Book Description
Arthur O’Sullivan’s Urban Economics is the leading text for this small, but exciting market. This book covers urban economics as the discipline that lies at the intersection of geography and economics. The sixth edition is a thorough revision of previous incarnations—the author has reorganized and rewritten every chapter to produce a sleek and up-to-date text that will bring renewed attention to the Urban Economics course.
This sixth edition offers an extreme makeover from previous editions while also incorporating the remarkable progress in the field of urban economics in the last ten to fifteen years. Part I of the book explains why cities exist and what causes them to grow or shrink. Part II examines the market forces that shape cities and the role of government in determining land-use patterns. Part III looks at the urban transportation system, exploring the pricing and design of public transit systems and the externalities associated with automobile use (congestion, environmental damage, collisions). Part IV uses a model of the rational criminal to explore the causes of urban crime and the spatial consequences. Part V explains the unique features of the housing market and examines the effects of government housing policies. The final part of the book explains the rationale for our fragmented system of local government and explores the responses of local governments to intergovernmental grants and the responses of taxpayers to local taxes.
All of the economic concepts used in the book are covered in the typical intermediate microeconomics course, but a Tools of Microeconomics appendix is included that covers the key concepts for students whose exposure to microeconomics is limited to an introductory course or who could benefit from a review of intermediate concepts.
Customer Reviews:
only for those who think memorize and regurgitate is a good learning method.......2007-04-30
Yes, I've used Cliff Notes and other outlines and I always appreciate the effort when someone takes the trouble to provide a concise summary of a larger work. This 'outline,' and I use that term loosely here, is nothing more than a compilation of definitions used in urban economics. The amount of effort to put this into some helpful form is minimal, basically just a list of terms with explanations or definitions to the side, and then an area where you can write something that perhaps may help you memorize the terms.
As a comprehensive list of terms used in urban economics it does a decent job, as an outline of an urban economics text it is a scam. No where in the book is there a single forumla, a single graph, or a single discussion of the mutual interaction of phenomenon listed in any of the terms. It is clear why the published won't let you take a look inside this paultry piece of garbage, no one would buy it, well maybe some desperate folks just trying to get a D in the class.
If your view of academics and learning is basically memorize and regurgitate and all you want is a list of terms to spout so you can claim some minimal level of knowledge of this field, then this really is the book for you. However, I certainly wouldn't want to be relying on your expertise in this field to help me with anything.
If you were actually looking for some insight into aspects of urban economics that you may not understand you will be wasting your time trying to glean anything from this book that you couldn't accomplish by simply underlying and memorizing every term in the textbook from which it is derived. This book is a waste of money, not much of a waste of time as it took me 1-2 minutes to determine I wasted my money and there was nothing of value in the book for me.
5 stars relative to others.......2006-01-13
It's not the perfect textbook for the subject, but it is good enough that I still use it in my class. I gave five stars to the 5th edition. The new edition has less material and it is organized in a more integrated way, which for some could be better, but I prefer to teach in a more focused way (with each chapter focusing on one issue). Thus, because there is less material and the new organization, I would give 4 stars to the 6th edition. The book is still very comprehensive, although there are topics that could be better explored (either simplified or extended) and in some cases more accurately according to the current standard urban economics. It has a very good survey of empirical evidence (actually the best feature of the book), but they lack details on the evidence and on the limitations of the studies. Finally, the examples in the text and in the end-of-chapters are poor (not realistic, not creative, and not well adjusted to the material in the book). There are no questions to test knowledge, just understanding (however, these questions are not very clear or smart).
Brand new book w/ prompt delivery.......2005-09-19
STILL IN PACKAGE, book was in great shape, brand new, prompt delivery.
A very comprehensive overview.......2000-03-31
I had "Urban Economics" for one of my urban planning courses at graduate school. It was a pleasure to study the principles and processes of city building, growth and dynamics, through this book. Every chapter in the book can be a title for a separate volume. So this is a very comprehensive overall general view of economics as a determinant of urban development and form.
