Search Results

Interlocality Competition as a State Project: Urban Locational Policy and the Rescaling of State Space

Neil Brenner

in New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood

This chapter investigates the rescaled, growth-oriented, and competitiveness-driven forms of state spatial policy and urban governance that began to crystallize as of the late 1970s, in conjunction ... More

This chapter investigates the rescaled, growth-oriented, and competitiveness-driven forms of state spatial policy and urban governance that began to crystallize as of the late 1970s, in conjunction with widespread concerns about urban industrial decline, intensified interspatial competition, welfare state retrenchment, European integration, and economic globalization. It argues that during the 1980s and 1990s, these new urban locational policies served as key catalysts and expressions of broader processes of state rescaling; they also contributed to an enhanced geographical differentiation of state regulatory arrangements and to an intensification of uneven spatial development across western Europe.Less

Building Sustainable Historic Centres: A Comparative Approach for Innovative Urban Projects

Adriana Rabinovich and Andrea Catenazzi

in Urbanization and Development: Multidisciplinary Perspectives

Since the 1980s, the promotion of heritage values has gradually become a relevant issue for urban planning. The need to turn the historic centres into areas of development for the market, through ... More

Since the 1980s, the promotion of heritage values has gradually become a relevant issue for urban planning. The need to turn the historic centres into areas of development for the market, through legislative measures and investments in infrastructure and services, and the re-evaluation of the heritage value of existing buildings, oscillated between policies which, linked to the mechanisms of economic and cultural globalization, promoted tourism as a source of revenue while striving to find alternatives to gentrification.The goal of this chapter is to gain a better understanding of the major challenges of the rehabilitation of inner areas with heritage values within the framework of ‘innovative’ approaches to urban planning, aiming at promoting sustainable living conditions. The reflexion is based on the comparative and transdisciplinary analysis of the decision-making processes of concrete interventions in different cities of the world: Buenos Aires, La Havana, and Bangkok.Less

Urban Geopolitics, Neoliberalism, and the Governance of Security

Tony Roshan Samara

in Cape Town after Apartheid: Crime and Governance in the Divided City

This introductory chapter provides a background to the social forces and sets of relationships that outlines the contemporary urban governance in Cape Town. It talks about brutal gang wars linked to ... More

This introductory chapter provides a background to the social forces and sets of relationships that outlines the contemporary urban governance in Cape Town. It talks about brutal gang wars linked to drug trade and homeless people harassed by police or private security guards, which describe an approach to crime and urban renewal in Cape Town as a global phenomenon wherein cities become key sites of economic growth, conflict, and political governance. The chapter also illustrates how Cape Town is governed through a complex network in which local and global forces clash and combine to reproduce the fractured urban spaces inherited from apartheid.Less

Building partnerships in Spanish and Italian regeneration processes

Iván Tosics, Stephen Hall, Silvia Mugnano, Montserrat Pareja-Eastaway, and Teresa Tapada-Berteli

in Restructuring large housing estates in Europe: Restructuring and resistance inside the welfare industry

This chapter evaluates the role of partnership in housing-regeneration initiatives, focusing on four housing estates in Spain and Italy. It examines the theoretical issues related to governance, ... More

This chapter evaluates the role of partnership in housing-regeneration initiatives, focusing on four housing estates in Spain and Italy. It examines the theoretical issues related to governance, paying special attention to the implementation of the governance concept in the urban arena, and describes the specific practices of urban governance in the partnership process related to the four case-study estates. The chapter highlights the importance of the local dimension in relation to the mechanisms and strategies of building and maintaining partnerships.Less

Bogota: Building and Branding a Global City

Eduardo Moncada

in Cities, Business, and the Politics of Urban Violence In Latin America

Chapter abstract: This chapter shows that Bogota’s first participatory project in response to urban violence emerged out of the surprise electoral victory of Antanas Mockus to the mayor’s office. ... More

Chapter abstract: This chapter shows that Bogota’s first participatory project in response to urban violence emerged out of the surprise electoral victory of Antanas Mockus to the mayor’s office. Strong support from the city’s business community coupled with the atomized nature of armed territorial control with low lethal violence and limited coordination in criminal leadership sustained Bogota’s participatory project. A decade later the election to the mayor’s office of a political leftist, Luis Eduardo Garzón, generated tensions between local government and business regarding proposed amendments to the participatory project’s stance on public space and informal vendors. The chapter reveals how mutual dependence between the public and private sectors and overall alignment in preferences facilitated compromise on this issue while the continued atomized territorial control shielded the mayor against criticism. Today Bogota is considered a model of urban governance in the developing world.Less

Competitiveness, cohesion and urban governance

Martin Boddy and Michael Parkinson

in City matters: Competitiveness, cohesion and urban governance

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the programme for cities research in Great Britain. The findings indicate that the performance of different cities across the country ... More

