Urban Theory and the Urban Experience brings together classic and contemporary approaches to urban research in order to reveal the intellectual origins of urban studies and the often unacknowledged debt that empirical and theoretical perspectives on the city owe one another.From the foundations of modern urban theory in the work of Weber, Simmel, Benjamin and Lefebbvre to the writings of contemporary urban theorists such as David Harvey and Manuel Castells and the Los Angeles schoo...

Traditionally, the study of ‘power in the city’ was confined to the institutions of urban government and the actors involved in contesting and making political decisions in and for metropolitan societies. Increasingly, however, attention has turned to the function of the city not only as a centre of urban governance but as a major economic, social, cultural and strategic force in its own right.Cities, Politics and Power combines this traditional concern with how the cities...

Steve works in a dead end job and feels he has never fitted in anywhere. He has had a disturbing and dysfuntional past, which still haunts him in the form of his venemous mothers spirit. He has been dealing with his inner demons for too long and is now growing to fulfill his life's true purpose; he has a job, a calling from a higher power, that requires a blood letting. What Steve doesn't know is that, that higher power is being challenged. In order to win a war, you must first know your e...

Faith in the UK’s political system has reached new lows. Politicians and commentators are lining up to offer answers, but what if the problem goes beyond left and right, trust and bureaucracy? What if the system puts too much power in the hands of politicians in London and not enough in the hands of ordinary people?This important book addresses a key issue of our time: where should power and governance lie in our democracy? Simon Parker, a leading expert on public services and gove...

The New Italian Republic charts the breakdown of the old party system and examines the changed political climate that has allowed Berlusconi to rise as Italy's new master and subsequently precipitated his rapid fall from power.

The acclaimed account of post-Brexit British politics: a must-read for understanding how we've got to where we are today.'Richly argued and brilliantly written... a deeply thoughtful analysis that should be mandatory reading for anyone seeking to understand where we have gone wrong.' - FINANCIAL TIMESIn WTF? Robert Peston draws on his years of experience as a political, economics and business journalist to show us what has gone bad...

Why do some democratic governments succeed and others fail? In a book that has received attention from policymakers and civic activists in America and around the world, Robert Putnam and his collaborators offer empirical evidence for the importance of "civic community" in developing successful institutions. Their focus is on a unique experiment begun in 1970 when Italy created new governments for each of its regions. After spending two decades analyzing the efficacy of these governments in...

The first digital-only ebook taster of Unequal health: The scandal of our times by Danny Dorling. Competitively priced, it gives a flavour of one of the major themes: public health and contains three chapters from the book, preceded by an all-new introduction specially written by Danny Dorling. This ‘must-read’ will introduce an even wider readership to his work.

This classic textbook covers the social, economic and political history of Italy from unification in 1870 to the present time. This new edition brings students right up to date, with increased coverage of the the 1980's and 90's and a new section on the turbulent reign of Silvio Berlusconi. Other changes include updating the coverage of Liberal Italy and Fascism in the light of recent scholarship and changes in historiographical approach, additional material on Italian popular culture and ...

the inability for capital, and therefore the state, to pay for the costs of producing a well educated workforce or to guarantee that investment in education will result in a more vigorous economy and increased living standards for those with qualifications. This breakdown, and the dogmatism of free market economics which seeks to alleviate it, has seen the imposition of a business rationale onto what previously had been regarded as the provision of a public service, sometimes even a public...

Reversible Destiny traces the history of the Sicilian mafia to its nineteenth-century roots and examines its late twentieth-century involvement in urban real estate and construction as well as drugs. Based on research in the regional capital of Palermo, this book suggests lessons regarding secretive organized crime: its capacity to reproduce a subculture of violence through time, its acquisition of a dense connective web of political and financial protectors during the Cold War er...

Vito Tanzi offers a truly comprehensive treatment of the economic role of the state in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries from a historical and world perspective. The book addresses the fundamental question of what governments should do, or have attempted to do, in economic activities in past and recent periods. It also speculates on what they are likely or may be forced to do in future years. The investigation assembles a large set of statistical information that should prove useful...