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Migration in European Cities

Free online access for a limited period to a special issue of European Urban and Regional Studies.   (available until 31^st December 2009).

Special Issue: Migration    Volume 16, Issue 3, July 2009

Diane Perrons  Migration: Cities, Regions and Uneven Development

 Enzo Mingione  Family, Welfare and Districts: The Local Impact of New Migrants in Italy

Jane Wills, Jon May, Kavita Datta, Yara Evans, Joanna Herbert, and Cathy McIlwaine  London's Migrant Division of Labour

Alison Stenning and Stuart Dawley  Poles To Newcastle: Grounding New Migrant Flows in Peripheral Regions

Allan M. Williams  International Migration, Uneven Regional Development and Polarization

Reviving cities in Europe and the USA

Learning from city recovery in Europe and the United States

A new study from Joseph Rowntree Foundation  investigates why cities decline, how they recover and how low-income communities within them fare under the impact of dramatic changes.

The study focuses on the fortunes of seven European cities – Sheffield and Belfast in the UK; Bremen and Leipzig in Germany; Torino, Italy; Saint-Étienne, France; and Bilbao, Spain.

'Although cities in Europe and the US face urgent pressures – including  the need to reduce radically their reliance on fossil fuels – their underused spaces, existing infrastructure, knowledge and skills base, and diverse populations open up new opportunities for urban progress and environmental protection.'

Empty, unlet and unloved

The new British high street Rotherham is typical of the small towns hit by recession and big-centre competition

This is not just Rotherham's problem, however. Nationally, an eighth of all high street shops are empty and unlet, twice as many as last year, with many towns seeing a slow, cancerous hollowing out of their streets that is as bad as here, or worse.

Florida on how recession might reshape urban america

Richard Florida: How the crash will reshape America

The economic crash has damaged some places much more severely than others. On the other side of the crisis, America’s economic landscape will look very different than it does today. What fate will the coming years hold for New York, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas? Will the suburbs be ineffably changed? Which cities and regions can come back strong? And which will never come back at all?

New report reveals UK cities most exposed to recession

Cities Outlook 2009

Centre for Cities today released a new report that reveals the cities most exposed to recession - and least well placed to ride out job losses and business closures over the coming months.  In 2009 all cities will feel recession bite but they will also be leading the upturn as the economy recovers.

Recession to hit Leeds, Brighton and Bristol hard

Into recession

Leeds, Brighton and Bristol together could lose over 5% of their jobs over the next three years, according to a new Centre for Cities study on the three cities.

City redundancies hit London hard last year - and dominated the headlines.  But the impact of the credit crunch and the deepening recession is now being felt in every city - and will play out very differently across the UK during 2009.

The future is culture

As Liverpool asseses its year of culture DCMS Secreatry of State Andy Burnham considers the lessons and future possibilities of a British City of Culture competition in a speech at the University of Liverpool.

"...the long-term test of success is not whether the events ran smoothly - or grabbed attention - but whether going forward it changes the life chances of the people of this city."

In Liverpool's footsteps: now every city can aim to be Britain's capital of culture

Hey presto! We're the best 

"Britain's cities don't need imported spectacle, or visiting awards ceremonies, so much as a sense of their own worth. [...] If Burnham's dreams become a reality, the first British capital of culture should be somewhere whose accent you can cut with a knife, whose bricks are grimy with identity. Character is culture, as scousers knew long before the EU title came their way."

"It would cost a lot"

  We still need places to live

It's perverse that a market crash should put an end to building social housing that Britain badly lacks.  Lyndsey Hanley in The Guardian

Getting hold of good housing when you haven't got much money is about clambering, ducking and diving, enduring. Why should it be that way? It's a place to live, not an assault course.

Future of Cities

A collection of Guardian pieces on urban futures.

Spark of inspirationBritain's cities are trying to be distinctive, but too many are doing so by copying each other. Beyond boutiques and public art, is there any fresh thinking?

Knowledge is power Just 10 years ago, cities were seen as vital contributors to the global economy. That's no longer true.

Blears and Pickles on urban leadership.

UK Cities in the Global Economy

As the UK faces the prospect of a recession, a new report from the Centre for Cities calls on the Government to double its efforts to help UK cities adjust to globalisation.

The report finds that whilst the UK as a whole gains from global trade - and cities like Reading and Milton Keynes have grown, other traditional industrial urban areas like Bradford and Doncaster aren't benefiting as much from the global economy and could stand to lose out further during the tough times ahead.