Real South Bank

Tensions over the production of urban public space came to the fore in summer 2013 with mass protests in Turkey sparked by a plan to redevelop Taksim Gezi Park, Istanbul. In London, concomitant proposals to refurbish an area of the ’South Bank’ historically used by skateboarders were similarly met by staunch opposition. Through an in-depth ethnographic examination of London’s South Bank, this book explores multiple dimensions of the production of urban public space. Drawing on user accounts of the significance of public space, as well as observations of how the South Bank is ’practised’ on a daily basis, it argues that public space is valued not only for its essential material characteristics but also for the productive potential that these characteristics, if properly managed, afford on a daily basis. At a time when policy-makers, urban planners and law enforcement authorities simultaneously grapple with pressures to deal with social 'problems' (such as street drinking, vandalism, and skateboarding) and accusations that new modes of urban planning and civic management infringe upon civil liberties and dilute the publicity of ’public’ space, this book offers an insightful account of the daily exigencies of public spaces. In so doing, it questions the utility of the public/private binary for our understanding both of common urban space and of different sets of social practices, and points towards the need to be attentive to productive processes in how we understand and experience urban open space as public.

In the latest in the Real series Chris McCabe explores the buildings and institutions, the backstreets and bridges, the embankment of the Thames and the people which make up London's South Bank. From Rotherhithe upriver to Battersea the South Bank has been a gateway to and from the wider world and has been enriched in surprising ways as a result.

Urban change is often difficult because we are dealing with people’s elusive notions of place and perception, time and change. Urban design and planning in a changing urban context so that it remains relevant for people is elusive because the idea of place is embedded in memory and identity – but whose memory and whose identity? This book seeks to understand the urban change dynamic so that the planning of urban places aligns with the dynamic of people’s perception of place. Planning Urban Places examines the premise that building cities is a concrete business surrounded by a shifting context. It discusses the notion of urban design and placemaking from the perspective of place perception and cognitive psychology, place philosophy and human geography. It also considers network theory to help illustrate the self-organising paradigm of small word network theory for planning urban places.

Successful international integration has underpinned most experiences of rapid growth, shared prosperity, and reduced poverty. Perhaps no sector of the economy better illustrates the potential benefits--but also the perils--of deeper integration than banking. International banking may contribute to faster growth in two important ways: first, by making available much needed capital, expertise, and new technologies; and second, by enabling risk-sharing and diversification. But international banking is not without risks. The global financial crisis vividly demonstrated how international banks can transmit shocks across the globe. The Global Financial Development Report 2017/2018 brings to bear new evidence on the debate on the benefits and costs of international banks, particularly for developing countries. It provides evidence-based policy guidance on a range of issues that developing countries face. Countries that are open to international banking can benefit from global flows of funds, knowledge, and opportunity, but the regulatory challenges are complex and, at times, daunting. Global Financial Development Report 2017/2018 is the fourth in a World Bank series. The report also tracks financial systems in more than 200 economies before and during the global financial crisis on an accompanying website (www.worldbank.org/financialdevelopment). **Note: This World Bank report, Global Financial Development Report 2017/2018: Bankers without Borders, is not associated with the Grameen Foundation’s Bankers without Borders program, which engages volunteer consultants to donate their expertise to serve social enterprises and nonprofits in poor countries. For more information, visit: https://www.bankerswithoutborders.com.

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Who are the British today? For nearly three hundred years British national identity was a unifying force in times of glory and despair. It has now virtually disappeared. In Patriots, Richard Weight explores the decline of Britishness and the rise of powerful new identities in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Based on a wealth of original research, it is scholarly in depth and scope, yet never departs from a thoroughly readable and entertaining style. 'Here are the themes of Orwell's The Lion and the Unicorn stretched over the subsequent sixty years and widened to embrace the whole United Kingdom. Brimming with zest and feel this is politico-cultural history at its best.' Peter Hennessy'Wide-ranging, intelligent, sensible and important.' Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph 'A marvellously rich, ambitious and at times iconoclastic study by a young historian of how, in the broadest sense, national identity in Britain has changed in the last 60 or so years' David Kynaston, Financial Times 'A major work: the fruit of long research, wide reading and hard thinking, engagingly written, bubbling with fresh ideas' Stephen Howe, Independent

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Australia is packed with color photographs, illustrations, and detailed maps that will help you discover Australia region-by-region, from the aboriginal sights of the Northern Territory to the wilderness of Tasmania. This fully updated guide includes 3-D illustrated cutaways and floor plans of must-see sights such as the Sydney Opera House and Canberra war memorial, as well as street-by-street maps of major Australian cities and towns. Detailed listings will guide you to hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops for all budgets. What's new in DK Eyewitness Travel Guides: -New itineraries based on length of stay, regional destinations, and themes. -Brand -new hotel and restaurants listings including DK's Choice recommendations. -Restaurant locations plotted on redrawn area maps and listed with sights. -Redesigned and refreshed interiors make the guides even easier to read. With hundreds of full-color photographs, hand-drawn illustrations, and custom maps that brighten every page, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Australia truly shows you this destination as no one else can.

Deliberative democracy is increasingly central in democratic theory and its concepts are employed in a growing number of fields, including social movement studies and environmental politics. At the same time, contemporary citizen activism seems to feature some forms of engagement that resonate with deliberative democratic ideas. This book provides an in-depth investigation of the qualities of citizens’ engagement from a deliberative democratic standpoint. The key concept through which such qualities are investigated is ‘deliberative capacity’, the extent to which organisations host authentic, inclusive, and consequential discursive processes. This book is based on a comparative study of four grassroots local initiatives, two from Australia (in Tasmania and Queensland) and two from Italy (in Emilia-Romagna and Sicily). By offering a critical assessment of deliberation in social movement organisations, this study identifies key aspects affecting their ability to pursue democratic deliberation and sheds new light on the role of community actors in deliberative democracy.