This paper explores relationships between the politics of urban competitiveness and popular media discourse about the ‘good life’ and ‘good places’. Specifically, it focuses on the influence of popular ‘best places to live’ rankings on urban policy in three US cities. It addresses two issues: how and why similar policies are transferred from place to place; and, how ‘extra-economic’ factors are...

Digital technologies engaged in urban metabolism for efficiency provide policymakers, managers, and planners with useful instruments to collect, monitor, analyze, evaluate the circularity of environmental, social, economic resources improve their effectiveness quality. At present, digital technology-based approach is strategic circular cities development smart sustainable actions fields mobilit...

Rapid urbanization is an important characteristic of African development and yet the structural transformation debate focuses on agriculture’s relative merits without also considering the benefits from urban agglomeration. As a result, African governments are often provided conflicting recommendations on the importance of rural agriculture or urban industry. We develop dynamic economy-wide mode...

Banks play a key role in helping rural regions transform their economies by funding new business ventures. In rural America, community bankers often have a unique perspective on their local economy and local business prospects, thanks to their heavy personal involvement and face-to-face contact with customers. But community banks must now face a challenging new lending landscape. Rural banks ha...

Over the past 10 years, urban regime theory has become the dominant paradigm for studying urban politics in liberal democracies. Yet there is disagreement about how far it can help us to understand urban political processes. This article argues that regime theory is best understood as a theory of structuring with limits in its analysis of the market economy. These limits undermine its ability t...

A large part (85%) of Brazil’s population lives in urban areas. Roughly half of these dwellers are located in large cities, defined as having 750,000 or more inhabitants. The urbanization trend is due to historical migration movements that occurred mostly before the recent phenomenon of globalization. Nevertheless, the growth of these urban centers is characterized by insufficient public polici...

within a 15-minute drive, one can travel from historic urban neighborhoods to productive working farms. Open space and natural features enhance all of our communities, from rural to urban. The need to plan for open space preservation is on-going. With the improving economy and accompanying development pressures, the need to plan to preserve open space is stronger than ever. This newsletter will...