ABSTRACT
Urban regions have come under increasing pressure to adapt to the imperatives of mobility, including greater freedom of travel, rising trade volumes and global economic networks. Whereas urbanization was once characterized by the concentration of services and facilities, urban areas now have to ensure the exchange of goods, services and information in a much more complex, interrelated, highly competitive, and spatially dispersed environment. As a consequence, cities are challenged to ensure the functionality of infrastructure while mitigating negative environmental and social impacts.
Cities, Regions and Flows brings together debates in a single volume to present a theoretical framework for understanding the changing relationship between places and movement. It analyses the significance of flows of goods for urban and regional development and emphasises the twin processes of integration and disintegration that result from goods movement within urban space. It discusses urban regions as nodes for organizing the exchange of goods, services and information against a background of socio-economic and technological change, as well as new patterns of urbanization. The new logistics concepts and practices that have been developed in response to these changes exert both integrative and disintegrative effects on cities and regions. It also considers how urban policies are dealing with related challenges concerning infrastructure provision, land use, local labour markets and environmental sustainability.
Cities, Regions and Flows contains thoughtfully prepared case studies from five different continents on how cities manage to become part of value chains and how they strive for accessibility in an increasingly competitive environment. This book will be on interest to policy-makers and advanced classes in planning, geography, urban studies and transportation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|20 pages
Introduction
part II|71 pages
Theoretical concepts, research questions
chapter 2|19 pages
Economic structure, technological change and location theory
chapter 5|17 pages
Goods movement and metropolitan inequality
part III|95 pages
Empirical cases
chapter 6|19 pages
The Paris region
chapter 7|15 pages
From hinterland to distribution center
chapter 8|20 pages
Amazon shipping, commodity flows, and urban economic development
chapter 10|18 pages
From time definite to time critical?
part IV|56 pages
Challenges for policy and planning
chapter 12|17 pages
Infrastructure and environmental policy on regulating road vehicle emissions
part V|15 pages
Conclusion