Driven by growing internationalisation and high unemployment in Europe concerns about competition between regions and cities and it's consequences for economic and social standards are omnipresent. In their strive for "competitiveness" and a high position of their city in an "European City...

We study how the city system is affected by the possibility for the members of the same cultural diaspora to interact across different cities. In so doing, we propose a simple two- city model with two mobile cultural groups. A localized externality fosters the productivity of individuals when...

This paper analyses institutional reforms and political participation, most notably indirect and direct elections of residential committees (RC), in China's urban neighbourhoods and communities (shequ). It shows that these elections at present are not meaningful to the majority of city dwellers...

The European space is marked by the recent beginning of the dualism nation-region. In it the cities take on a fundamental role because their success becomes the success of the territories around. Manuel Castell has maintained that the city is the social structure in which any territorial...

Transport and industrial enterprises are the reasons for the basic pollution of the environments of large cities. This problem is particularly acute in Russia, where strict environmental standards either do not exist or are not enforced. Improving the management of ecological and economic system...

The main objective of the paper is to analyse the changes in structure of city expenses. It evolves according to changes of urban development goals, which reflects the hierarchy of needs of the city users. In this context the urban consumption illustrates firstly lasting of key urban functions,...

This paper presents a critical debate about the extreme selectivity through which the existing body of literature identifies the critical factors in urban development and competitiveness. It highlights the need to establish policies aimed at "ordinary cities" (Amine Graham, 1997) and "ordinary...

In 2010 the World Health Organisation dedicated the Word Health Day to urbanization and health, highlighting the impacts of urban living on physical and mental health. This is because it is increasingly acknowledged that cities face various problems that undermine the quality of urban life,...

The literature on China indicates that the concentration of economic activities in China is less than in other industrialized countries. Institutional limits are largely held responsible for this finding (e.g. the Hukou system); firms and workers are not able to take full advantage of the...