This book investigates small cities - cities and towns that are not well known or
internationally branded but are facing structural economic and social issues after the Global
Financial Crisis. They need to invent develop and manage new reasons for their existence. The
strengths and opportunities are often underplayed when compared to larger cities. These small
cities do not have the profile of New York London Tokyo or Cairo or second-tier cities like
San Francisco Manchester Osaka or Alexandria. This book traces the current state of the
creative industries literature after the GFC but with a specific focus. The specific - and
worsening - conditions in third-tier cities are logged. The social and economic challenges
within these regions are great particularly with regard to health and health services
education employment social mobility and physical activity. This is not a study that merely
diagnoses problems but raises strategies for third-tier cities to create both a profile and
growth. The current research field is synthesized to reveal how cities are defined constituted
developed and in many cases suffering decline. There is an imperative to build relationships
with other urban environments. The book enters these under-discussed locations and reveal the
scarred layering of injustice signified by depopulation dis-investment economic decline and
a reduction in public services for health transportation and education while also developing
specific and innovative models for improvement. The vista summoned in Unique Urbanity is
international with strong attention to trans-local strategies that offer wide relevance
currency and opportunities for policy makers. While third-tier cities are often hidden
marginalized invisible or demeaned Unique Urbanity shows that innovation imagination and
creativity can emerge in small places.
