The America's Cup has always been a hotbed of unbridled ambition, personal agendas, intrigue, spying and, more recently, hardfought court cases – and that's before the boats even get out on the water to race. Exposed: The Dark Side of the America's Cup lifts the lid on this unique contest for the oldest trophy in sport and on the powerful men who have made it 'the toughest game in town'. For some it has been the key to social advancement, for others it has opened important doors in the bus...

Atlanta's experience over the past 15 to 20 years is reflective of many cities, particularly those in the south and west. Thus, the story of how and why Atlanta has changed is informative for cities in general. What accounts for the positive turn-around of the city of Atlanta? What can other cities learn from Atlanta's experience?This collection examines changes in the city of Atlanta over the past three decades and explores the factors associated with the observed changes. Beginni...

Communities around the world are entering a new era of community building.Whether improving economic conditions and reducing poverty, re-energizing citizens and social programs, reducing crime, or revitalizing a troubled neighborhood, they are engaging people from all sectors as never before to work together as equals to improve their quality of life.At the heart of this engagement are community conversations, in which common goals are embraced by a diverse array o...

A 2012 New York Times Book Review Editor's ChoiceAn intimate portrait of an invisible man—a powerful story of one man’s life that contains multitudes.Like Dave Eggers’s Zeitoun and Alexander Masters’s Stuart, this is a tour de force of narrative reportage.Mohammed Ashraf studied biology, became a butcher, a tailor, and an electrician’s apprentice; now he is a homeless day laborer in the heart of old Delhi. How did he end up this way? In an...

Modello is the true story from beginning to end of how Dr. Roger Mills and staff accomplished the miracle in the Modello and Homestead Gardens Housing Projects applying the Three Principles/Health Realization approach based on a new spiritual psychology. Through extensive interviews with residents as well as Dr. Mills his staff and other professionals a very compelling and moving portrait is painted of how two low-income inner-city housing projects replete with violence crack drug gangs abuse...

Back in 1997, New Labour came to power amid much talk of regenerating the inner cities left to rot under successive Conservative governments. Over the next decade, British cities became the laboratories of the new enterprise economy: glowing monuments to finance, property speculation, and the service industry-until the crash.In A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the wreckage-the buildings that epitomized an age of greed and aspirat...

“America the addicted. America the numb. America the war weary. America the lonely. All these countries compose the jagged terrain of this viscerally potent new play.”—The Seattle Times“The very best we can hope for is to show the mess of life in such a way as to perhaps awaken our shared capacity for embracing it, in all its beauty and terror.”—Craig LucasCraig Lucas “can masterfully distill a world of hurt and perplexity into complicated relations and single, pit...

What is street art? Who is the street artist? Why is street art a crime?Since the late 1990s, a distinctive cultural practice has emerged in many cities: street art, involving the placement of uncommissioned artworks in public places. Sometimes regarded as a variant of graffiti, sometimes called a new art movement, its practitioners engage in illicit activities while at the same time the resulting artworks can command high prices at auction and have become collectable aesthetic com...

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is one of the darkest chapters in American history. The storm caused unprecedented destruction, and a toxic combination of government neglect and socioeconomic inequality turned a crisis into a tragedy. But among the rubble, there is hope.We're Still Here Ya Bastards presents an extraordinary panoramic look at New Orleans's revival in the years following the hurricane. Award-winning journalist Roberta Brandes Gratz shares the stories of p...

In every large city, there are marginal, criminal types who live on the fringes of the society. They are faceless, ignored or feared. The author had worked and lived in their East Harlem, New York neighborhood. Through a series of in-depth interviews he attempts to give them a human face.These are documentary stories, capturing not just the life style of addicts, prostitutes, con artists and murderers, but also their suffering and pain. They are seen as individuals, marked by abuse...

Over the last fifteen years local citizens' movements have spread rapidly throughout Japan. Created with the aim of improving the quality of the local environment, and of environmental management processes, such activities are widely referred to as machizukuri, and represent an important development in local politics and urban management in Japan.This volume examines the growth and nature of such civil society participation in local urban and environmental governance, rais...

The facts of Africa's rapid urbanisation are startling. By 2030 African cities will have grown by more than 350 million people and over half the continent's population will be urban. Yet in the minds of policy makers, scholars and much of the general public, Africa remains a quintessentially rural place. This lack of awareness and robust analysis means it is difficult to make a policy case for a more overtly urban agenda. As a result, there is across the continent insufficient urgency dire...