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As the primary target of the school reform movement, urban education remains the most difficult to assess and repair. Indeed, the crisis evident in urban school systems mirrors many of the problems found in big cities themselves — poor economic conditions for schools and families, personnel shortages and high turnover rates, improper facilities and materials, and political struggles over issues of structure and control. This book analyzes the problems effecting urban schools and their students and some of the efforts that have been developed to make these schools more accountable and effective.

This chapter examines the impact of smart city projects on the economic and business environment, with a specific focus on their potential to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. It highlights how smart cities create an enabling environment for new businesses, start-ups, and promotes gender and green entrepreneurship, while enhancing urban properties and contributing to the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem. The exponential growth of smart city projects worldwide has underscored the critical relationship between smart cities and the entrepreneurial ecosystem for city prosperity and competitiveness. This chapter explores the interplay between smart cities and the economic environment, emphasizing their role as hubs for innovation and business creation. It analyzes the influence of smart city ecosystems and economic factors on local growth and economic outcomes, drawing on international research and factual data. This chapter evaluates the economic outcomes of smart cities, including their impact on the economic environment, business creation, start-ups, innovative and green companies, as well as gender entrepreneurship. This chapter emphasizes the significance of smart city implementation in driving economic advancements within both the urban and economic landscapes. Finally, this chapter concludes by presenting a conceptual framework that synthesizes the insights gained, providing a comprehensive understanding of the economic impact of smart cities and offering a roadmap for further exploration of this topic.

This chapter focuses on the competitive outcomes of present-day smart cities. It explores how cities can leverage economic and internal advancements to gain a competitive edge over other cities, and attract and retain both internal and external users. In the 21st century, cities engage in a global competition to attract citizens and businesses alike. The attractiveness and competitiveness of cities are directly linked to their ability to offer essential services that support growth opportunities, build economic value, and establish a competitive differentiation. Cities with advanced and innovative environments are more likely to maintain leading positions in an increasingly globalized world. Building upon the previous discussions on urban and economic outcomes, this chapter sheds light on the competitive outcomes of smart cities and the implications of global competition and city attractiveness for internal and external users. This chapter begins by examining the role of marketing innovation and internationalization in driving smart city development and how urban ecosystems and digital technologies can enhance city attractiveness. It emphasizes the importance of being a smart destination for both internal and external users and how it can empower and shape interactions with citizens, talent, companies, and tourists. Additionally, this chapter analyzes the geographical differences in smart city strategies and explores the competitive landscape of smart cities within and across nations. Finally, it discusses the limitations of competitive urbanism, along with the challenges and future prospects of smart city development. This analysis is supported by data and published works from international journals. Overall, this chapter aims to comprehensively understand how cities can leverage smart technology and strategies to enhance their national and global positioning.

This chapter offers a theoretical appraisal of our contemporary hyper-regulated urban spaces situated against a backdrop of deindustrialisation, the shift to consumer economies and the rise of the creative city paradigm. While existing work has characterised urban space as dead and asocial spaces bereft of life. This chapter opts to think our city centres as ‘Zombie Cities’: cities which have been eviscerated the social but are forced to wear the exterior signs of life through the injection of economically productive but artificial modes of culture and creativity. This sets the stage for explaining why parkour is inconsistently included and excluded from urban space, and how it attains spatio-economically contingent legitimacy and inclusion into urban space that problematises existing theoretical perspectives around a revanchist urbanism.

The purpose of this paper is to share how a professional service firm transposed Richard Florida’s “Creative Class” concept from the urban environment into a corporate one for the purpose of organisational change. The validity of Florida’s concept is not here reviewed; rather, the paper is a case study on how his theory – that talent, technology and tolerance compose the high-value triptych driving a city’s growth and attractiveness – can be appropriated by HR to trigger profound changes in corporate governance and culture.

The paper provides a return on experience of a project that was implemented at Mazars, an international mid-cap of 20,000 people in 86 countries, over the course of one year. Approximately, 50 individuals participated in the initiative, lead by the firm’s HR leadership team, which used an under the radar approach based on a revamped version of Owen’s Open Space Technology. From an academic perspective, the approach is inspired by Argyris’ action science, and more specifically a derivation of the “double loop learning” where the initial intent of the research might be modified by intermediary findings.

The paper offers a model for identifying the members of the “creative class” in a corporate environment and a tested approach for integrating the “creative class” into the exclusive and institutional exercise of setting strategy. The cumulative effect of this “unofficial” operation is the creation of unique thought leadership and projects, some of which have now been officially adopted in the four-year strategic plan and institutionalized in the new governance system, results difficult to achieve through conventional approaches.

The case study, which is still in progress, has been implemented in a non-conventional organisation in a very specific industry.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first application of Richard Florida’s urban renewal theory in the corporate environment. This is an example of innovative HR management responding quickly and effectively to the digital, disrupted business landscape. It is designed in the modern managerial spirit of test-and-learn, structured as an agile initiative in an open-source world. It provides a prototype to be replicated and tested in other environments.

