Cities have been missing from analyses of the global economic crisis and debates about how to generate a sustainable recovery. Cities and crisis provides a fresh assessment of what has changed since 1990 and what has not, of policy assumptions about urban economies, and of lessons of experience. A city-centred strategy to lift urban productivity must reduce deficits of urban innovation and of infrastructure investment: the new limits to growth. The outlook of more frequent and more costly crises to come - environmental, health, and even economic - makes these deficits more alarming. Yet governments seem incapable of setting out a vision for the future of cities. Things may get worse before they get better. We may need radical reforms to get practical solutions to improve urban economic performance and to reduce the impact of urban disasters and crises: our major challenges. Putting cities at the centre of policy will challenge how governments, structured by sectors and levels, work. Paradigm shifts in economic governance have been undertaken successfully in the past; we are just out of practice. Drawing on dozens of reports from the OECD to illuminate recent trends, emerging risks and initiatives to improve decision-making, Cities and crisis is about the future, starting where we are. This book is essential for anyone interested in the lessons of the 2008 crisis for the future of cities in the twenty-first century, and is suitable for classroom use in politics, urban studies, development and business. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable cities and communities -- .

This comparative, transatlantic two-volume work covers nearly 120 years of the history of the rights, integration, and security of the Jewish people in both the United States and France, the countries with the largest and third-largest Jewish populations. Religious freedom and secularism have evolved differently in France and the United States, reinforcing their separate national identities. Yet there are parallels to their Jewish history, and in how the security of Jews has repeatedly defined and tested the national interests of France and the United States in world affairs. Drawing on the author’s personal experience as an international civil servant, these volumes explore topics such as tensions and common interests between France and the United States, the memory of the Shoah, social mobility, the tepid commitment of the United States to the rights of French Jews during World War II, trends in antisemitism and tolerance, and global climate change as a threat to largely coastal Jewish communities. They highlight what makes insecurity different in the 21st century and why a paradigm shift in policy is needed. This title is intended both for a general audience and advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in Jewish history, urban history and international relations.

This comparative, transatlantic two-volume work covers nearly 120 years of the history of the rights, integration, and security of the Jewish people in both the United States and France, the countries with the largest and third-largest Jewish populations. Religious freedom and secularism have evolved differently in France and the United States, reinforcing their separate national identities. Yet there are parallels to their Jewish history, and in how the security of Jews has repeatedly defined and tested the national interests of France and the United States in world affairs. Drawing on the author’s personal experience as an international civil servant, these volumes explore topics such as tensions and common interests between France and the United States, the memory of the Shoah, social mobility, the tepid commitment of the United States to the rights of French Jews during World War II, trends in antisemitism and tolerance, and global climate change as a threat to largely coastal Jewish communities. They highlight what makes insecurity different in the 21st century and why a paradigm shift in policy is needed. This title is intended both for a general audience and advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in Jewish history, urban history, and international relations.

Originally published in 1978. Josef Konvitz provides a broad comparative study of European port cities since the Renaissance by examining how they were built and rebuilt in the context of urban industrialization. Konvitz argues that as seafaring became more critical to Western civilization, intellectuals and rulers placed more importance on urban planning. Planning looked different, of course, in various European cities. In Paris, riverside planning was patched into the existing frame of the city, whereas Scandinavian towns on the Baltic were over-designed to accommodate a degree of maritime trade unsustainable for cities writ large. In the eighteenth century, city planning fell out of vogue, and new solutions were introduced to help solve the problems created by urban development. With a series of helpful maps, Konvitz's book is an important source for urban historians of early modern Europe.