This collection evaluates the various strategies that different cities have used when attempting to economically revitalize downtown areas.

This volume provides a comprehensive discussion and overview of urban resilience, including socio-ecological and economic hazard and disaster resilience. It provides a summary of state of the art thinking on resilience, the different approaches, tools and methodologies for understanding the subject in urban contexts, and brings together related reflections and initiatives. Throughout the different chapters, the handbook critically examines and reviews the resilience concept from various disciplinary and professional perspectives. It also discusses major urban crises, past and recent, and the generic lessons they provide for resilience. In this context, the authors provide case studies from different places and times, including historical material and contemporary examples, and studies that offer concrete guidance on how to approach urban resilience. Other chapters focus on how current understanding of urban systems - such as shrinking cities, green infrastructure, disaster volunteerism, and urban energy systems - are affecting the capacity of urban citizens, settlements and nation-states to respond to different forms and levels of stressors and shocks. The handbook concludes with a synthesis of the state of the art knowledge on resilience and points the way forward in refining the conceptualization and application of urban resilience. The book is intended for scholars and graduate students in urban studies, environmental and sustainability studies, geography, planning, architecture, urban design, political science and sociology, for whom it will provide an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current approaches across these disciplines that converge in the study of urban resilience. The book also provides important direction to practitioners and civic leaders who are engaged in supporting cities and regions to position themselves for resilience in the face of climate change, unpredictable socioenvironmental shocks and incremental risk accumulation.

Most of the literature on revitalizing downtowns have been based on the experience of large urban centres. This book provides a starting point for understanding the unique development problems of downtown in small urban communities. It includes a series of case studies that examine some principles of downtown revitalization, urban design and infrastructure redevelopment, waterfront and brownfields redevelopment, and retail and commercial redevelopment.

Illuminating the importance of culture in community planning, this book reveals why previous planning practices have failed and suggests that improvements can be made by taking into consideration the diverse needs of a multicultural society. For community planning to be effective, planners must first recognize and acknowledge that community culture influences how people live in, use, and organize space. They must then base their designs on the respective community culture and avoid the trap of planning based on their own values and cultural background. Thus urban planning must take on a futuristic, multi-dimensional vision for the 21st century.

The contributions in this book address these issues and suggest ways in which the planner can incorporate the cultural differences and avoid conflict. The book examines the inadequacy of current theoretical and philosophical paradigms in planning in a multicultural society, how planners can increase planning's effectiveness with ethnic and cultural communities, and how we might reshape institutions to better address the needs of a diverse, global, and multicultural society. This book will be of interest to both academic and professional audiences in multicultural studies and urban planning.

This accessible, challenging discussion of race relations looks at how institutions shape individual experience and asks how we can prevent a violent splintering of American society along racial lines in the 21st century. Arguing that the best way to understand race relations is through the personal accounts of individuals as they go through the life cycle, this highly readable book uses real life stories to illuminate how families, peer groups, and workplaces influence views about other racial and ethnic groups. The authors hope to inspire readers to intervene and counteract negative perceptions of racial difference through their open, frank discussion of the racial divide.

This book provides a discussion of multiculturalism from a global perspective. It progresses from a discussion of the ideological and philosophical arguments for multiculturalism through its political, public policy, and socio-economic dimensions. Multicultural practices from Canada, Germany, India, Israel, Nigeria, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, and the United States are discussed. The response to multiculturalism differs from one country to the other and is influenced by the political context, rules of immigration, colonial legacy, domestic institutional structures, and pressure from interest groups. Because multiculturalism is a contentious issue as groups vie for limited resources, the debate on multiculturalism will be a heated one. Governments can facilitate the process by creating an environment that enables the exchange of ideas without conflict and antagonism.