I particularly liked the chapters on Urban Poverty and Housing. The chapter on poverty explains issues like income transfers, food stamps and their effect on consumer behavior, problems of inner cities and development policies needed to change that.
Housing has a great chapter devoted to the peculiarities of housing as a commodity and the effect of race and discrimination on housing patterns. The most interesting part concerns the "filtering" of housing from the upper income to lower income populations.
Also explained is the auto oriented transportation vs mass transit and their specific roles in shaping cities.
Highly recommended. Easy to read and understand.
Book Description
One of the hottest trends in real estate is the development of town centers and urban villages that include a mix of uses in a pedestrian friendly setting. This new book will help you navigate the unique development issues and options and show you how to make all of the elements work together. You will learn about the economic and social forces driving this trend; how these projects are being developed in master planned communities, infill, and redevelopment areas; special regulatory, market and finance issues; and how suburban planners and developers are pursuing town center concepts to create attractive gathering places for their communities. Illustrat-ed in full color, the book includes case studies and examples that describe how leading professionals met the challenges and developed innovative and successful projects.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for Urban Planning!.......2007-01-10
I was put on to this book by a professor at USF School of Architecture. It contains not only the history of placemaking but real examples of placemaking and tools in how to achieve the notion of "place." Not only is this a great resource, but it is easy to read and follow along.
Highly reccomended!
Power and ample information and graphics.......2006-08-24
I found this book to be one of the best out on the topic, of which there are too few at present for such an important topic. The depth and breadth of place-making topics and their coverage makes this a very excellent easy-to-read-and-understand as well as a long-term reference tool. The graphics are very well done. Having recently attended a Harvard program on retail for cities and new towns and urban center given by Bob Gibbs and Terry Shook, I especially found the book right on target. I want to see more of these types of books.
Book Description
PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America is a five-year plan to make Black America a prosperous and empowered race that is self-sufficient and competitive as a group by the year 2005. In this book, Dr. Anderson obliterates the myths and illusions of black progress and brings together data and information from many different sources to construct a framework for solutions to the dilemma of Black America. In PowerNomics: The National Plan, Dr. Anderson proposes new principles, strategies and concepts that show blacks a new way to see, think, and behave in race matters. The new mind set prepares blacks to take strategic steps to create a new reality for their race. It offers guidance to others who support blacks self-sufficiency. In this book, Dr. Anderson offers insightful analysis and action steps blacks can take to redesign core areas of life - Education, Economics, Politics and Religion - to better benefit their race. The action steps in each area require new empowerment tools that Dr. Anderson presents - a new group vision and a new culture of empowerment - tools designed to counter, if not break many of the racial monopolies in society. Vertical integration and Industrializing black communities are other major concepts and strategies that he presents in the book. He places a great deal of importance on building industries in black communities that are constructed upon group competitive advantages. A the same time he announced the release of PowerNomics: The National Plan, he also announced that he has established several models of the strategies he proposes in the book. PowerNomics: The Plan, is infused with Dr. Anderson's trademark creative thinking and answers questions such as: - Why are blacks the only group that equates success with working in a White corporation, government or the entertainment industry? - How did power and wealth - businesses, resources, privileges, income and control of all levels of government get so disproportionately distributed into the hands of White society?
- Industrialization brings many economic benefits to the geographic locations where it occurs. Why has Black America never been industrialized and how can it be done? - Why do visible blacks and black leaders avoid blackness, identifying the focus of their work instead for people of color, minorities, women, gays , the poor, Hispanics, and other immigrant groups? - What enables a constant stream of immigrant groups to politically, economically and socially dominate blacks? - In politics, how is it that blacks can be monolithic and loyal political supporters yet their group receives no quid pro quo benefits? - In his first book, Black Labor, White Wealth, Dr. Anderson examined history and showed how racism has locked and boxed blacks into a near permanent underclass. Picking up where Black Labor, White Wealth left off, PowerNomics: The National Plan is the missing link between the historical analysis of problems facing blacks and the strategies needed to correct those problems. Dr. Anderson's books are a phenomenon in the publishing industry. His work is distinguished because he has turned books that are serious, non-fiction, and heavy on black history, into best-sellers. PowerNomics: The National Plan continues that pattern. It is an astounding work.