This concluding chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the programme for cities research in Great Britain. The findings indicate that the performance of different cities across the country as a whole, measured in terms of growth or decline in population and employment, has changed little relative to one another over recent decades. The chapter also describes the relation among economic competitiveness, social cohesion, urban governance, and social capital.Less

The State Spatial Process under Capitalism: A Framework for Analysis

Neil Brenner

in New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood

This chapter elaborates the theoretical foundations for the analysis of state rescaling and urban governance restructuring that will be developed in subsequent chapters. It introduces some initial ... More

This chapter elaborates the theoretical foundations for the analysis of state rescaling and urban governance restructuring that will be developed in subsequent chapters. It introduces some initial methodological premises and categories through which the geographies of state space under modern capitalism may be analyzed. On this basis, it demonstrates how the issues of spatiality, territoriality, and geographical scale may be integrated, at a foundational level, into the conceptualization of modern statehood. Building upon the strategic-relational approach to state theory developed by Jessop (1990a), it argues that state space is best conceptualized as an arena, medium, and outcome of spatially selective political strategies. The chapter then extends this conceptualization by outlining some of the broad institutional and geographical parameters within which state space has evolved during the course of capitalist development. This line of analysis generates a multidimensional conceptual framework through which to investigate contextually specific pathways of state spatial restructuring. It also enables the introduction of a stylized model of state spatial restructuring in western Europe since the early 1960s, that serves to demarcate the theoretical and empirical terrain on which the remainder of this book is situated.Less

Environmental Governance

Marianne E. Krasny, Erika S. Svendsen, Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch, Johan Enqvist, and Alex Russ

Alex Russ and Marianne E. Krasny (eds)

in Urban Environmental Education Review

This chapter explores the relationship between environmental governance and urban environmental education. It first provides an overview of environmental governance and governance networks before ... More

This chapter explores the relationship between environmental governance and urban environmental education. It first provides an overview of environmental governance and governance networks before discussing research on the prevalence of organizations conducting environmental education in governance networks in Asian, European, and U.S. cities. It then offers suggestions on how environmental education organizations can be effective contributors in urban environmental governance and explains how the role of environmental education in governance can be made transparent to educators and participants. It argues that environmental education organizations are actors in urban governance networks and can play an important role in environmental governance. It also asserts that an explicit focus on governance will enable organizational leaders to target their partnerships and efforts to have a greater impact on urban sustainability and will enable youths and other participants to gain an understanding of critical concepts in environmental management and policy.Less

Faith and the voluntary sector in urban governance: distinctive yet similar?

Rachael Chapman

in Faith in the public realm: Controversies, policies and practices

This chapter examines the role of faith-based organisations in British urban governance from the 1990s onwards. It determines whether faith-based organisations have characteristics that set them ... More

This chapter examines the role of faith-based organisations in British urban governance from the 1990s onwards. It determines whether faith-based organisations have characteristics that set them apart from voluntary and community sector (VCS). The chapter begins with a short review of the policy and research context as it applies to faith and VCS engagement in urban governance and civil society. After discussing the definitional and conceptual issues, the chapter weighs the contributions and experiences of faith-based organisations against the contributions and experiences of secular VCS organisations in urban governance. Urban governance refers to the engagement of statutory and non-governmental partners in the creation and delivery of public policies and services in the creation and delivery of public policies and services. The chapter ends by arguing that there are several similarities in the general contribution and experiences of secular VCS organisations and faith-based organisations in this context. However, there are also differences to the extent and nature of links to a faith tradition.Less

Sharing Politics: The City as Public Realm

Duncan McLaren and Julian Agyeman

in Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities

Chapter 3 explores political and cultural dimensions of the sharing city. It discusses the centrality of urban spaces to political and protest movements such as the Arab Spring and Occupy; and how ... More

Chapter 3 explores political and cultural dimensions of the sharing city. It discusses the centrality of urban spaces to political and protest movements such as the Arab Spring and Occupy; and how such movements now equally depend on public cyberspace. It explores ways in which sharing can underpin democracy in practice, building social capital, supporting a healthy public realm, and challenging the hold of consumerism on identity. It focuses on communal forms of sharing, for example considering the role of collaborative leisure, and taking a close look at streetlife and other opportunities for the development of interculturalism. Finally it examines ways in which sharing is emerging in the practices of urban governance, highlighting key challenges to urban democracy in land ownership and taxation.Less

Framing the governance of urban space

Kevin Stenson

in Securing an urban renaissance: Crime, community, and British urban policy

This chapter explores some of the current tensions in the competing frames of interpretation and strategies of action concerning governance of urban space. It explains that these frames of ... More

