Cities and Crisis

An ambitious global study of the state of cities in the early twenty-first century, their role in society, and their contribution to the financial crisis Cities have been missing from analyses of the global economic crisis and debate and strategy as to how to generate a sustainable recovery. Cities and crisis is about the future, starting where we are. Illuminating recent trends, emerging risks and initiatives to improve decision-making, it provides a fresh assessment of changes since 1990, of policy assumptions about urban economies, the lessons of experience. The argument is made that a city-centred strategy to lift urban productivity must reduce deficits of urban innovation and of infrastructure investment (the new limits to growth). Drawing on dozens of reports from the OECD on economics, environment and governance, Cities and crisis provides a 'long-term, big-time' framework to understand the many technical issues that complicate decision-making and policy. It explores past strengths and current weaknesses of macro-economic and sectoral policies to guide urban development in relation to housing, infrastructure and innovation. With the prospect of more frequent and costly environmental, health and economic crises to come, there is discussion of the vulnerability of cities, of resilience as a part of preparedness and of the limits of domestic regulation to cope with mega-disasters and cross-border risks. It explains how paradigm shifts in economic governance have been undertaken successfully by the West in the past, but that we are out of practice. Radical reforms may be needed to obtain practical solutions to strengthen urban economic performance and reduce the impact of urban disasters and crises: our major challenges. There is a call for cities to be placed at the centre of policy, which will challenge how governments, structured by sectors and levels, work. This will be essential reading for students and academics in political sciences, urban studies, economics and business, for policy makers and officials and the general reader interested in the future of cities in the twenty-first century. 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