Customer Reviews:
Release The Power.......2006-07-10
PowerNomics should be required reading for every African American book club, community organization, church, and family. The book embodies tenents set forth from Marcus Garvey to Elijah Muhammed to DuBois and Washington. If you believe that "God helps those who help themselves," PowerNomics is an action plan to achieve self-sufficiency.
This is truly Black America's second Bible.......2006-05-24
Before I read this book, I had not one clue how bad we as African Americans had it. This book truly opened my eyes. The statistics that were presented would make Dr. King literally cry. We have gotten so far behind other nationalities that it is literally pathetic. Claud Anderson's vision if implemented can really change the course that us as Blacks are on. This book should be in every Black American's household.
Live on your feet or die on your knees.......2005-10-15
Mr. Andersons' book provides a thorough examination, diagnosis, and best possible cure for what ails black america. Not poor whites, hispanics, arabs, jews, gays, or white women. You owe it to you and your family to at least check out the facts of this examination and then decide.
White america has always put their modus operandi in our face; this is our society, these are our rules, do the best you can with what we decide to give you; don't bother me while I make my money. If you do, the police will handle you.
Here is Black americas' call to focus on what should have been the legacy of civil rights - economic empowerment.
Economic common sense!!.......2005-04-10
A continuation of Black labor White wealth, this account is a program of action for those interested with the implimentaion of the economic model based on Powernomics and the fascinating industries available for exploitation within certain communities. Additionally this addition has updated stats and excellent examples of programs designed to help control-preserve community economic development and culture as well as history...to protect communities from outsiders with their own interests thru ethno-aggregation and consolidation urban communities can learn to impliment basic protective procedures. Fascinating far reaching analysis, that should be of interest for those areas facing population displacement thru gentrification. If developed properly this Powerenomics plan can serve areas well into the next century and beyond.
This book has changed my life........2004-10-29
I have been a self-proclaimed conscious person for 5 years now.
I began with reading black history studying ancient african civilizations and traditions. When I found out about Ancient Kemit and Kush and the African connection to the Hebrews I honestly believed that the major problem we had in this country was lack of self-knowledge. Even though I still beleive that to be a major issue, I know now that the force that keeps us down is ignorance of a different type. It is the ignorance of how a Democratic Capitalist system truly works that keeps us at the bottom. It was and is the ignorance of our past and present leaders who push and promote intergration when it's obvious it has failed us. And finally it is each and every black individuals ignorance when he moves out of a black community when they become middle class, diluting our voting and economic base. But now i have no excuses I now know what is going on around me. If you want to know buy this book.
Book Description
For those looking to raise a family in a storybook American town, or a change of pace from hectic city life, this book is the answer.
Customer Reviews:
A Poor Offering.......2007-08-10
This is not a very good book. 50% of the book is devoted to Mr. Crampton's less than interesting observations of life in a small town. His advice is mostly extremely basic common sense stuff that any normal person should already know. He offers very few interesting insights.
The other half of the book is his list of the 120 best small towns in America. This part of the book is even more weak. It's obvious Mr. Crampton did a lot of internet travel to gather his data as the descriptions are clearly culled from the towns' chamber of commerce websites. He offers zero insight or information gained from him (or someone else) actually visiting / living in the towns and conveying what the towns are actually like.
His ruse is painfully evident as the "more info" listing for each town is merely a link to their respective chamber of commerce website! What "more info" could there be given that the author merely copied the site? Even his internet research was exceptionally lazy.
The book should be titled "A Compilation of America's Best Small Towns' Chamber of Commerce Website Info plus Non-insightful Musings of the Armchair Travelling Author."
And how do the towns qualify as being best? By Mr. Crampton's estimation they must have a highschool, and a hospital, and at least a few other businesses that aren't Walmart. Could the bar be set any lower? With that criteria one could throw 120 darts blindfolded at a map and do just as well as this book.
