Urban Policy Evaluation Challenge & Change

This book is an authoritative overview and discussion of key themes in contemporary urban policy evaluation. The rapid introduction of new urban policy initiatives looks set to continue in the UK, while there is increasing interest in both North America and Europe in cross-national comparisons, and the possibilities of transferable practice. This volume focuses on current urban policy evaluation practice, placing the UK in an European context. The authors address key issues in the methodology and politics of evaluation: quantitative and qualitative evaluation and the ways in which institutional and political realities can affect this. The authors put forward examples of pluralistic evaluation. A final section considers the role of cross-national comparisons in urban policy evaluation. Analysis of urban and regional change has been a major theme in social science research for more than a decade. As a result there is extensive theory and evidence about the way in which economic, social and political forces shape urban fortunes.