Title:
Cities matter : a Montrealer's ode to Jane Jacobs
Author:
Publication Date:
2022
Publication Information:
Montreal : Baraka Books, 2022.
Physical Description:
1 volume ; 21 cm
ISBN:
9781771863049
Abstract:
"Why do cities exist? Can't we find better ways of organizing life on earth? With the climate crisis and other environmental issues, are cities part of the problem? Or can they help solve the problems of our time? Cities Matter answers those questions and more. Jane Jacobs is known mainly as a thinker of all things urban. That she was. But Ramsay insists that she was also a very important--and much underestimated--economist. Jacobs innovated particularly on how cities drive the development of nations and international trade. Ramsay has delved into Jacobs' work and extracted the features of her economic thought. Presenting them in a palatable and concise format, he has also brought to bear classical economic geography along with Alfred Marshall's economies of agglomeration. Jane Jacobs was also very pragmatic. Borrowing from her approach, Ramsay proposes real-life exercises for people wishing to compare suburban and urban living conditions, real estate investments, or for businesses doing transport-cost analysis. Some predict that the Covid crisis combined with high tech means urban life is doomed, that the bucolic periphery will triumph over big messy cities. That's not going to happen, says Ramsay"--Publisher's website.
Contents:
Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- SECTION 1. The Economist's City -- CHAPTER 1. Economies of Agglomeration -- Problems Created by Cities -- CHAPTER 2. Hub Cities and Transport Costs -- CHAPTER 3. Urban Land Values -- Supply and Demand for Land -- Supply and Demand for Housing -- SECTION 2. Jacobs' Urban Economics -- CHAPTER 4. Jacobs' Theory of Import Replacement -- Diversity Feedback -- Measurement -- Making it Visual -- Jacobs and Classical Economists -- CHAPTER 5. City Instabilities -- Congestion, Pollution, and Crime -- Labour Reducing Process Innovations -- Obsolescence.
Old-Work Transplants -- CHAPTER 6. Cities and Nation-States -- Non-productive Capital Outflows -- National Currencies -- SECTION 3. Jacobs' Spectrum of Economic Regions -- CHAPTER 7. The Forward City -- CHAPTER 8. The City Region -- CHAPTER 9. The Hub/Entrepot City -- CHAPTER 10. The Supply Region -- CHAPTER 11. The Transplant Region -- CHAPTER 12. The Backward City -- SECTION 4. Cities as a Dynamic Economy -- CHAPTER 13. Innovation in Jacobs' Agglomerations -- CHAPTER 14. Diversity Trumps Specialization -- Measuring concentration and diversity -- Advantages to diversity.
CHAPTER 15. The Future of Montrealand 2nd-rank Cities -- Being like Boston -- 1. Urban industries -- 2. Transportation -- 3. Education -- 4. Breakaway Entrepreneurs -- 5. Megas, solutions, and transplants -- Quebec Separation and its Currency -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Chapter 1 -- Economies of Agglomeration -- Chapter 3 -- Urban Land Values1. In Montreal, these neighborhoods -- Section 2 -- Jacobs' Urban Economics -- Chapter 4 -- Jacobs' Theory of Import Replacement -- Chapter 6 -- Cities and Nation-States -- Chapter 7 -- The Forward City -- Chapter 10 -- The Supply Region.
Chapter 13 -- Innovation in Jacobs' Agglomerations -- Chapter 14 -- Diversity Trumps Specialization -- Notes on Sources -- References and Further Reading.
Personal Subject:
Language:
English