The book could be fodder for a Garrison Keilor Ketchup skit, "you know June, why don't we retire to the country, find a town with a highschool and live out our days..... Dear, have you been getting enough Ketchup lately..."
A very weak text that I'll be returning to Amazon post haste!
Make that 3 1/2 stars.......2005-03-28
Actually, I would have given "Making Your Move" 4 stars had I found the descriptions of the individual towns more interesting. But, what I did find was a witty style of writing, some laugh-out-loud moments, and some very down-to-earth advice on the pearls and perils of small-town life. One might apply Norm's smart and insightful guidelines to just about any sparsely populated area in the quest for new habitation. So even though his selections failed to fire me up, they did make me realize that I may not be cut out for small-town living after all. And that, in itself, is worth far more than the price of a book. Thanks, Norm, and make that four stars.
Part of the story.......2003-03-12
This book is a good place to start if you're thinking of moving to a town of 15,000 or less. It will point you to many interesting communities. However, having used his previous book to guide my last move, and as a resident of one of the towns highlighted in this book (Grinnell), I can honestly say that data only carries you so far. Crampton could provide readers with a great benefit by lengthening the amount of description and flavor for each town. In particular, one key element missing is the 'dynamic' of a town: is it progressive? conservative? excited about education? quick to vote down taxes and bonds? These elements form the 'culture' of a small town, and believe me, the culture of a small town will be *very* important to you!
A good guide to start.......2003-01-08
As a resident of one of the 120 "best small towns" recommended by Norman Crampton, I was delighted to see Silver City on the list.
While Crampton's book is a good place to start your search for small town living, it is important to realize that each small town offers a unique personality. Some generalizations simply do not apply to Silver City. For example, it is not necessary to join a church (or country club) in order to fit in here. Even a small community like ours has diverse sub-populations: recent retirees, most of whom have some affinity for the arts; old-timers, most of whom are the conservative church-goers Crampton describes; and Hispanic families, many of whom have worked in the mines.
These groups rarely interact, although we usually get along very peacefully. We also have a number of folks who teach at the university -- and we rarely see them around town.
To learn about Silver city, you won't get much information from the Chamber of Commerce or the editor of the newspaper. You'd do better to spend some time hanging out at the AIR cafe, talking to whoever comes in. The morning and afternoon groups are quite different and everyone is friendly.
The author gives some nuts and bolts about each small town. Unfortunately, with the exception of weather, much of this information will change by the time the book is printed. And your decision may well be made by factors that can't be added up.
The best part of the book is the section on economics of small town living. Here, he's right on. You have to budget for travel to a large city now and then. Air travel will be more costly and you need time to drive to a large airport. His view of housing prices seems optimistic. If you move to a desirable city (such as Silver City) expect to pay more for a house than he allows.
And if you move to retire, your economic picture will be quite different. Many newcomers to Silver City are beginning a second career as an artist or writer. Moving without a job is scary -- and I do not recommend it unless you fit the profile I describe in my own book, Making the Big Move.
Book Description
Citizen participation in such complex issues as the quality of the environment, neighborhood housing, urban design, and economic development often brings with it suspicion of government, anger between stakeholders, and power plays by many--as well as appeals to rational argument. Deliberative planning practice in these contexts takes political vision and pragmatic skill. Working from the accounts of practitioners in urban and rural settings, North and South, John Forester shows how skillful deliberative practices can facilitate practical and timely participatory planning processes. In so doing, he provides a window onto the wider world of democratic governance, participation, and practical decisionmaking. Integrating interpretation and theoretical insight with diverse accounts of practice, Forester draws on political science, law, philosophy, literature, and planning to explore the challenges and possibilities of deliberative practice.
Customer Reviews:
Searching for theory behind praxis.......2003-10-27
Once I started reading this book I could not put it aside for long. Perhaps this is because so many of the insights that the author offers on what practioners of deliberative planning and rural development actually do resonates so much with the work I am involved with in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Unlike many other books I have read on planning and development, this book relates stories of planners' real world experiences. It appears that most of the skills practitioners use to deal with the diversity of interests in the face of conflict are rarely taught in universities or textbooks. One wonders where practitioners learn what they do best.
