MAKING A PLACE FOR COMMUNITY: Local Democracy in a Globalized World

One of the basic tensions within capitalism, argue the three political scientist authors, is between the desire "to preserve, sustain, and strengthen geographically defined communities over time" and the opposing, usually economic, idea that "public policy should seek to facilitate individual and business mobility, no matter what the costs." They pinpoint three "threats" that towns and cities face: the increase in globalization and free trade, the instability of securing and keeping jobs in a specific locality, and the rapid increase of urban sprawl. While filled with copious facts, data and economic theory, the book never loses sight of, and is driven by, its deeply humanitarian purpose—"the principle of nurturing just, sustainable, and secure communities" both in the U.S. and abroad. Holding to that principle requires, the authors argue, radically revising a foundation of contemporary economic thinking—that business interests necessarily will eventually serve humanitarian ones. (Sept. 16)