Why do businesses still value urban life over the suburbs or countryside? This accessible book makes the case for Face-to-Face contact, still considered crucial to many 21st century economies, and provides tools for thinking about the future of places from market towns to World Cities.

This edited book examines why what happens in Detroit matters for other cities around the world. Bridging academic and non-academic voices, contributions from many of the leading scholars on Detroit are joined by some of the city’s most influential writers, planners, artists and activists.

Matt Ryan draws on ten years of research to deliver this landmark comparative review of participatory budgeting, or collective decisions on spending and taxation around the world. With examples of both positive change and notable failure, the book shows when and why citizens achieve this, and how policy makers can foster democratic engagement.

In this provocative book, journalist Peter Hetherington argues that Britain, particularly England, needs an active land policy to protect against record land price increases that threaten food security and housing provision for Britain’s expanding population.

Reconceiving the current housing crisis in England as a ‘wicked’ problem, this book situates the crisis in a broader range of socio-economic issues and calls for a change in how housing is produced and consumed.

This book brings together leading figures in democratic reform and civic engagement to show why and how better state-citizen cooperation is needed to improve democracy and achieve positive social change across a range of policy areas and in varied national contexts.

Experts on learning for democracy come together to explore why and how the gap in civic competence should be bridged. They make the case for a more effective form of political education that can enable citizens to learn to exert their influence over their government in an informed and meaningful manner.

Arguing that the UK Government intends to privatise all local services through its devolution agenda, Peter Latham proposes a new basis for federal, regional and local democracy, including land value taxation and a wealth tax.

The role that nurseries play in supplementing family care is an important subject – but in the UK, there is currently little consensus about what nurseries should provide, how they should be run, and who should pay for them. In this book, Helen Penn asks: is there a more considered way ahead?

Exploring unique survey and interview data on the personality characteristics of British politicians, this book provides a timely psychological analysis of those individuals who pursue political careers and how they represent their constituents once elected.

Who are universities for? argues for a large-scale shake up of how we organise higher education. It includes radical proposals for reform of the curriculum and how we admit students to higher education. Offering concrete solutions, it provides a way forward for universities to become more responsive to challenges.

EPUB and EPDF available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This important book provides the first substantial analysis of white working class perspectives on multiculturalism and change in the UK, improving our understanding of this under-researched group and suggesting a new and progressive agenda for white working class communities.