While a solid professional background is necessary, planners must also use improvisation to deal with deliberative processes which involve many stakeholders. What I enjoyed most about this book, unlike many others, is that it contrasts rationality with emotional sensitivity, calculation with improvisation, all of which are necessary for good practice.
The author aslo addresses an often overlooked aspect of deliberative processes in the design professions, that is, how to balance pragmatism in contexts where there has been a history of injustice towards particular groups.
The book makes use of extensive practical experiences of real-life planners and attempts to draw theory from that praxis. These experiences are just as fascinating to read as the authors' insights into theory. It's like being immersed into a deliberative dialogue.
Planning in a Pluralist World.......2003-01-16
As Forester explains in his Introduction makes, the title of his book is an intentional reference to Don Schön's path breaking The Reflective Practitioner. To use a trite cliché, that his book begins where Schön's book left off. There is, on the one hand, a remarkable similarity between the way Schön frames the situation the planner faces on the one hand, and Forester's description of the planner's world and his concept of deliberation on the other. The difference is in Forester's upfront, no-illusion understanding of the conflict-ridden nature of the world of planners and policy makers. Where Schön's reflection-in-action can, perhaps somewhat unfairly, be read as an improvement of the received view of professional knowledge as the sage expert who solves complex problems for clients in need, Forester has no illusions anymore about the moral and instrumental bankruptcy of the expert model. This becomes nowhere as clear as when we look at the examples each author uses. Where Schön uses one-on-one encounters between a psychotherapist and his supervisee, or an architect and his student, Forester examples include a bitter, entrenched fight over urban development in the Oslo harbour, a black home buyer counsellor in the overtly racist environment of a low income white settlement house, or housing improvement among poor campesinos in rural Venezuela.
Between Schön's and Forester's book lie almost twenty years of massive social, economic and political change, and, in its wake, almost twenty years of disenchantment, if not disillusion, with the role of politicians, administrators, and experts in the public domain. The world that Forester's planners or today's administrators inhabit is the fragmented, pluralistic, adversarial world that has eroded the steering capacity of central governments and that transferred policymaking power to a fragmented field of social and political actors. It is a world that has become so complex and tightly coupled, that the only thing that seems certain to policy makers is that their actions will generate massive unforeseen effects. A world in which the "privileged" knowledge of experts time and again dramatically fails to foresee or solve social and technical problems, and in which, consequently, citizens no longer take the authority of experts for granted. A world, moreover, in which debates about policy solutions are often less about the effectiveness of solutions as about the nature of the problem or the identity of the parties involved. As Forester makes clear, any theory of planning or policymaking or public administration that aspires to even a modicum of social or political relevance, has somehow to come to terms with this world. Listen to the way Forester, subtly commenting upon Schön, sets the stage for his book: "As planners work in between interdependent and conflicting parties in the face of inequalities of power and political voice, they have to be not only personally reflective but politically deliberative too."(1999: 2) Planners, in order to be effective in this pluralist and conflicted world, have no choice but to work with others in an open, transparent and mutually respecting way.
So what does democratic deliberation in the real world of politics and administration entail? Without being exhaustive, let me just touch upon some of the more startling insights of this rich and rewarding book. First, deliberation is more than debate and dialogue; more than the opportunity of being heard. (1999: 115) It is above all active participation in joint problem solving situations. Despite the practical stance of the book, it's key argument is epistemic and circles around the twin notions of unpredictability and complexity. Actors have no choice but to immerse themselves in the messiness, ambiguity, and open-endedness of practical situations. Not only are they literally captives of the everyday world, but the social-technical complexity of most public problems is such that it discounts any general problem solving strategy, and demands from the actors' immersion in the rich, diffuse detail of concrete situations. Knowledge, thus, is essentially local and relational.
