Cities are the engines of the economy, but the are running low on two key inputs, infrastructure investment and innovation. The image of the engine calls attention to flawed assumptions made about how urban economies function, linked to the dominance of macro-economic and sectoral policies. There are problems related to data which make it difficult for policy makers to anticipate the dynamic effects of urban change; as a result they are not able to enhance the positive effects of density and specialization (agglomeration effects). Governments need policies for cities – forward looking, not remedial. The chapter highlights the costs of the 2008 crisis before ending with a series of 9 questions about the future of economic and political systems and of the role of cities in them.

From his experiences during the First World War and then as Deputy Secretary General of the League of Nations, Frenchman Jean Monnet developed a practical plan for uniting countries of Europe under a supranational authority.After a number of failed attempts, in 1950, Monnet used the conflict between France and Germany as an opportunity to present a plan for the European Coal and Steel Community. This eventually grew into what is now known as the European Union.The success of this venture was heavily reliant on the Méthode Monnet, in that he deliberately created unstable institutions that demanded reform by gradually extending supranational authority over European markets and politics.The instability in the eurozone today is a legacy of the Méthode Monnet, in which Europeans face a stark choice between accepting greater integration or winding back the experiment in supranational governance.

Chapter eight illustrates that normative perspectives on the social politics of fatherhood underwent a revolutionary transformation during the course of the 20th century: leading to the development in Sweden and the Nordic welfare states of father-friendly social policies and lengthy parental leave regimes. Alternatively, the more recent growth of American sociological perspectives on fatherlessness and family decline have combined to influence the development of patriarchal (or patricentric) social commentaries on the perils and pitfalls of lone-motherhood and non-resident fatherhood. The final chapter discusses to what extent the rolling back the of the welfare state in the USA may herald the growth of neo- patriarchy and a normative retreat from social policy norms and values based on principles of gender equality and the decline of patriarchy.

When Robert McNamara was appointed to head the World Bank, he left behind the disastrous Vietnam War, which he had vigorously prosecuted for LBJ. This departure from the Johnson Administration enabled him to rehabilitate his reputation by leading a crusade to eradicate extreme poverty around the world.When he took over the bank in 1968, it had achieved little and its credibility suffered as the US exerted undue political influence over the bank to support its foreign policy.McNamara revived the fortunes of the World Bank by attracting funding from outside Washington and Wall Street, thereby reducing US influence and increasing funding to poverty reduction programmes.Sadly, his campaign was disrupted by the oil crises of the 1970s. As Third World debt soared, McNamara adopted a new strategy of structural adjustment loans. These loans encouraged developing countries to deregulate their economies, privatise state-owned enterprises and phase out subsidies on fuel, food and health. Such policies evolved into the Washington Consensus, a set of uncompromising neoliberal policies, which were enthusiastically pursued by his successors.

Peter Sutherland, as the head of GATT, played a masterful endgame, taking the stalled free trade talks to a final agreement in 1994, creating the World Trade Organization (WTO).Reflecting neoliberal values, the side agreements on intellectual property and trade in services, were largely driven by the corporate sector, and the behind-the-doors machinations are described.Sutherland welcomed the WTO treaty’s achievements, which he claimed introduced the rule of law into trade, and substantially reduced trade barriers. On closer examination, the final package was about freer not free trade, as international trade was corrupted by side agreements that served vested interests ahead of public interest. In addition, smaller countries discovered that there were practical barriers that severely limited their ability to impose trade judgements on major powers.

US legal scholar, Richard Epstein developed a radical legal doctrine of ‘regulatory takings,’ based on the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, which revolutionised intergovernmental and multilateral investment agreements around the world.First applied to NAFTA, it established a radical precedent that allows corporations legal standing to take governments to independent investment tribunals. As a result, private firms were able to force judgements on nation states guilt of regulatory takings, including substantial damages for lost profits.Unsuccessful attempts were made to include regulatory takings in two international treaties: the Trade Related Investment Measures and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment. They were defeated by opposition from development countries and activists.Undeterred, supporters of the principle of regulatory takings had more success including NAFTA-type clauses into bilateral and multilateral investment agreements. These have provided unprecedented protection of foreign investment.

With the temperament of an insurgent, Walter Wriston used his position as head of CitiBank to bypass many of the Depression era regulations, helping free bankers in the US and around the world. IN addition, using the Eurodollar market, Wriston also showed how banks could internationalise their operations. Finally, lobbied to remove Bretton Woods’ rules, which had inhibited the free movement of capital.After Wriston left banking in 1984, he continued his campaign through writing an influential book called The Twilight of Sovereignty. This book was important to neoliberals because it argued that free markets regulate themselves and provide a launching pad for continued economic growth.The contributions Wriston made to deregulate the financial sector and to free global capital markets allowed global banks to grow to the point that they were too-big-to-fail and bankers became too-important-to-jail. In addition, through well-funded lobbying, banks became too-powerful-to-regulate. The result is a fragile economic system that has avoided significant reform since the global financial crisis of 2007/8, keeping Wriston’s legacies safe.

