This report addresses key challenges facing policy makers, practitioners and academics in their efforts to understand and impact on the changing nature of urban environments today.

Combining a detailed case study of the city of Bristol with wide-ranging information and analysis from other sources, the report looks at:

the dynamics of employment and population change including the challenges of household growth, urban expansion and new patterns of edge-city development;

urban renaissance, urban renewal and the prospects for a turn-around in the fortunes of urban areas;

patterns and processes of social exclusion and social polarisation, persisting even in the face of competitive success;

the role of the new knowledge-based sectors including financial and business services and the cultural and media sectors;

the changing spatial architecture of urban and regional governance and its capacity to shape the towns and cities of the future.

Urban transformation and urban governance is essential reading for practitioners and policy makers with an interest in urban policy, regeneration and renewal; voluntary and community sector workers; and academics and students.