This paper explores relationships between the politics of urban competitiveness and popular media discourse about the 'good life' and 'good places'. Specifically, it focuses on the influence of popular 'best places to live' rankings on urban policy in three US cities. It addresses two issues: how and why similar policies are transferred from place to place; and, how 'extra-economic' factors are mobilised in formulating local economic development policy. It argues that the media's role in these processes is understudied and that its normative discourse is powerful and political. This argument is influenced by and illustrative of a recent attempt to locate the study of discursive power much more centrally in political economy approaches to urban studies.
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