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European governments are tending to perceive cities as sites of renewed economic dynamism and physical renaissance, and as places that can help to resolve social and environmental challenges. The paper presents three propositions for why the fortunes of cities in advanced economies may have improved. It then offers evidence from across Western Europe to assess whether they have done so, both in comparison with their past trajectories and in relation to smaller urban and rural areas. One finding is that cities in aggregate have experienced continued prosperity rather than decline and revival or accelerated growth. Another is that their overall position relative to smaller settlements does not seem to have changed greatly. Looking in more detail, however, there is more evidence of resurgence, as well as the opposite. National variations seem important and cities in Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Britain and Spain show signs of substantial economic improvement over the last decade. In contrast, cities in Germany have experienced a marked slowdown, albeit from a position of comparative prosperity at the outset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indicators of subjective well-being have gained only limited acceptance as tools for the social-scientific analysis of human welfare, mainly because they seem insensitive to variations in the socio-economic context. However, this apparent insensitivity has been established by research which has been limited in various ways. Using data on life satisfaction for 33 European societies which goes some way to transcending these limits, this paper identifies linkages between subjective well-being and socio-economic conditions which are both strong and suggestive of important insights about national and cross-national relativities in human welfare. Populations in the rich parts of Europe have high and relatively equal life satisfaction, while those in the poorer parts of Europe have low and unequal life satisfaction. Social inequalities within rich European societies seem to have little effect on life satisfaction but they have significant effects within poor European societies. Inequalities between European societies also have strong effects. These findings suggest that analysis of inequalities and relativities in welfare in purely national terms is insufficient. Greater weight needs to be given to cross-national relativities , since these are much more consistent with what otherwise seem to be puzzling variations in subjective well-being across and within countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]