrastructure; the role of renewables and ecosystem services; vulnerable communities and urban poor; and responsive financing for adaptation and multi-level governance. Overall, the book brings a number of different perspectives to bear on the most pressing issues and controversies surrounding climate change adaptation in cities. These papers will prove invaluable to anyone interested in deepening their understanding of urban resilience and contributing to tackling climate change at the local level.

* One of the first critiques of participatory design processes that are currently the fashion in design and business * highlights political, social and methodological obstacles when designers turn to design thinking, participation and "living labs" * uses global examples to introduce a more critical and post-colonial perspective on participation and social innovation throughout the book

M. Riad El-Ghonemy argues that if current trends in government-led and market based land reforms persist the rural poor population in developing countries will continue to rise. Based on nearly half a century of academic and field research this valuable work presents compelling evidence on persistent rural poverty, hunger and increased inequality in developing countries over the last thirty years. The book furthers the debate with sixteen detailed case studies and looks beyond the typical views of the roles of the state and the market on land reform. The Crisis of Rural Poverty and Hunger contains comprehensive case studies including countries such as China, Korea and Honduras provides bases for discussions of government-mandated land reform, pro-active participation of NGOs and facilitated functions of the market mechanism. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in the fields of rural and agricultural development, development economics and geography.

The premise of this volume is that the concepts of neoliberalism and neoliberalisation have largely been overlooked in planning theory as well as in the analysis of planning practice, despite the common deployment of these terms in the social sciences. Combining a number of specially commissioned chapters with insights from papers presented to a recent conference session of the Association of American Geographers in Boston, the book is dedicated to filling this significant lacuna in the study of planning.

What the case studies explored in these chapters from Africa, Asia, North America and Europe have in common is that they all reveal the uneasy coexistence of planning, defined as state intervention for the betterment of our built and natural environment, and neoliberalism, whose belief in the superiority of market mechanisms at organizing land use dictates a concomitant belief in the inferiority of its opposite, state intervention. Planning may, if anything, be seen as an obstacle to neoliberalism, an inconvenience destined to be rolled back or even annihilated through neoliberal practice. Combining neoliberal and planning in one phrase, then, seems awkward at best, and at worst an outright oxymoron. The very existence or epistemological possibility of neoliberal planning may appear to be a total surrender of state planning to market forces, or in other words, the simple acceptance that the management of buildings, transport infrastructure, parks, conservation areas etc. "beyond" the profit principle has reached its limits in the 21st century. In this case, planning practice is relegated to the position of a mere facilitator of market forces, be it moderate or authoritarian.

In spite of these contradictions and outright impossibilities, planners operate within, contribute to, resist or seek to mitigate an increasingly neoliberal mode of producing spaces and places, one that has resulted in the revival of profit-driven changes in land use. This book describes, analyzes and elucidates the incongruity between serving private, profit-driven interests and the planning system 's purported goal of improving the built environment shared by the public. It does so through case studies covering an array of planning issues in a range of national contexts. The authors lay bare precisely how spatial planning functions in a culture of market triumphalism, and how planners respond to the overriding profit principle in land allocation. Yet the book also provides exemplars of public-spirited, not-for-profit developments.

More than 2.6 billion people in the developing world lack access to safe water and sanitation service. The Millennium Development Goal's (MDG) target is to halve the number of people without access to a sustainable source of water supply and connection to a sewer network by 2015. That target is unlikely to be met. If there is anything that can be learnt from European experience it is that institutional reform occurs incrementally when politically enfranchised urban populations perceive a threat to their material well-being due to contamination of water sources.

This book shows how social impact assessment (SIA), which emerged barely five decades ago, as a way to anticipate and manage potentially negative social impacts of building dams, power stations, urban infrastructure, highways, industries, mining and other development projects, is now widely in use as a planning tool, especially in developed countries. Although SIA has still not gained much acceptance among development planners in Asia, the situation is gradually changing. In India, SIA initially mandated as a policy guideline in 2007 is now a legal requirement. SIA in China has also recently become obligatory for certain types of development projects. Bangladesh, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are other Asian countries that provide examples from a variety of externally funded projects illustrating the use of social impact analysis in project planning to improve development outcomes. With contributions from an array of leading experts, this book is a valuable resource on SIA, indispensable for policymakers, planners, and practitioners in government, international development agencies, private-sector industry, private banks, consultants, teachers, researchers and students of social sciences and development studies, also NGOs everywhere, not in Asia alone.