In line with the book's epistemic theme, Forester argues that an important part of participatory inquiry consists of telling stories as a special, pragmatic kind of knowing. Much has been written in the last two decades about the role of stories in providing meaning to unstructured, conflictual situations. Forester is particularly insightful about the central role of storytelling in working through everyday political situations. Stories, he tells us, are not mere representations of meetings or encounters between planners and their clientele. Instead, stories are generative; they open up possibilities and close off unwanted or unfeasible lines of action by helping the actors narratively explore the complexities and contradictions of the situation at hand as it is situated in its proximal and distal environment. As Forester puts it, with a particularly happy phrase, stories do all sorts of moral and practical "work": "descriptive work of reportage, moral work of constructing character and reputation (of oneself and others), political work of identifying friends and foes, interests and needs, and the play of power in support and opposition, and, most important. ...deliberative work of considering means and ends, values and options, what is relevant and significant, what is possible and what matters, all together." (1999: 29) Stories are, thus, the prime means for practical judgement. They retain the rich detail that we need for a valid assessment of the situation at hand, yet, by situating the concrete event in a wider moral and causal landscape, stories allow us to connect the particular with the general, the concrete situation with the more general standard. In addition stories allow the actor to explore the emotional dimensions of his actions, both for himself and for others.
"Listen to Stories, Learn in Practice".......2000-10-08
John Forester's latest book entitled "The Deliberative Practitioner encouraging Participatory Planning Process", (MIT press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 1999) develops the key ideas of his earlier writings on participatory planning processes by examining the challenges and difficulties of planning in the midst of contested power relationships.
Forester perceives planning as the effort to build consensus towards commonly perceived goals. Since the context of the planning is always fraught with differences, conflicts and inequalities, a planning process necessarily shapes opinion, creates value, transforms not just material conditions but human relationships.
The emphasis on democracy and participation is central to Foresters search for effective planning practices. Keenly sensitive to a world 'riddled with racial violence and discrimination with vast differences in levels of political organization and mobilization', Forester highlights the significance of public deliberations that give space to plural voices and strengthen democratic practices. Adversarial situations are not predetermining. They can be negotiated towards collaborative action. Deliberative planning is seen as a process of learning together to craft strategies towards greater community good. Forester's concern with planning focuses on the issues of rationality, emotional sensitivity and moral vision. Forester defines rationality as an interactive and argumentative process of marshalling evidence and giving reasons. By ethics, Forester understands not a system of fixed codes and predetermined standards, but the continuous allocation and recognition of value inherent in every pragmatic choice assessable by its quality of action and consequences. Emotional sensitivity is seen as a source of knowledge and recognition. "Deliberative practitioner" highlights these issues in a 'live' way by using 'stories' as a narrative method because stories deepen our understanding of planning as a human interaction. Stories bring into play our dual roles of actor and critic, crucial to planning. By capturing situations in their complexity, Forester sensitizes our perceptions to the significance of many non-formal processes and the elements of unpredictability and surprise in planning cautioning against a 'rush to interpretation' and simplistic cure-alls.
Forester's book makes significant contributions to the discussion on participatory planning. The stories he selects indicate how planners can through their technical inquiry, explicit value inquiry, and learning about social identities succeed in a pragmatic synthesis of rationality, ethical judgements and emotional sensitivities. Forester's book has special relevance to developing contexts, fraught with unevenness, caught between their indigenous cultures and the new cultures that the culture of external development aid brings with it. Development projects in such contexts, under the pressure of measurable, time-bound performance indicators, tend to abandon the process of deliberative planning. Forester's book reminds the planners in contexts of developing economies, of the need for culturally-sensitive planning process if sustainable development has to happen. It underscores the possibility and need of cross-context learning. It also reminds that in a situation of unequal relationship, participatory planning can be said to be successful only if existing relationship have been transformed through greater transfer of power to those who are the subjects of planning. Forester's book creates an effective, innovative way of educating planner, using theory and practice, the general and the particular, to mutually illuminate each other. Finally, and most importantly, it bridges the gap between theory and practice in a way that makes practice insightful and theory relevant, each enriching the other. It restores the practitioner to the centrality of planning discourse, and in doing so, the importance of people in planning.