A great deal of literature exists on such topics as the problems and challenges of British manufacturing industry, on the need to encourage the growth of small firms, and on the urban planning activities of revitalizing sections of our cities with new industry and new housing projects. That literature ranges through articles in the business press, colourful publicity brochures, pamphlets of guide lines and advice, and detailed research studies. But what is it like to launch and manage a small manufacturing company in a new urban development area? What is it like to work in such a firm?

Sustainable urbanism is the study of both cities and the practices to build them, which focusses on promoting their long-term viability by reducing consumption, waste and harmful impacts on people and place while enhancing the overall well-being of both people and place. This paper analyses the implications of adopting sustainable urbanism principles and developing resilient places with Abuja as the area of focus to tackle the highlighted issues.

The paper is based on qualitative research which is centred on an extensive literature review and archival retrieval of historical documents. This includes the emergence of urbanism, sustainable urbanism definition and current issues surrounding its adaptation. The paper also focusses on a case study area in the capital city of Abuja, Nigeria which is currently undergoing massive urban development. Interviews are conducted with academics (13), practitioners (12) and government officials (10) making a total of 35 participants.

The main findings will create an understanding of the definition of sustainability and sustainable urbanism with a special focus on Abuja city. It was realised from the interviews that sustainable urbanism in broad terms encompasses economic, social, and environmental sustainability, and that these dimensions vary across different contexts even in the developing world. Also, sustainability can be achieved through deploying the right combination of measures, policies, assessment tools, sustainability assessment, good governance, and training/education and incentives.

By reviewing the selected studies which explore a wide range of disciplines and research areas, and conducting this qualitative research, this paper shares insights into how sustainability and sustainability urbanism can be achieved in the development of urban spaces in Abuja environs.

This paper aims to analyze Hangzhou Urban Brain in responding to COVID-19, including systematically sorting out the development mode, capabilities, composition and application of Urban Brain and exploring its role and effect. This paper tries to provide a reference for other cities' digital infrastructure construction through case analysis.

The authors took Hangzhou Urban Brain as a typical case in urban digital infrastructure construction, and they conducted thorough research on its practice in facing COVID-19. The authors analyzed the key elements of Urban Brain, the application and the evaluation of Urban Brain through literature review, field investigation, questionnaire and interviews.

Hangzhou Urban Brain has been deeply applied in urban management and has a good foundation. Therefore, when the COVID-19 occurred, the Urban Brain played an important role. The detailed practices facing COVID-19 are mainly in five aspects: information collection and analysis, ensuring material supply by government–enterprise collaboration, using AI and Big Data to “Visualize” COVID-19, etc. Moreover, Urban Brain has won high evaluation. However, Hangzhou Urban Brain still has problems like data privacy and security, technical issues, etc.

This case study shows that Hangzhou's experience in Urban Brain construction is worthy of reference and promotion. Firstly, it can strengthen the understanding of digital infrastructure in responding to public health emergencies. Furthermore, it provides a reference for other urban governance worldwide by excavating the role and effect of digital infrastructure in preventing and controlling COVID-19. Thirdly, it explores how to improve the digital infrastructure construction to support public health challenges, which will help the cities grasp the actual value of data and make progress in this field. By this, it can provide references for cities in the world, especially in Asia to achieve sustainable city development.

Recent research has challenged traditional views of the 1920s-era Ku Klux Klan in the United States. Case studies have shown that the movement appealed to a broad middle-class constituency and advocated a range of popular reforms. These findings have stimulated a provocative debate over whether the movement represented a mainstream “civic populism” or a more racist reaction to change. Here, I review the recent debate and show how the new data are consistent with current sociological models of collective action. Comparing studies of Klan mobilization in several cities, I argue that the movement was both populist and racist, combining processes of contemporary urban racial and class formation. From this perspective, I suggest, the 1920s Klan highlights a critical moment in the development of racial and class identities in 20th century urban America.

The purpose of this article is to provide organized, synthesized information related to initiatives throughout the world based on knowledge‐based development (KBD) such as knowledge cities (KCs), knowledge regions, and knowledge countries. A first search was conducted using the Internet and specialized databases under the keywords “knowledge cities”. The information compiled led to other related keywords which branched out the search. All resulting information was then collated and integrated into a number of categories all unified under the field of knowledge‐based development. A compilation of information on the topic “knowledge cities” and other topics related to knowledge‐based development. The information is presented in eight sections: a glossary of KC‐related terms, a list of knowledge‐based development initiatives, a list of associations and organizations related to the topic, a list of urban KBD‐related value dimensions and their indicators, a list of international rankings, a list of special editions on KCs, a bibliography, and a directory of related sites on the Internet. This effort resulted in a public service available at the World Wide Web. The information included in this compilation is limited mainly to public domain information available throughout Internet in both English and Spanish, as well as in selected databases.