Why Face-to-Face Still Matters The Persistent Power of Cities in the Post-Pandemic Era : The Persistent Power ofCities in the Post-Pandemic Era

Face-to-Face: The Persistent Power of Cities In a Post-Pandemic Era, is about the way that people and firms are adapting to the world of always-on and everywhere digital access, and what that means for cities and regions. Twenty years after The Death of Distance—and in the midst of a pandemic that has led some to question the future of cities—many people still think that we are on track for ‘business anywhere’. The book shows why that's not the case, and provides a structure for thinking about the next twenty years of social and economic upheaval. It shows how the changing fortunes of cities are tied to the ongoing importance of face-to-face contact to our most valuable industries, and thus why the ‘human touch’ will continue to be crucial in the cities of tomorrow. Drawing on interviews with artists and advertisers, bankers and bakers, software devs and property developers, across some forty interviews we home in on what people actually do and why. ‘Contact’, in all its forms, is shown to still matter hugely to companies and individuals, even in a world with high-quality video conferencing and free online calling. And when the pandemic hit, a further digital survey explored interviewees’ experiences of an ‘e-only’ world, gaining ‘front-line’ insights into the short- and long-terms. The book seeks to provide guidance for city leaders, businesses, policymakers and students of urban and regional planning on how to think about 21^st^ Century urban change. What makes a great city? Why do people and businesses still value urban life and buildings over a quiet life in the suburbs or countryside? Now might seem a difficult time to make the case for social contact in urban areas – so why is face-to-face contact still considered crucial to many 21st-century economies? In a look back over a century's-worth of thinking about cities, business and office locations, this accessible book explains their ongoing importance as places that thrive on face-to-face meetings, and in negotiating uncertainty and 'sealing the deal'. Using interviews with business leaders and staff from knowledge-intensive, innovation-rich industries, it argues for the continuing value of the 'right' location despite the information revolution, the penetration of artificial intelligence (AI), and the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explores why digital systems have transformed businesses in cities and towns, but in fact have changed surprisingly little about the challenges of business life. This timely book gives readers, including developers, investors, policy-makers and students of planning or geography, essential tools for thinking about the future of places ranging from market towns to great World Cities.|What makes a great city? Why do people and businesses still value urban life and buildings over a quiet life in the suburbs or countryside? Now might seem a difficult time to make the case for social contact in urban areas – so why is face-to-face contact still considered crucial to many 21st-century economies? In a look back over a century's-worth of thinking about cities, business and office locations, this accessible book explains their ongoing importance as places that thrive on face-to-face meetings, and in negotiating uncertainty and 'sealing the deal'. Using interviews with business leaders and staff from knowledge-intensive, innovation-rich industries, it argues for the continuing value of the 'right' location despite the information revolution, the penetration of artificial intelligence (AI), and the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explores why digital systems have transformed businesses in cities and towns, but in fact have changed surprisingly little about the challenges of business life. This timely book gives readers, including developers, investors, policy-makers and students of planning or geography, essential tools for thinking about the future of places ranging from market towns to great World Cities. What do cities do that suburbs or exurbs can't? Tracking more than a century's worth of thinking across infrastructures, markets, and changing technologies, this book drills down into the realities of modern city business life to explore why central places have come to dominate economic life in the 21st Century. COVID-19 has meant it's a difficult time to be putting the case for the importance of Face-to-Face, but the book outlines how it can help us--often in unobserved ways--to negotiate uncertainty and to 'seal the deal'. Using interviews with staff and business leaders from high-profile industries to bring it to life, the book argues for the value of the 'right' location during and after the pandemic, and explains why ICT has transformed both businesses, and our cities and towns, and yet also changed little about the underlying challenges of business life. This accessible book gives readers including developers, investors, and policy-makers essential tools for thinking about the future of places ranging from market towns to great World Cities Front Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table Of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- 1. The Story So Far -- 2. Moving Stuff Around -- 3. Making Markets -- 4. Doing Deals -- 5. Talking Shop -- 6. Let's Talk: Face-to-face Interaction Now -- 7. What, Then, For 21st-century Places? -- 8. And In The End ... -- Notes -- Image Credits -- Index -- Back Cover Jonathan Reades And Martin Crookston. Electronic Reproduction. Baltimore, Md Available Via World Wide Web.