Urban Studies

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Register here to gain access to SAGE's 500+ Journals Online

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by McCann, E. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Urban Studies, Vol. 41, No. 10, 1909-1929 (2004)
DOI: 10.1080/0042098042000256314

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

Eugene J. McCann

Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6, emccann{at}sfu.ca

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.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Urban StudHome page
I. R. Cook
Mobilising Urban Policies: The Policy Transfer of US Business Improvement Districts to England and Wales
Urban Stud, April 1, 2008; 45(4): 773 - 795.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Urban StudHome page
S.-S. Chien
The Isomorphism of Local Development Policy: A Case Study of the Formation and Transformation of National Development Zones in Post-Mao Jiangsu, China
Urban Stud, February 1, 2008; 45(2): 273 - 294.
[Abstract] [PDF]