This chapter explores some of the current tensions in the competing frames of interpretation and strategies of action concerning governance of urban space. It explains that these frames of interpretation underpin attempts to govern city life from above in the public interest. The chapter considers the way in which urban public space has assumed a contested terrain over which political debates have produced a sense of sovereignty.Less

Introduction: directly elected mayors in urban governance

David Sweeting

in Directly Elected Mayors in Urban Governance: Impact and Practice

This chapter opens the work by introducing directly elected mayors as political leaders in systems of urban government, and the expectations that are placed upon them. It identifies the core features ... More

This chapter opens the work by introducing directly elected mayors as political leaders in systems of urban government, and the expectations that are placed upon them. It identifies the core features of the directly elected mayor model, of direct election, of the creation of a single identifiable leader with a secure term of office, before discussing its advantages and disadvantages. Directly elected mayors are then placed in the context of urban governance, urbanization, and globalization. The chapter ends with a description of the other chapters that comprise the book.Less

Trust and Collaborative Governance

Marc J. Stern and Alexander Hellquist

Alex Russ and Marianne E. Krasny (eds)

in Urban Environmental Education Review

This chapter explores the relationship between urban environmental education programs and urban environmental governance in light of the “deliberative turn”—a shift away from “government” toward ... More

This chapter explores the relationship between urban environmental education programs and urban environmental governance in light of the “deliberative turn”—a shift away from “government” toward “governance,” including in urban planning and policy making, and the acceptance of stakeholder participation and dialogue as crucial elements in governance related to complex urban issues. The deliberative turn emphasizes the importance of public participation, attention to both purposive and inadvertent forms of exclusion, the value of dialogue among stakeholders, and the creation of an environment in which the distorting effects of power are diminished. The chapter examines “wicked” urban sustainability issues that call for collaborative governance based on deliberation and argues that urban environmental literacy should include an understanding of governance and skills related to productive deliberation. It also explains how an understanding of mechanisms for the development of trust can enhance the potential for constructive deliberation and collaborative governance.Less

Apartheid, Democracy, and the Urban Future

Tony Roshan Samara

in Cape Town after Apartheid: Crime and Governance in the Divided City

This chapter summarizes the study of urban governance in Cape Town, which emphasizes new mechanisms of social control under conditions of neoliberal democracy and unequal development. It provides a ... More

This chapter summarizes the study of urban governance in Cape Town, which emphasizes new mechanisms of social control under conditions of neoliberal democracy and unequal development. It provides a brief overview of the mechanisms in which policing and urban renewal in Cape Town is considered a part of a lineage of governance strategies immersed in unresolved social tensions that evolved over decades. The chapter also explains neoliberalism as a central and defining role in the organization of urban governance, pointing out the conflicts that neoliberalism reflected and regenerated.Less

The rise of a new urban technocracy

Federico Savini and Mike Raco

in Planning and Knowledge: How New Forms of Technocracy Are Shaping Contemporary Cities

This chapter discusses the rise of a new technocracy in urban governance. It further argues that the shift to a new technocracy is leading to the re-fashioning of planning's core objectives and ... More

This chapter discusses the rise of a new technocracy in urban governance. It further argues that the shift to a new technocracy is leading to the re-fashioning of planning's core objectives and purpose from an earlier focus on the value of input-centred forms of deliberation, place-making, and social justice to an enhanced concern with output-centred agendas premised on expedited development and growth. The rolling out of entrepreneurial planning requires the employment of new governance technologies, such as quantitative systems of managerialism and the implementation of a multiplicity of codifications and models that are used to define urban problems and their solutions. The rise of a new technocracy is also reflected and reproduced by the expansion of increasingly complex landscapes of knowledge production. This co-evolution has been given additional impetus as the presence of more technocratic modes of governance carries advantages for policymakers and governments struggling to maintain their wider legitimacy in contexts of growing crisis.Less

Leadership and partnership in urban governance: evidence from London, Bristol and Glasgow

David Sweeting, Robin Hambleton, Chris Huxham, Murray Stewart, and Siv Vangen

in City matters: Competitiveness, cohesion and urban governance

This chapter examines the importance of leadership and partnership in urban governance based on evidence in London, Bristol, and Glasgow in Great Britain. It explores the nature and operation of ... More

This chapter examines the importance of leadership and partnership in urban governance based on evidence in London, Bristol, and Glasgow in Great Britain. It explores the nature and operation of leadership, particularly in relation to partnership, an issue that is increasingly to the fore given the proliferation of partnership working in a wide range of urban initiatives. The chapter suggests that the mayoral model has the potential to provide autonomous local leadership, while the fragmented, multi-organisational model can result in weak leadership which is subservient to external policy influence and dominated by bureaucratic arrangements.Less