‘Mega-Projects’ wins APSA ‘best book in urban politics’ award

The American Political Science Association (APSA) recently honored Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff’s “Mega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment” (Brookings Institution Press) with its “best book in urban politics” award for 2003.

Writing in the APSA journal Perspectives on Politics, Steven Erie, a member of the awards committee, called the book a “savvy and important study of the changing dynamics of major urban public investments since World War II.” Erie added that Altshuler and Luberoff “combine rich empirical studies of post World War II public entrepreneurship, both locally and nationally, for major urban transportation projects, with illuminating chapters on urban theory in relation to changing public investment strategies.” The result, Erie concluded, is a “major contribution to urban development policy and should attract a broad interdisciplinary scholarly audience, as well as urban policy-makers and stakeholders.”

Altshuler was named acting dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) this summer, and is a professor with joint appointments at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) and GSD. He is the former director of KSG’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the School’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. Luberoff, who is executive director of the Rappaport Institute, was the Taubman Center’s associate director and was an adjunct lecturer at GSD.