Peter Karl Kresl Photo/ Provided to NBD

Regional Studies Association (RSA) Annual Conference for 2023 was held on June14-17 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and NBD Think Tank's overseas expert, Peter Karl Kresl, also president of Global Urban Competitiveness Project (GUCP) and emeritus professor of Economics of Bucknell University of America, won "Best Book" Award 2023 of RSA with his book The City and Quality of Life.

Regional studies (sometimes called "district studies" in America) is a cross-discipline study focusing on research of regional government, such as development between city and region, urbanization, economic inequality and immigration problem. It’s not only a multi-national study, but also one that crossing many disciplines like geography, economics, sociology and planning. Founded in 1965, RSA is an institution organized by scholars, policy-makers and related researchers, which enjoys great prestige in the research of city and region. RSA has several academic periodicals, providing various platforms for scholars to publish their academic achievements and making them known to more scholars from the world.

The City and Quality of Life is published by British publisher Edward Elgar Publishing, deeply analyzing the importance of “quality of life”, which has been a key part of urban competitiveness for over past 30 years, towards a city with unique insights. Kresl believes that the level of “quality of life” has enormous influence on any city.

Book cover of The City and Quality of Life Photo/ Provided to NBD

Throughout the book, emphasis is placed upon the skilled, highly mobile and generally younger labour force who choose the city in which they want to work and live based on the ‘quality of life’ elements offered to them. Consequently, there is mounting pressure on today’s cities and the firms in their economies to create environments that are attractive to the new-age of the workforce and the key resource in the economy. The book's eight substantive chapters explore this issue by each examining a distinct element that comprises ‘quality of life’, including the approach of economists to quality of life, links to urban competitiveness, the economy, urban amenities and attributes.

Providing an original perspective on contemporary cities and their economies, The City and Quality of Life will be essential reading for city and company leaders who implement policy and wish to further understand the attributes of ‘quality of life’ for their citizens. It will also be useful for researchers, university professors and students in disciplines such as economics and finance, geography and urban studies.