This book demonstrates both successes and failures in attempts to get closer to the ideal of good urban governance in cities in North-America, Europe, and Asia. It presents a value menu and deliberately does not come up with "one best way" for improving urban governance. Good urban governance is presented as a balancing act, an interplay between government, business and civil society in which the core values need careful and timely attention. The authors address questions such as "What is deemed "good" in urban governance, and how is it being searched for?", and "What (re)configurations of interactions between government, private sector and civil society are evolving, and to what results?".

This book presents international experiences in urban network learning. It is vital for cities to learn as it is necessary to constantly adapt and improve public performance and address complex challenges in a constantly changing environment. It is therefore highly relevant to gain more insight into how cities can learn. Cities address problems and challenges in networks of co-operation between existing and new actors, such as state actors, market players and civil society. This book presents various learning environments and methods for urban network learning, and aims to learn from experiences across the globe. How does learning take place in these urban networks? What factors and situations help or hinder these learning practices? Can we move from intuition to a strategy to improve urban network learning?

This book presents international experiences in urban network learning. It is vital for cities to learn as it is necessary to constantly adapt and improve public performance and address complex challenges in a constantly changing environment. It is therefore highly relevant to gain more insight into how cities can learn. Cities address problems and challenges in networks of co-operation between existing and new actors, such as state actors, market players and civil society. This book presents various learning environments and methods for urban network learning, and aims to learn from experiences across the globe. How does learning take place in these urban networks? What factors and situations help or hinder these learning practices? Can we move from intuition to a strategy to improve urban network learning?

The year 2007 marks the moment when half of the world's population live in cities and one third of the urban population live in slum areas without access to proper housing, water, basic education, health care and other facilities. Urbanization worldwide will dominate Asia and Africa up and until 2030 and there is a concern it will go hand in hand with increasing urban poverty. But cities will not just be sources of problems. They also offer a platform for solutions. This study is based on the underlying assumption that it is essential that cities actively use their innovative, creative and learning capacity to create and share knowledge and experiences on how to reduce urban poverty. The Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) carried out a study in 2008 to assess the success factors for 'Local Urban Knowledge Arenas' (LUKAs) and the feasibility of supporting them. This publication draws largely on the findings of that study. LUKAs can play a crucial role in bringing research and practice together with the aim of developing programmes, projects and actions that contribute to urban development and help to overcome urban poverty.