The Rise of the City : Spatial Dynamics in the Urban Century

Cities and city regions are growing throughout the world and this trend is forecast to continue well into the 21st century. The authors of The Rise of the City see the next 100 years as being the "Urban Century". In this book they examine urban growth and the dynamics that are transforming the city and city regions, focusing specifically on the spatial aspects of this process. Forces that are driving city growth include agglomeration spillovers, concentration of innovation and entrepreneurship, diversity of information and knowledge resources, better amenities and higher wages. These benefits produce a positive reinforcing system that attracts more people with new ideas and information, fuelling innovation, new products and services and more high-wage jobs, thereby attracting more people. Such growth also produces undesirable effects such as air and water pollution, poverty, congestion and crowding. These combined factors both impact and change the geography and spatial dynamics of the city. These transformations and the public policies that may be critical to the quality of life, both today and in the future, are the substance of this book. Providing a more informed synthesis of the city and its dynamics in the new century than any other volume, as well as a set of specific analyses and questions on the changing nature of the city, this book will be indispensible to scholars and students of regional science and urban studies.