Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

Smart cities don’t happen by accident.  To help planners and policy makers better understand and manage the dynamic behavior of cities, IBM Global Business Services is introducing new analytics software and services based on their “smarter cities” strategy.  System Dynamics for Smarter Cities is an interactive model that allows leaders to observe how the core systems of a city — such as the economy, housing, education, public safety, transportation, health care, government services and utilities — work together and affect one another. …
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

by Tim De Chant.Retrofitting suburbia to support mixed-use and car-free lifestyles is a sticky wicket.Rambling ranch homes and wide-wide-wide roads seem to discourage thewalkability and local commerce people desire.
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

Chiara Camponeschi – “I wrote The Enabling City, a toolkit on social innovation for urban sustainability and participatory governance, in the early days of green consumerism’s ascendance to popularity. It was an interesting, if deeply troubling, time. Limited-edition designer tote bags were waging war on plastic bags, the Internet was obsessing over green gossip websites, and everywhere I looked a growing number of eco-gadgets were promising freedom from guilt with a kind of fervent urgency that can only be described as hopefully naive. I followed the spread of “participation through consumption” with growing concern.”   Click link to read more
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

This page contains a link to the pfd file with the rebuilding plans for the city centre of Christ Church, the city in New Zealand devastated by a series of earthquakes. Follow the process of rebuilding and reshaping a city.
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

“Yesterday, I headed over to Houston Street in Lower Manhattan to check out the opening of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a temporary mobile structure on a vacant lot that is billed as “part urban think tank, part community center and…”
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

A short book review by Zef Hemel of a book written by Maarten Hajer. In this book Hajer proposes that a transition to a ecologically and economically systainable society is possible making use of the collective creativity of citizens. He sees cities as the ultimate focal points to generate this thinking power. Hajer proposes that the central/national governement should take a hands off approach and only faciltate the cities in there quests for solutions. Interesting proposal if you know that Hajer is the director of the National Planning Bureau in The Netherlands.
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

Facts and figures about the impact of the clean or green economy on employement in the USA. Two interesting elements in this story: most clean economy jobs are in metropolitan areas and the clean economy is manufacturing and export intensive. How about figures for other countries?
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

Back in 2009, Paul Romer unveiled the idea for a “charter city” — a new kind of city with rules that favor democracy and trade. This year, at TED2011, he tells the story of how such a city might just happen in Honduras … with a little help from his TEDTalk.
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

Erik Swyngedouw has published widely on urban political ecology, globalization, and socio-spatial theory, including “Can Neighbourhoods Save the City?” (2010), “In the Nature of Cities” (2006), “Social Power and the Urbanization of Water” (2004), and “The Globalized City” (2003). The range of theory and evidence assembled in his work is essential reading for anyone who cares about urban development. It has awakened me to new possibilities in the political, and to its critical place in ecology, design, technology, health care, and countless other approaches to improving the quality of life in cities.
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Via Scoop.it – Urban economy

Bristol and Glasgow have emerged as the “super cities” that will lead the rebalancing of British manufacturing towards hi-tech production and renewable energy respectively, HSBC predicts.

A report entitled The Future of Business 2011 from HSBC Commercial Banking says that Made in Britain is making a comeback. It confidently predicts a renaissance of Britain’s manufacturing heyday and a return to the world buying goods that have been manufactured in Britain, but with a 21st century slant.

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