IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v41y2004i10p1909-1929.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

'Best Places': Interurban Competition, Quality of Life and Popular Media Discourse

Author

Listed:
  • Eugene J. McCann

    (Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6, emccann@sfu.ca)

Abstract

This paper explores relationships between the politics of urban competitiveness and popular media discourse about the 'good life' and 'good places'. Specifically, it focuses on the influence of popular 'best places to live' rankings on urban policy in three US cities. It addresses two issues: how and why similar policies are transferred from place to place; and, how 'extra-economic' factors are mobilised in formulating local economic development policy. It argues that the media's role in these processes is understudied and that its normative discourse is powerful and political. This argument is influenced by and illustrative of a recent attempt to locate the study of discursive power much more centrally in political economy approaches to urban studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Eugene J. McCann, 2004. "'Best Places': Interurban Competition, Quality of Life and Popular Media Discourse," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 41(10), pages 1909-1929, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:41:y:2004:i:10:p:1909-1929
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098042000256314
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/0042098042000256314
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0042098042000256314?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bob Jessop & Ngai-Ling Sum, 2000. "An Entrepreneurial City in Action: Hong Kong's Emerging Strategies in and for (Inter)Urban Competition," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(12), pages 2287-2313, November.
    2. Allan Cochrane & Jamie Peck & Adam Tickell, 1996. "Manchester Plays Games: Exploring the Local Politics of Globalisation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 1319-1336, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Albert S. Fu & Martin J. Murray, 2014. "Glorified Fantasies and Masterpieces of Deception on Importing Las Vegas into the ‘New South Africa’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 843-863, May.
    2. Tom Baker & Kristian Ruming, 2015. "Making ‘Global Sydney’: Spatial Imaginaries, Worlding and Strategic Plans," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 62-78, January.
    3. Ida Andersson & Thomas Niedomysl, 2010. "Clamour For Glamour? City Competition For Hosting The Swedish Tryouts To The Eurovision Song Contest," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 101(2), pages 111-125, April.
    4. Silvia Cerisola, 2018. "Multiple creative talents and their determinants at the local level," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 42(2), pages 243-269, May.
    5. Marco Bontje & Philip Lawton, 2013. "Mobile policies and shifting contexts: city-regional competitiveness strategies in Amsterdam and Dublin," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 104(4), pages 397-409, September.
    6. Loris Servillo & Rob Atkinson & Abdelillah Hamdouch & Loris Servillo & Rob Atkinson & Abdelillah Hamdouch, 2017. "Small and Medium-Sized Towns in Europe: Conceptual, Methodological and Policy Issues," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 108(4), pages 365-379, September.
    7. Juan Pablo Celemín & Guillermo Ángel Velázquez, 2018. "Spatial Analysis of the Relationship Between a Life Quality Index, HDI and Poverty in the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 57-77, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ian R. Cook & Kevin Ward, 2011. "Trans-urban Networks of Learning, Mega Events and Policy Tourism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(12), pages 2519-2535, September.
    2. Michael E. Leary, 2008. "Gin and Tonic or Oil and Water: The Entrepreneurial City and Sustainable Managerial Regeneration in Manchester," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 23(3), pages 222-233, August.
    3. Georgina Blakeley, 2010. "Governing Ourselves: Citizen Participation and Governance in Barcelona and Manchester," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 130-145, March.
    4. Kevin G Ward, 2000. "State Licence, Local Settlements, and the Politics of ‘Branding’ the City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 18(3), pages 285-300, June.
    5. Albert S. Fu & Martin J. Murray, 2014. "Glorified Fantasies and Masterpieces of Deception on Importing Las Vegas into the ‘New South Africa’," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 843-863, May.
    6. John Allen & Allan Cochrane, 2014. "The Urban Unbound: London's Politics and the 2012 Olympic Games," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1609-1624, September.
    7. Mark Davidson & Donald McNeill, 2012. "The Redevelopment of Olympic Sites: Examining the Legacy of Sydney Olympic Park," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1625-1641, June.
    8. Büch, Martin-Peter & Maennig, Wolfgang & Schulke, Hans-Jürgen (ed.), 2012. "Zur Ökonomik von Spitzenleistungen im internationalen Sport," Edition HWWI, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI), volume 3, number 3.
    9. Matthias Bernt, 2009. "Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 754-769, September.
    10. Tao Song & Weidong Liu & Zhigao Liu & Yeerken Wuzhati, 2019. "Policy Mobilities and the China Model: Pairing Aid Policy in Xinjiang," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, June.
    11. Bayirbag Mustafa K., 2011. "Pro-Business Local Governance and (Local) Business Associations: The Case of Gaziantep," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(4), pages 1-39, December.
    12. Jianfa Shen, 2010. "Cooperation and Competition Between Cities: Urban Development Strategies in Hong Kong and Shenzhen," Chapters, in: Peter Karl Kresl (ed.), Economic Strategies for Mature Industrial Economies, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Nurit Alfasi & Talia Margalit, 2014. "The challenge of regulating private planning initiatives," Chapters, in: David Emanuel Andersson & Stefano Moroni (ed.), Cities and Private Planning, chapter 13, pages 269-294, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Stephanie Farmer & Chris D Poulos, 2019. "The financialising local growth machine in Chicago," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(7), pages 1404-1425, May.
    15. lain Deas & Alex Lord, 2006. "From a New Regionalism to an Unusual Regionalism? The Emergence of Non-standard Regional Spaces and Lessons for the Territorial Reorganisation of the State," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(10), pages 1847-1877, September.
    16. Eran Ben-Joseph, 2009. "Commentary: Designing Codes: Trends in Cities, Planning and Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(12), pages 2691-2702, November.
    17. Shutian Zhou & Guofang Zhai & Yuwen Lu & Yijun Shi, 2021. "The development of urban mega-projects in China: A case study of Nantong’s metro project," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(4), pages 759-774, May.
    18. Margarida Rodrigues & Mário Franco, 2018. "Measuring the Performance in Creative Cities: Proposal of a Multidimensional Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    19. Fulong Wu, 2018. "Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1383-1399, May.
    20. Ben Derudder & Michael Hoyler & Peter J. Taylor & Frank Witlox (ed.), 2011. "International Handbook of Globalization and World Cities," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13622.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:41:y:2004:i:10:p:1909-1929. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.