Cities and their challenges may reshape national policies and international relations in the 21st century. A new paradigm or policy framework to reduce uncertainty will generate investment and innovation. If managing space better is the key to solving many problems, it also highlights the limits to the macro-economic and sectoral policy frameworks carried over from the 20th century. The advantages of a liberal, inter-connected economy must reinforce the social and environmental conditions of the places where people live, and most people live in cities and urban regions. This means accepting the degree to which modern urban economies are inter-dependent. Reducing uncertainty therefore challenges the assumption that national sovereignty is sufficient to cope with cross-border risks, which could overwhelm the Westphalian principle of non-intervention in the domestic affairs of states. The crisis of 2008 has created more autonomy for cities and regions to take initiative, but some of the most important collective risks require more national leadership and involvement. Greater international co-operation remains possible, but unlikely until after more crises.

Parental leave; father-friendly social policies; government commissions; de-patriarchalisation; shared parenting; the Stockholm marriages

While advances in transport and communications technology drove the first phase of globalisation (1870-1914), it fell prey to short-sighted policies pursued by the major powers. The lesson learned by internationalists, who would assume position of power during the Second World War, was that the postwar order would need to be protected by international institutions and rules.The prologue introduced three phases to the construction of the postwar architecture, around which the book is structured. Part I examines the emergence of the international global order, which saw the construction of the UN, IMF, World Bank and European Union. Next came the neoliberal global order in which the markets for goods, services and capital were opened up. Finally, in response to the unintended consequences of neoliberal globalism, the UN and its agencies worked with transnational corporations to implement policies and programmes to give markets a human face.By the twenty-first century, no single blueprint emerged, and these three models coexisted, sometimes uncomfortably.

Chapter Six highlights the importance of social dialogue to the social politics of fatherhood in the European Union and the importance of scholarly involvement on bodies such as the European Observatory on National Family Policies, the Confederation of Family Organisations of the European Union, the European Commission Childcare Network, the Network on Leave and Policy Research, the European Union Network of Experts on Family Policy and the European Parliament Quality of Childhood Group. Chapter Six illustrates that the Swedish model was influential on the European Union parental leave directives and on the move in 2009 towards individualization and non-transferability of leave for fathers. Chapter six also illustrates that the EU is a site for contested debates concerning child support and broader issues of political economy, family policy, intersectionality and varieties of capitalism.

The 1990s began with a major recession and geo-political shifts which focused policy on making cities better. Major problems included an emerging urban underclass, deferred infrastructure investment, and significantly more costly natural disasters. The OECD dramatically expanded its capacity to cope with urban policy. Europe took more of the lead in innovative strategies for cities, including on urban regeneration and governance. The decade ended on a more optimistic note, anticipating future growth. Policy and investment have not caught up with the acceleration of spatial change. Although the 1990s introduces the key themes of the book, it also highlights how different were the reactions of governments then, when urban policy gained a degree of importance it now seems to lack.

Paradigm shifts in economic governance have occurred at intervals of a century or more; we may be at a point of transition comparable to that of the early 20th century, a point of conjuncture between short and long term trends. History becomes all the more relevant therefore because there is no living experience of what such a paradigm shift entails. It is part of a process by which crises are resolved when the previous paradigm no longer provides effective or credible solutions. The challenge today, to make cities safer in the 21st century, calls attention to problems which the macro-economic and sectoral policy frameworks of the 20th century are ill-equipped to address. Each paradigm shift in the past was associated with a major increase in the scale of urbanization. This analysis introduces the distinction between meta-regulation, which operates at the level of a paradigm, and regulation in the form of specific roles. Meta-regulation helps to keep the entire system going in reference to basic values, defined in terms of society’s deepest hopes and fears.

Chapter three illustrates that the canon of Swedish and Nordic literature on the politicization of fatherhood and the development of father-friendly social policies remained is an expanding field of study. Chapter three pays particular attention to the historical context of parental leave development and to the important roles of Nordic epistemology and government commissions in dismantling patriarchy and promoting gender equality over the course of the 20th century Chapter three also focuses on child support enforcement as an early 20th century enterprise in Sweden, which was roundly rejected from the mid-1970s as being overly stigmatizing towards non-resident fathers, single-mothers and their children. Instead, chapter three shows that Sweden and Norway moved towards principles of joint-custody, shared parenting and individualization of child support payments and housing allowances.