New Publications   Horizons métropolitains - Politiques et projets urbains en Europe ISBN: 2-88074-561-6 Edited by: Bernard Jouve and Christian Lefèvre (eds.) Language: French Publisher: Laussane: Presses Polytechniques et Universitaires Romandes/Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (PPUR-EPLF),2004, 288p, How does a city turn into a metropolis? The conventional answer combines various doses of sociology, economics and urban planning. Today with the benefit of hindsight, scholars are in a position to add an extra dimension as they can review the evolution of urban governance over strings of electoral cycles. This is the purpose of a book, ‘Horizons métropolitains’, edited by Bernard Jouve (Quebec University, Montreal) and Christian Lefèvre (Institut Français d’Urbanisme, Paris). As is so often the case in urban studies, their inquiry is a comparative one and all the better for it. The book spans the past four decades and takes in the Geneva-Lausanne conurbation, host to more international institutions than any other in the world, together with Zurich, Marseilles and Lyon, Stuttgart and Naples, Italy’s most populated city. The authors look to identify the dynamics, shifts and more permanent factors in urban governance as a city turns into a metropolis, including the relationships city fathers maintain with central government and the population as well as urban policies. Buildings, Culture and Environment: Informing Local and Global Practices ISBN: 1-4051-0004-4 Edited by: Raymond J Cole and Richard Lorch Language: English Publisher: Blackwell, Oxford, 2003, 404 pages One significant aspect of globalisation is that designers, clients, funders and researchers of the built environment are bombarded with huge amounts of information, products, codes and standards. These promise technological solutions to urgent problems but fail to account for the social or cultural context. Many design strategies and technologies currently fail to be implemented because of the inability of their designers to understand the needs and expectations of end users. An alternative approach is offered by this book. The design and maintenance of the built environment must be embedded in local and regional culture if it is to be successful in social, technological and economic terms. Using the urgency of environmentally sound design as case studies, this multi-disciplinary book provides a new understanding of why we have consistently failed. It offers a thought-provoking approach to a number of complex habitation and built environment issues from various perspectives. This book suggests a positive path forward to form a framework and critically engage with local culture and social expectations into solutions for the built environment. Re-Establishing an Effective Housing Finance Mechanism in Tanzania:The Potentials and the Bottlenecks ISBN: 92-1-131686-3 Edited by: UN-HABITAT Language: English Publisher: The Govern- ment of Tanzania and UN-HABITAT, 2003, 145 pages This publication, examines the issue of housing finance in Tanzania in all its ramifications. It notes that the lackof institutional housing finance had been a matter of concern for both the Government of Tanzania, and UN-HABITAT. It was as a result of this concern that the government approved a National Human Settlements Development Policy in 2000, which is currently studying a proposed National Housing Programme. Consequently, in 2002, a team of three experts was appointed to review the situation of housing finance in the country and suggest possible ways of re-establishing housing finance mechanism in the country. This report is the result of that effort. As rightly emphasized in the foreword: “The issues raised in this report and the recommendations made deserve attention and implementation actions by governments and support and cooperation by other stakeholders, if shelter and human settlements conditions are to be improved as envisaged in the HABITAT Agenda and in the Millennium Development Goals.” Rental housing: An essential option for the urban poor in developing countries ISBN: 92-1-131687-1 Edited by: UN-HABITAT Language: English Publisher: UN-HABITAT This 250-page study notes that despite the fact that a large proportion of residents in cities and towns of developed and developing countries are tenants, the number of governments actually trying to support rental housing development is rather small. In fact, the important role played by the rental sector is barely, if at all, acknowledged in many national housing policies. A major reason for this bias against rental housing is the general ideology that home ownership is essential for housing development and that owners are better citizens than renters. The study demonstrates that most of the arguments leading to this bias against rental housing are highly flawed. It is true that owner-occupation offers families a great deal, but the advantages are often exaggerated. Criticisms of rental housing are equally exaggerated – ignoring both the advantages that rentals offer tenants and landlords alike, and perpetuating false myths about landlords.