1st Edition
Smart Transitions in City Regionalism Territory, Politics and the Quest for Competitiveness and Sustainability
In recent years "smartness" has risen as a buzzword to characterize novel urban policy and development patterns. As a result of this, debates around what "smart" actually means, both theoretically and empirically, have emerged within the interdisciplinary arenas of urban and regional studies. This book explores the changes in discourse, rationality and selected responses of smartness through the theme of "transition."
The concept of transition provides the broader context and points of reference for adopting smartness in reconciling competing interests and agendas in city-regional governance. Using case studies from around the world, including North America, Europe and South Africa, the authors link external regime transition in societal values and goals with internal moves towards smartness. While reflecting the growing integration of overarching themes and analytical concerns, this volume further develops work on smartness, smart growth, transition, city-regionalism, governance and sustainability.
Smart Transitions in City Regionalism explores how smart cities and city regions interact with conventional state structures. It will be of great interest to postgraduates and advanced undergraduates across urban studies, geography, sustainability studies and political science.
Introduction, 1. The Smart Turn: Tracing Transitions to City-Regional Smartness, 2. Economic Factors in Shaping City Regionalism and ‘Smartness’, 3. Political Factors in Shaping City Regionalism and ‘Smartness’, 4. Going for ‘smartness’: reframing city-regionalism, 5. Beyond Post-Fordist Regimes: Smart City-Regionalism in North America and Western Europe, 6. Beyond Post-Authoritarian Regimes: Smart City-Regionalism in Eastern Europe and South Africa, 7. Conclusions: Smart transitions in city-regionalism
Biography
Tassilo Herrschel is a Reader in Urban and Regional Governance in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster, UK, and Associate Research Fellow at the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Yonn Dierwechter is Professor in the Urban Studies Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma, USA
