Leading the inclusive city: Place-Based Innovation for a Bounded Planet - Hardcover

"This is a useful work for practitioners as well as academics, offering conceptual and instrumental insights that should stimulate cross-disciplinary dialogue." Choice "[This book] makes an important contribution to the planning discourse by calling for strong place-based leadership and highlighting... what can be achieved when civic leaders from local government to activist groups strive to make cities more liveable and inclusive." Town Planning Review "Robin Hambleton's Leading the Inclusive City: Place-Based Innovation for a Bounded Planet lays the groundwork for an important call to action." Journal of the American Planning Association "It is a timely re-formulation and consolidation of various strands in current thinking about places, and its optimistic signposting of a possible future makes it required reading." Local Economy "The book is well-structured and solution-oriented. It provides diagnosis and concepts with a wide array of figures and resources but also experiences of place-based leadership in action and lesson-drawing for practice from international `innovation stories' (case studies). Examples provided are really interesting throughout, from the NYC high line showing how place-based activism can influence public policy decisions to the closure of the Cadbury factory in Somerdale as an example of poor placeless decisions resulting in local impacts. Highly recommended reading." 5* Review on Amazon "This book bridges practice and academia and provides inspiration through exploring cases of urban innovation and leaders that co-created more inclusive cities together with local communities." Environment & Urbanization journal "Raises important issues regarding the creation of more just and ecologically sensitive cities" - Journal of Planning Education and Research "this book is one which scholars will admire and politicians and policy-makers will not want to miss." Journal of Contemporary European Studies "One of the more interesting and helpful characteristics of the book is that it provides 17 `Innovation Stories', drawn from cities across the world ... the presentation of Innovation Stories proves useful in bridging `the worlds of academia and practice'." Urban Research and Practice Journal "This book is an important read for those that want to engage with the coming devolution debates in the UK and indeed the debate of how urban environments across the globe should be governed." 5* review on Amazon from Mike Childs, Head of Policy, Friends of the Earth

Cities are often seen as helpless victims in a global flow of events and many view growing inequality in cities as inevitable. This engaging book rejects this gloomy prognosis and argues that imaginative place-based leadership can enable citizens to shape the urban future in accordance with progressive values - advancing social justice, promoting care for the environment and bolstering community empowerment. This international and comparative book, written by an experienced author, shows how inspirational civic leaders are making a major difference in cities across the world. The analysis provides practical lessons for local leaders and a significant contribution to thinking on public service innovation for anyone who wants to change urban society for the better.