rom one of America's
most credible and visionary forecasters the first look at how the digital
revolution is changing where and how we live and work in the bricks-and-mortar
world. Historically unprecedented forces are at work buffeting cities, suburbs,
and towns across the country. In The New Geography, internationally renowned
economic and social-trend forecaster Joel Kotkin takes their first full measure.
Kotkin focuses on the digital revolution's surprising impact on cities: their
traditional role as the centers of creativity and the crossroads for trade and
culture is becoming ever more essential in a globalized information-age economy.
But there will be big winners and big losers among them, and Kotkin explains
which cities are best equipped to thrive and which are fated to decline. He also
identifies new species of communities: Nerdistans—high-end,
self-contained,
office park-oriented suburbs, built to be attractive to a certain class of
techie, and Valhallas, wealthy rural enclaves for information-age plutocrats.
The New Geography is a brilliant beachhead onto a subject that affects us
all.