Why do we travel? Are holidays good for our health? What are the social and psychological factors that drive us to move? The Psychology of Travel provides an eclectic introduction to the range of travel experiences from commuting, to going on holiday, to studying abroad. Travel is a near-universal experience and manifests itself in various forms, from everyday experiences to exotic adventure, although it varies across time and cultures. The book unpacks the concept of travel, and engages with topics including migration, wellbeing, acculturation, wayfinding, slow travel, place attachment and nostalgia, and brings them into sharp focus in relation to globalisation and climate change, By asking what drives us to journey and offering key insights into the psychological factors behind different kinds of travel, The Psychology of Travel introduces the reader to new ways of thinking about global mobility and movement.

Newfoundland lies at the intersection of arctic and more temperate regions and, commensurate with this geography, populations of two Amerindian and two Paleoeskimocultural traditions occupied Port au Choix, in northern Newfoundland, Canada, for centuries and millennia. Over the past two decades The Port au Choix Archaeology Project has sought a comparative understanding of how these different cultures, each with their particular origin and historical trajectory, adapted to the changing physical and social environments, impacted their physical surroundings, and created cultural landscapes. This volume brings together the research of Renouf, her colleagues and her students who together employ multiple perspectives and methods to provide a detailed reconstruction and understanding of the long-term history of Port au Choix. Although geographically focussed on a northern coastal area, this volume has wider implications for understanding archaeological landscapes, human-environment interactions and hunter-gatherer societies. "

This volume contains selected essays of Manfred M. Fischer in the field of spatial analysis from the perspective of GeoComputation. The volume is structured in four parts, from broad issues in spatial analysis and the role of GIS to computational intelligence technologies such as neural networks. The third part provides the theoretical framework required for adaptive pattern classifiers in remote sensing environments. The final section outlines the latest in neural spatial interaction modeling.

Caught between the twin pressures of rising public expectations and falling resources, public services have become the subject of intense academic scrutiny and public debate. Much of this controversy has been fuelled by a growing realisation that where people live has an important influence upon their access to services. The so-called 'postcode lottery.' The first part of this book considers what is meant by the term 'collective consumption' and discusses the main differences between the British and American loyal government systems. It examines various geographical schools of analysis which focus on jurisdictional partitioning, locational efficiency, externalities and locational conflict. Subsequent chapters explore the relevance of public choice, neo-Weberian and neo-Marxist theories for an understanding of collective consumption. The final section looks at ways in which spatial perspectives can be linked with broader theoretical approaches in the context of modern developments. This book was first published in it's current form in 1985.

Developed form a major research report for the Department of the Environment, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the problems experienced when the the green belt restraint was implemented around London. Attitudes to land-use planning changed rapidly: planning powers devolved from counties to districts: and regional planning was largely dismantled. This book fills a major gap in the literature by critically examinig the Metropolitan Green Belt. This book was first published in 1983.

Jack Rose examines the social, economic and political forces which have shaped the towns and cities of the UK since the Industrial Revolution. The unrestricted and largely unplanned development which followed the Industrial Revolution created unacceptable living and working conditions for which a century of legislation failed to provide a remedy. In the last fifty years of economic, political and legal changes have all affected the shape and speed of development through rent control, taxation, planning directives and other mechanisms. The interplay of political changes and economic circumstances which produces the 'dynamics' of development is covered here from the unique standpoint of the author's long and successful career in the property industry. This book was first published in 1985

Much of the theoretical literature in planning and human geography at present is materialist in perspective. This offers a powerful critique but locates the dynamics of urban systems too specifically in just one basic social relationship. It fails to provide an intellectual base broad enough for constructive, detailed urban analysis, partly because it fails to do justice to the reflective awareness of the individual. The alternative humanist position redresses the balance in favour of the individual but again cannot serve the practical requirements of urban analysis since it so often ignores social or contextual analysis. Ian Cullen synthesizes these tow apparently inconsistent theoretical positions and to render the increasingly obscure debate between them accessible. This book was first published in 1984.