Book Description
In his compelling follow-up to The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida outlines how certain cities succeed in attracting members of the "creative class"--the millions of people who work in information-age economic sectors and in industries driven by innovation and talent. Cities that succeed, Florida argues, are those that are able to attract and retain creative class members. They don't do this through the traditional strategies of tax incentives, suburban housing developments, and loose regulation, though; creative class members don't care about those details. Rather, they care about amenities and tolerance, and are drawn to cities with thriving bohemias and large gay populations. It is no coincidence, Florida asserts, that places likes Austin and San Francisco with their highly publicized open-mindedness and bohemia are at the forefront of the new economy, while cities like Detroit, in contrast, can't succeed unless they actively become a magnet for the creative class.
To prove his point, Florida presents a mass of information on the cities he cites, both thriving and failing cities, including gay and bohemian indices. Focusing on the economic geography of place, Florida explains lays out what cities need to do to have a chance at success.
Customer Reviews:
This book is lousy.......2005-03-03
My hunch is this is a cheap sequel. Not a lot of discussion, just a lot of (regression) results reporting. Extremely repetitive. Moreover, given that this often verves into being fairly social science (as opposed to pop), the causal linkages seem pretty poorly established. If you want to read this for professional reasons (social science or urban planning), most of this could be ignored; if you want to read this for personal (i.e., recreational) reasons, it's really boring.
Book Description
Promoters of multi-billion dollar land-use development megaprojects systematically misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get them approved and built. This book not only explores these issues, but suggests practical solutions drawing on theory and scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations and five continents. It is of interest to students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians and concerned citizens.
Customer Reviews:
Packed with Knowledge!.......2004-03-02
Every once in a while a little book comes along that, while small in size, carries sufficient intellectual weight to strike the body politic between the eyes, thereby getting its collective attention. This may be one such book. It offers a realistic look at megaprojects - those major infrastructure endeavors that span vast bodies of water, dam natural resources to generate energy and extend rail lines to previously unreachable regions - and compares the promises of these projects to what they actually deliver. The report card isn't very good. Cost overruns are typically 25% to 100%, and sometimes 200% or more. Worse yet, studies show that the public tends to use megaprojects - be they airports or subway systems - only a fraction of the amount predicted. We strongly recommends this book to politicians, legislators and anyone who wants to know the truth behind these huge infrastructure projects, as well as to CEOs, CFOs, project managers and risk officers in the private sector - this applies to your projects, even if there is a difference of scale.
A fool, his money and the bridge that parted them..............2003-09-13
I am the first amazon.com reviewer of this short, but important book. It concerns me that this might reflect a diminished U.S. readership. That would be unfortunate. Professor Bent Flyvbjerg and his colleagues have written a book of significance to taxpayers everywhere. It's apparent that they have written this book largely for the policy-maker; yet, make no mistake about it: the ordinary taxpayer has a major stake in this book's message. The central characters in Megaprojects and Risk are three large-scale, European transportation projects: the Chunnel, the Great Belt and the Oresund. American readers unfamilar with these names (the chunnel connecting London and Paris is perhaps the most recognizable to American readers) will nonetheless recognize familiar features. Specifically, they will find project costs that exceed estimates, and revenue inflows that are below projections. The traits are not unique to these projects. In fact, cost over-runs and revenue disappointments are a familiar global refrain, according to these authors. In spite of this, the number and scale of infrastructure projects continues to grow, forming what they call the megaproject paradox. The book is stronger on documenting problems, including the lack of project post-audits, than on providing solutions. I think they have correctly identified the problem -- the lack of accountability throughout the project life-cycle -- but their solution, which largely involves ensuring a healthy segment of private capital not supported by state guarantees, together with more attention to genuine risk assessment, falls short of the mark. The risk assessment tools are firmly established and largely well-understood (Monte Carlo simulation packages are increasingly available). So is the "moral hazard" problem that rears its ugly head when projects (in this case) are "over-insured." The difficulty, which they acknowledge, is that the political interplay between state, private interests and NGOs are decisive in determining whether and to what extent the appropriate risk assessment and risk management tools are used.
