Regional Renaissance

This book examines ways in which formerly prosperous regions can renew their economy during and after a period of industrial and economic recession. Using New York’s Capital Region (i.e., Albany, Troy, Schenectady, etc.) as a case study, the authors show how entrepreneurship, innovation, investment in education, research and political collaboration are critical to achieving regional success. In this way, the book provides other regions and nations with a real-life model for successful economic development. In the past half century, the United States and other nations have seen an economic decline of formerly prosperous regions as a result of new technology and globalization. One of the hardest-hit United States regions is Upstate New York or “the Capital Region”; it experienced a demoralizing hemorrhage of manufacturing companies, jobs and people to other regions and countries. To combat this, the region, with the help of state leaders, mounted a decades-long effort to renew and restore the region’s economy with a particular focus on nanotechnology. As a result, New York’s Capital Region successfully added thousands of well-paying, skill-intensive manufacturing jobs. New York’s success story serves as a model for economic development for policy makers that includes major public investments in educational institutions and research infrastructure; partnerships between academia, industry and government; and creation of frameworks for intra-regional collaboration by business, government, and academic actors. Featuring recommendations for best practices in regional development policy, this book is appropriate for scholars, students, researchers and policy makers in regional development, innovation, R&D policy, economic development and economic growth.

Provides an overview of regional government, discusses twenty-five examples of initiatives promoting regional government, and explores the evolving role of regional government agencies.

Are Britain’s cities attractive places in which to live, work and play? Asking that question, this is a critical review of how the design dimension of the Urban Renaissance strategy was developed and applied, based on expert academic assessments of progress in Britain’s thirteen largest cities. The case studies are preceded by a dissection of New Labour’s renaissance agenda, and concluded by a synthesis of achievements and failings. Exploring the implications of this strategy for the future of urban planning and design, this is a must-read for students, practitioners of these subjects and for all those who wish to improve the quality of the British urban environment.

Drawing on recent research by established and emerging scholars of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century art, this volume reconsiders the art and architecture produced after 1563 across the conventional geographic borders. Rather than considering this period a degraded afterword to Renaissance classicism or an inchoate proto-Baroque, the book seeks to understand the art on its own terms. By considering artists such as Federico Barocci and Stefano Maderno in Italy, Hendrick Goltzius in the Netherlands, Antoine Caron in France, Francisco Ribalta in Spain, and Bartolomeo Bitti in Peru, the contributors highlight lesser known "reforms" of art from outside the conventional centers. As the first text to cover this formative period from an international perspective, this volume casts new light on the aftermath of the Renaissance and the beginnings of "Baroque."

This book focuses on recent regional policy and planning debates in all the English regions.