For anyone interested in the economic and social role of our major cities the last 15 years have been an exciting time. We have re-discovered their potential as hubs of communication, as market places and as centres of fusion and innovation. The prospect of terminal decline in favour of a proliferating suburbia has been challenged by consumers and policy makers alike. We can now more clearly see that cities have much to offer an increasingly diverse population in an age where proximity, concentration and exchange continue to have economic and social value. That was the background against which the ESRC launched it’s ‘Cities: Competitiveness and Cohesion’ Research Programme in 1997.

The proposition was simple. The new positioning and characterisation of cities needed fuller explanation and a new body of thought and evidence. There were lessons to be learned about the new competitive position of our cities. Were the emerging changes in the structures of employment and housing patterns fundamental or just a footnote for history?. There were lessons to be learned about the relative performance of different cities and the factors behind notable variations. There was an appetite to explore the consequences of different policies and governance regimes. Equally important there was an interest in the interaction between those forces shaping the new competitive position of our cities and the unchanged role they continued to play as homes for the poor and migrants seeking low cost housing, ready work, and the comfort of kin folk.

Martin Boddy and Michael Parkinson expertly draw together the wideranging product of that Programme in this book. It represents a fascinating array of scholarship and exploration, which has already had a significant impact on policy makers at local and national levels. As intriguing as any part of the book is the authors’ concluding attempt to reach a balanced judgement on the original core question of whether there are links between competitiveness and cohesion and, if so, do these confirm the prospect for a continuing revival in the prosperity and well being of our cities. This collection provides a rich diet and vital reading for anyone interested in the future of urban life in the UK, and the wider lessons to be drawn from this