In this book, the author provides a critical examination and evaluation of a number of the central political questions currently being posed in urban studies. The book is divided into two interrelated sections. Part One critically discussed the theoretical problems raised by recent work in Britain, Europe and the United States and covers such issues as 'non-decision making' and the mobilisation of bias in political systems, the significance of owner-occupation as a basis for political action, the potential importance of 'urban social movements', and the nature of the relationship between urban management, the state and private capital. Throughout these chapters, the author attempts to develop a theoretical position which avoids the weaknesses of contemporary pluralist, Weberian and Marxist formations. Part Two systematically relates this theoretical discussion to an analysis of empirical material generated in a case study of an Outer London Borough. Thus, in addition to a chapter on local government policy making and the operation of strategies of political exclusion, this section contains analysis of political struggles involving suburban owner-occupiers, council tenants and large town centre business enterprises in a town which has undergone massive urban development over the last few years. Taken as a whole, the book constitutes an original and challenging contribution, both theoretical and empirical, to the contemporary analysis of urban politics. This book was first published in 1979.

'Morland predicts the future of humanity in 10 illuminating statistics (could the Japanese and Italians now go the way of the dodo?) and looks back to how ebbs and flows of population have shaped history, such as the Soviet Union's plummeting birth rate in the 1960s, which hastened the end of the Cold War.' - The Daily Telegraph 'The Best Books for Summer 2022' The great forces of population change - the balance of births, deaths and migrations - have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers and which languish in relative obscurity, which economies top the international league tables and which are at best also-rans. The same forces that have shaped our past and present are shaping our future. Illustrating this through ten illuminating indicators, from the fertility rate in Singapore (one) to the median age in Catalonia (forty-three), Paul Morland shows how demography is both a powerful and an under-appreciated lens through which to view the global transformations that are currently underway. Tomorrow's People ranges from the countries of West Africa where the tendency towards large families is combining with falling infant mortality to create the greatest population explosion ever witnessed, to the countries of East Asia and Southern Europe where generations of low birth-rate and rising life expectancy are creating the oldest populations in history. Morland explores the geographical movements of peoples that are already under way - portents for still larger migrations ahead - which are radically changing the cultural, ethnic and religious composition of many societies across the globe, and in their turn creating political reaction that can be observed from Brexit to the rise of Donald Trump. Finally, he looks at the two underlying motors of change - remarkable rises in levels of education and burgeoning food production - which have made all these epochal developments possible. Tomorrow's People provides a fascinating, illuminating and thought-provoking tour of an emerging new world. Nobody who wants to understand that world should be without it.

In order to develop and exercise their skills urban planners need to draw upon a wide variety of methods relating to plan and policy making, urban research and policy analysis. More than ever, planners need to be able to adapt their methods to contemporary needs and circumstances. This introductory textbook focuses on the need to combine traditional research methods with policy analysis in order to understand the true nature of urban planning processes. It describes both planning methods and their underlying concepts and principles, illustrating applications by reference to the daily activities of planning, including the assessment of needs and preferences of the population, the generation and implementation of plans and policies, and the need to take decisions related to the allocation of land, population change, employment, housing and retailing. Ian Bracken also provides a comprehensive guide to the more specialized research literature and case studies of contemporary urban planning practice. This book was first published in 1981.

Strategic special planning is undergoing a renaissance in Europe. Stakeholders at all levels-transnational, national and regional - are faced with the challenge of communicating policy principles for sustainable and integrated development to a wide audience of professionals as well as to the public. In communicating the key messages of special strategies, maps can play an important role; in fact the role of maps in helping to explain or illustrate the purpose of policy is a very powerful communication tool.
Stefanie Duhr's book is a unique contribution to the rapidly growing area of teaching and research on European special planning. She discusses the relevant theoretical perspectives on policy-making and process. In doing this, she provides both conceptual and practical tools to help students and practitioners better understand maps and visualizations in strategic special planning.
The book reviews the form, style and use of cartographic representations in strategic special plans in the Netherlands, Germany and England as well as at European level, highlighting significant differences between planning traditions and the impact of these on transnational planning processes. It concludes by discussing the practical implications for future strategic special planning processes in Europe and the best use of cartographic representations to reach agreement and to focus dialogue.

The identity implications have been overlooked from discussions on devolution, which have tended to focus on constitutional, legal and financial issues. In this volume, contributors from the communities under discussion explore the ways in which devolution is experienced and understood by citizens from the devolved regions of the UK. The additional inclusion of a US perspective allows parallels with American federalism to be drawn out. Informed by a discursive/textual/communication approach to identity, Devolution and Identity offers a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives, including both macro- and micro-level analyses of devolution and identity processes. Themes covered include discourse and interaction, national identity, flags and emblems, gender representation, newspaper letters, regional marketing, language ideology, history and culture, artistic practice, minority identities and political ideology. In exploring the impact of the devolution process on both individual and group identities, this book provides a richer understanding of the devolution process itself, as well as a new understanding of the relationship between socio-political structures and identity.