This problem is inherent in the beast. Policy-makers would love for the private sector to shoulder the risk, but may not be willing to permit a commensurate return. Private players, just as understandably, are apt to seek insurance of one kind or another on the downside. The best medicine, and one that this book delivers admirably, is simply to raise our awareness of the track record from the start.
This short book has the look and feel of an academic work. It would, however, be unfortunate if it languished at the university bookstore. Global demographics dictate that larger-scale infrastructure investments are in our future. No one should pay for, promote or plan for such projects before they have digested the lessons in Megaprojects and Risk.
Average customer rating:
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The Full Costs and Benefits of Transportation: Contributions to Theory, Method and Measurement
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ASIN: 3540631232 |
Book Description
Modern transportation systems have pervasive and far-reaching effects on society and the environment. Mobility and other benefits of modern transportation arrive with many, serious undesired consequences:deaths and injuries in transport accidents, pollution of air,water and groundwater,noise congestion, greenhouse gas emissions etc. Governments and markets both play critical roles in providing infrastructure and operating and policing transportation systems. As world transport systems expand and become increasingly motorized, the transportation community is searching for transportation systems that are both efficient and sustainable.In this book leading international researchers explore the issues and concepts and define the state of knowledge concerning transportation's full costs and benefits.
Average customer rating:
- A pretty good textbook with material not found elsewhere
|
The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade
Masahisa Fujita ,
Paul Krugman , and
Anthony J. Venables
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0262062046 |
Book Description
Since 1990 there has been a renaissance of theoretical and empirical work on the spatial aspects of the economy--that is, where economic activity occurs and why. Using new tools--in particular, modeling techniques developed to analyze industrial organization, international trade, and economic growth--this "new economic geography" has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of contemporary economics.
The authors show how seemingly disparate models reflect a few basic themes, and in so doing they develop a common "grammar" for discussing a variety of issues. They show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics. This book is the first to provide a sound and unified explanation of the existence of large economic agglomerations at various spatial scales.
Customer Reviews:
A pretty good textbook with material not found elsewhere.......1999-07-21
If you are considering buying this book, you will probably want to do so. If you are interested in applying regional analysis or the "new" spatial economics that they present, you will have a good starting point. The necessary background is probably be a year of Ph.D. level economic theory. Specific high points are the exposition of the Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition and the evolution of urban systems. All new Ph.D. students will have a use for chapter 4, which is an easy-to-read discussion of monopolistic competition. Further, the book is rigorous enough to be used in academic work. I recommend it to anyone interested in regional or urban economics. It is useful to students and practicing economists alike. Its rigor makes it academic, but its ease of exposition makes it useful for those without extraordinary math backgrounds. Compared to similar books, you get a lot of value for the price.
Book Description
The
Third Edition of
Cities in a World Economy shows how certain characteristics of our turn-of-the-millennium flows of money, information, and people have led to the emergence of a new social formation: global cities. These developments give new meaning to such fixtures of urban sociology as the centrality of place and the importance of geography in our social world.
Key Features:
- Offers a multidisciplinary perspective: This book features a cross-disciplinary approach to Urban Sociology using global examples. With both depth and clarity, this book examines the impact of global processes on the social structure of cities helping students increase their world awareness. In addition, the book strikes the perfect balance between maintaining academic rigor and employing new and innovative concepts.
- Includes a new chapter: The new chapter on Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits discusses the highly gendered and unequal nature of the global city and how it forces the underprivileged to live a dangerous and unpredictable life on global survival circuits.
- Incorporates the most recent data: This new edition updates nearly every piece of data with the most recent facts and figures available. In addition, this book introduces new concepts for understanding contemporary urban sociology.
Intended Audience:
This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Sociology. It can also be used in courses such as Urban Studies, World Cities, Regional Studies, Urban Development and Planning, and Regional Development in the departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and Geography.
Customer Reviews:
Good for general information on a new economic order.......1999-06-21
I've read the book due to an examination about "the new city structure - contemporary geography" and it's quite good, she has a global wiew of the new city-status and its new users, the less and less importance the homless has for the city governament and the new power of the corporation, all in all a good compendium if you need to improve your knoledge about the matter.
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