About this ebook
Harvey Molotch's "city as a growth machine" thesis is one of the most influential approaches to the analysis of urban politics and local economic development in the United States. However, the nature and context of urban politics have changed considerably since the growth machine thesis was first proposed more than twenty years ago, and recent attempts to apply it to settings outside the U.S. have revealed conceptual and empirical limitations.
This book offers a unique critical assessment of the contribution of the growth machine thesis to research in urban political economy. Written from an interdisciplinary and international perspective, it brings together leading urban studies scholars. These contributors explore three organizing themes: urban growth, discourse and ideology; new dimensions of urban politics; and the growth machine in comparative perspective. These themes not only provide the focus for the critical examinations of the growth machine thesis, but also offer exciting new ways of thinking about and researching urban politics and local economic development.
As Harvey Molotch himself notes in this book's concluding chapter, "The growth machine idea makes a substantive argument about the empirical substance of U.S. urban regimes. It asserts that virtually every city (and state) government is a growth machine and long has been. It asserts that this puts localities in chronic competition with one another in ways that harm the vast majority of their citizens as well as their environments. It anticipates an ideological structure that naturalizes growth goals as a background assumption of civic life. In a social science realm where successful empirical generalizations have been few, the growth machine idea robustly and usefully describes reality."
Contributors include Thabit Abu-Rass, Keith Bassett, Mark Boyle, Allan Cochrane, Kevin R. Cox, Kyle Crowder, Melissa R. Gilbert, Bob Jessop, Andrew Kirby, Mickey Lauria, Helga Leitner, John R. Logan, Harvey Molotch, Jamie Peck, Stephanie Pincetl, Eric Sheppard, John Rennie Short, Adam Tickell, Rachel Bridges Whaley, and Andrew Wood.
This book offers a unique critical assessment of the contribution of the growth machine thesis to research in urban political economy. Written from an interdisciplinary and international perspective, it brings together leading urban studies scholars. These contributors explore three organizing themes: urban growth, discourse and ideology; new dimensions of urban politics; and the growth machine in comparative perspective. These themes not only provide the focus for the critical examinations of the growth machine thesis, but also offer exciting new ways of thinking about and researching urban politics and local economic development.
As Harvey Molotch himself notes in this book's concluding chapter, "The growth machine idea makes a substantive argument about the empirical substance of U.S. urban regimes. It asserts that virtually every city (and state) government is a growth machine and long has been. It asserts that this puts localities in chronic competition with one another in ways that harm the vast majority of their citizens as well as their environments. It anticipates an ideological structure that naturalizes growth goals as a background assumption of civic life. In a social science realm where successful empirical generalizations have been few, the growth machine idea robustly and usefully describes reality."
Contributors include Thabit Abu-Rass, Keith Bassett, Mark Boyle, Allan Cochrane, Kevin R. Cox, Kyle Crowder, Melissa R. Gilbert, Bob Jessop, Andrew Kirby, Mickey Lauria, Helga Leitner, John R. Logan, Harvey Molotch, Jamie Peck, Stephanie Pincetl, Eric Sheppard, John Rennie Short, Adam Tickell, Rachel Bridges Whaley, and Andrew Wood.
Ratings and reviews
4.3
3 reviews
Dr Stephen Hall
- Flag inappropriate
January 21, 2014
Some really readable and pertinent analysis that offers a good introduction to the theory as well as posing accessible and still relevant questions about how 'growth' is pusued in cities.
About the author
Andrew E. G. Jonas is Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Hull, United Kingdom and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Earth Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. David Wilson is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
