ARTICLE Contemporary capitalism, uneven development, and the arc of anti-capitalism Robert Latham Department of Politics, York University, Toronto, Canada ABSTRACT Uneven and combined development remains crucial for under- standing the continued widening and deepening of capitalism. However, the nature of the heterogeneous and uneven develop- ment of contemporary capitalism, especially since the 1970s, makes problematic the characterization of capitalist totality, as a coherent stage and as a singular, albeit uneven, combination. This complicates the successful
133 6 Situating the Secondary City: Uneven Development and Regional Gentrification in Tacoma, WA Charles Williams and Mark Pendras Introduction In 2017, a local reporter opened a story on the ongoing construction boom in Tacoma, Washington, with the observation that ‘Tacoma learned long ago that it will always be second to Seattle, but the city is now embracing that as a positive. The money the city is leveraging from all the action in Seattle is a vital part of Tacoma’s game plan.’ The reporter noted how local officials had for some time been preparing
71 THREE Uneven development – local authorities and workfare in Germany Wolfgang Voges, Herbert Jacobs and Heather Trickey Introduction Work creation schemes have a long tradition in Germany, and are an essential element of the German welfare system. The Bismarckian welfare state included a discretionary workfare component, which functioned primarily as a test of recipients’ willingness to work. Discretionary workfare became part of the legal basis for social assistance in 1961 – when the Federal Social Assistance Act (SAA) was passed in the West German Federal
This book explores cities and the intra-regional relational dynamics often overlooked by urban scholars, and it challenges common representations of urban development successes and failures.
Gathering leading international scholars from Europe, Australia and North America, it explores the secondary city concept in urban development theory and practice and advances a research agenda that highlights uneven development concerns.
By emphasising the subordinate status of secondary cities relative to their dominant neighbours the book raises new questions about regional development in the Global North. It considers alternative relations and development strategies that innovatively reimagine the subordinate status of secondary cities and showcase their full potential.
Under contemporary capitalism the extraction of value from the built environment has escalated, working in tandem with other urban processes to lay the foundations for the exploitative processes of gentrification world-wide.
Global gentrifications: Uneven development and displacement critically assesses and tests the meaning and significance of gentrification in places outside the ‘usual suspects’ of the Global North. Informed by a rich array of case studies from cities in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Southern Europe, and beyond, the book (re)discovers the important generalities and geographical specificities associated with the uneven process of gentrification globally. It highlights intensifying global struggles over urban space and underlines gentrification as a growing and important battleground in the contemporary world.
The book will be of value to students and academics, policy makers, planners and community organisations.
In 2003 the Labour Government published its ambitious Sustainable Communities Plan. It promised to bring about a ‘step change’ in the English planning system and a new emphasis on the construction of more balanced, cohesive, and competitive places.
This book uses historical and contemporary materials to document the ways in which policy-makers, in different eras, have sought to use state powers and regulations to create better, more balanced, and sustainable communities and citizens. It charts the changes that have take place in community-building policy frameworks, place imaginations, and core spatial policy initiatives in the UK since 1945. In so doing, it examines the tensions that have emerged within spatial policy over the types of places that should be created and the forms of mobility and fixity required to create them. It also shows that there are significant lessons that can be learnt from the experiences of the past. These can be used to inform contemporary policy debates over issues such as migration, uneven development, key worker housing, and sustainability.
The book will be an important text for students and researchers in geography, urban studies, planning, and modern social history. It will also be of interest to practitioners working in central and local government, voluntary organisations, community groups, and those involved in the planning and design of sustainable communities.
EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
Though a globally shared experience, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected societies across the world in radically different ways. This book examines the unique implications of the pandemic in the Global South.
With international contributors from a variety of disciplines including health, economics and geography, the book investigates the pandemic’s effects on development, medicine, gender (in)equality and human rights among other issues. Its analysis illuminates further subsequent crises of interconnection, a pervasive health provision crisis and a resulting rise in socio-economic inequality.
The book’s assessment offers an urgent discourse on the ways in which the impact of COVID-19 can be mitigated in some of the most challenging socio-economic contexts in the world.
ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.
In recent years, the ‘city region’ has seen a renaissance as the de facto spatial centre of governance for economic and social development.
Rich in case study insights, this book provides a critique of city-region building and considers how governance restructuring shapes the political, economic, social and cultural geographies of devolution. Reviewing the Greater Manchester, Sheffield, Swansea Bay City Regions, Cardiff Capital Region and the North Wales Growth Deal, the authors address the tensions and opportunities for local elites and civil society actors.
Based on original empirical material, situated within cutting edge academic and policy debates, this book is a timely and lively engagement with the shifting geographies of economic and social development in Britain.
David Etherington provides bold and fresh perspectives on the link between welfare policy and employment relations as he assesses their fundamental impact on social inequalities.
Exploring how reforms, including Universal Credit, have reinforced employment and social insecurity, he assesses the role of NGOs, trade unions and policymakers in challenging this increasingly work-focused welfare agenda. Drawing on international and national case studies, the book reviews developments, including rising job insecurity, low pay and geographical inequalities, considered integral to neoliberal approaches to social spending.
Etherington sets out the possibilities and challenges of alternative approaches and progressive new paths for welfare, the labour market and social rights.
Given the rapid urbanisation of the world’s population, the converse phenomenon of shrinking cities is often overlooked and little understood. Yet with almost one in ten post-industrial US cities shrinking in recent years, efforts by government and anchor institutions to regenerate these cities is gaining policy urgency, with the availability and siting of affordable housing being a key concern.
This is the first book to look at the reasons for the failure (and success) of affordable housing experiences in the fastest shrinking cities in the US. Applying quantitative and GIS analysis using data from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the authors make recommendations for future place-based siting practices, stressing its importance for ensuring more equitable urban revitalisation. The book will be a valuable resource for academic researchers and students in urban studies, housing and inequality, as well as policy makers.
