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Mobile Urbanism: Cities and Policymaking in the Global Age
Mobile Urbanism provides a unique set of perspectives on the current global-urban condition. Drawing on cutting-edge theoretical work, leading geographers reveal that cities are not isolated objects of study; rather, they are dynamic, global–local assemblages of policies, practices, and ideas.
The essays in this volume argue for a theorizing of both urban policymaking and place-making that understands them as groups of territorial and relational geographies. It broadens our comprehension of agents of transference, reconceiving how policies are made mobile, and acknowledging the importance of interlocal policy mobility. Through the richness of its empirical examples from Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, contributors bring to light the significant methodological challenges that researchers face in the study of an urban–global, territorial–relational conceptualization of cities and suggest productive new approaches to understanding urbanism in a networked world.
Contributors: S. Harris Ali, York U, Toronto; Allan Cochrane, Open U; Roger Keil , York U, Toronto; Doreen Massey, Open U; Donald McNeill, U of Western Sydney; Jamie Peck, U of British Columbia; Jennifer Robinson, University College London.
The essays in this volume argue for a theorizing of both urban policymaking and place-making that understands them as groups of territorial and relational geographies. It broadens our comprehension of agents of transference, reconceiving how policies are made mobile, and acknowledging the importance of interlocal policy mobility. Through the richness of its empirical examples from Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, contributors bring to light the significant methodological challenges that researchers face in the study of an urban–global, territorial–relational conceptualization of cities and suggest productive new approaches to understanding urbanism in a networked world.
Contributors: S. Harris Ali, York U, Toronto; Allan Cochrane, Open U; Roger Keil , York U, Toronto; Doreen Massey, Open U; Donald McNeill, U of Western Sydney; Jamie Peck, U of British Columbia; Jennifer Robinson, University College London.
- GenresUrban
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2011
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November 22, 2012
Mobile Urbanisms comprises a series of essays discussing how cities are simultaneously the product of global and local policies, practices and tensions. Although all the essays were grounded in specific cases of cities/policies, they adopted vastly different styles and approaches. The opening series of essays I would characterise as being more theoretical and conceptual in nature: Massey's "A Counterhegemonic Relationality of Place" (the title should be a tip-off), which discussed London's agreement with Caracas to swop urban planning expertise for cheap oil for public transport; Robinson's "The Spaces of Circulating Knowledge: City Strategies and Global Urban Governmentality", discussing the network of conferences, policy fora, consultants and strategists that propel urban development ideas (fads?) around the world; and Peck's "Creative Moments: Working Culture, through Municipal Socialism and Neoliberal Urbanism", which discusses the rise of using "cultural industries" as a development or rejuvenation strategy of cities, and how they can be both the product of a top-down, neoliberal push, but also a more organic, bottom up and inclusive movement.
The other essays in Mobile Urbanisms have a more straightforward style of writing. Essays like McNeill's "Airports, Territoriality, and Urban Governance", and Ward's essay tracing the origins of Business Improvement Districts from Canada, in "Policies in Motion and in Place: The Case of Business Improvement Districts strike a balance between policy analysis and more theoretical, conceptual musings. McCann's "Points of Reference: Knowledge of Elsewhere in the Politics of Urban Drug Policy", discussing the external reference points that shaped Vancouver's drug policy, Keil and Ali's account of how various cities like Singapore and Toronto managed SARS in "The Urban Political Pathology of Emerging Infectious Disease in the Age of the Global City" are probably the most readable essays in the collection in terms of writing style and structure.
A good read overall for anyone interested in urban issues, even if some of the essays are more challenging than others to plough through, for those not used to a very academic style of writing (I count myself in this group).
The other essays in Mobile Urbanisms have a more straightforward style of writing. Essays like McNeill's "Airports, Territoriality, and Urban Governance", and Ward's essay tracing the origins of Business Improvement Districts from Canada, in "Policies in Motion and in Place: The Case of Business Improvement Districts strike a balance between policy analysis and more theoretical, conceptual musings. McCann's "Points of Reference: Knowledge of Elsewhere in the Politics of Urban Drug Policy", discussing the external reference points that shaped Vancouver's drug policy, Keil and Ali's account of how various cities like Singapore and Toronto managed SARS in "The Urban Political Pathology of Emerging Infectious Disease in the Age of the Global City" are probably the most readable essays in the collection in terms of writing style and structure.
A good read overall for anyone interested in urban issues, even if some of the essays are more challenging than others to plough through, for those not used to a very academic style of writing (I count myself in this group).
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review