Urban American and urban Western Europe: are they different? / Intra- and intermetropolitan area change: evidence and strategies: Contrasting strategies for the economic development of Metropolitan areas in the United States and Western Europe / Priorities in urban and economic development / Patterns and processes of employment and population decentralization in the United States / Some causes of Western European patterns of urban change / The dynamics of metropolitan area change: theory and evidence: What makes metropolitan areas grow? / The metropolitan area in its wider setting / Networking strategies as a factor in urban decentralization / Regional changes in urban and metropolitan population in the United States / Urban decentralization processes in Western Europe / Implications of metropolitan change: Fiscal consequences for U.S. central cities of the changing urban form / The structure of local public finance and the quality of life in the United States / Over the horizon: jobs in the suburbs of major metropolitan areas / The role of government: National assistance to urban areas in the United States / Technology development programs, intergovernmental relations, and balanced regional growth / Decentralization and residential choices in European cities: the roles of state and market / The urban life cycle and the role of a market-oriented revitalization policy in Western Europe / Decentralization in the United States and the United Kingdom: commonalities in the evidence / A postscript: Exurbia or Islington?