Now that Wal-Mart has conquered the US, can it conquer the world? As "Wal-Mart World "shows, the corporation is certainly trying. For a number of years, Wal-Mart has been the largest company in the United States. Now, though, it is the largest company in the world. Its global labor practices and outsourcing strategies represent for many what contemporary economic globalization is all about. But Wal-Mart is not standing still, and is opening up stores everywhere. From Germany to Beijing to Mexico City to Tokyo, more than a billion shoppers can now hunt for bargains at a Wal-Mart superstore. "Wal-Mart World" is the first book to look at this incredibly important phenomenon in global perspective, with chapters that range from its growth in the US and impact on labor relations here to its fortunes overseas. How Wal-Mart manages this transition in the near future will play a significant role in the determining the character of the global economy. "Wal-Mart World's" impressively broad scope makes it necessary reading for anyone interested in the global impact of this economic colossus.

The Environmental Impact of Cities assesses the environmental impact that comes from cities and their inhabitants, demonstrating that our current political and economic systems are not environmentally sustainable because they are designed for endless growth in a system which is finite. It is already well documented that political, economic and social forces are capable of shaping cities and their expansion, retraction, gentrification, re-population, industrialisation or de-industrialisation. However, the links between these political and economic forces and the environmental impact they have on urban areas have yet to be numerically presented. As a result, it is not clear how our cities are affecting the environment, meaning it is currently impossible to relate their economic, political and social systems to their environmental performance. This book examines a broad selection of cities covering a wide range of political systems, geography, cultural backgrounds and population size. The environmental impact of the selected cities is calculated using both ecological footprint and carbon emissions, two of the most extensively available indices for measuring environmental impact. The results are then considered in terms of political, economic and social factors to ascertain the degree to which these factors are helping or hindering the reduction of the environmental impact of humans. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainability, urban planning, urban design, environmental sciences, geography and sociology.

Space and time on earth are regulated by the prime meridian, 0 Degrees, which is, by convention, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. But the meridian's location in southeast London is not a simple legacy of Britain's imperial past. Before the nineteenth century, more than twenty-five different prime meridians were in use around the world, including Paris, Beijing, Greenwich, Washington, and the location traditional in Europe since Ptolemy, the Canary Islands. Charles Withers explains how the choice of Greenwich to mark 0 Degrees longitude solved complex problems of global measurement that had engaged geographers, astronomers, and mariners since ancient times. Withers guides readers through the navigation and astronomy associated with diverse meridians and explains the problems that these cartographic lines both solved and created. He shows that as science and commerce became more global and as railway and telegraph networks tied the world closer together, the multiplicity of prime meridians led to ever greater confusion in the coordination of time and the geographical division of space. After a series of international scientific meetings, notably the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, Greenwich emerged as the most pragmatic choice for a global prime meridian, though not unanimously or without acrimony. Even after 1884, other prime meridians remained in use for decades. As Zero Degrees shows, geographies of the prime meridian are a testament to the power of maps, the challenges of accurate measurement on a global scale, and the role of scientific authority in creating the modern world.

In 2007, a three-story-high tsunami slammed the small island of Simbo in the western Solomon Islands. Drawing on over ten years of research, Matthew Lauer provides a vivid and intimate account of this calamitous event and the tumultuous recovery process. His stimulating analysis surveys the unpredictable entanglements of the powerful waves with colonization, capitalism, human-animal communication, spirit beings, ancestral territory, and technoscientific expertise that shaped the disaster’s outcomes. Although the Simbo people had never experienced another tsunami in their lifetimes, nearly everyone fled to safety before the destructive waves hit. To understand their astonishing response, Lauer argues that we need to rethink popular and scholarly portrayals of Indigenous knowledge to avert epistemic imperialism and improve disaster preparedness strategies. In an increasingly disaster-prone era of ecological crises, this provocative book brings new possibilities into view for understanding the causes and consequences of calamity, the unintended effects of humanitarian recovery and mitigation efforts, and the nature of local knowledge.

"The Larkin and Peters book would be especially helpful for faculty and students outside geography who would need general information concerning concepts and trends in the field. Recommended for academic libraries at all levels, as well as large public libraries." Choice