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Urban Governance (urban + governance)
Selected AbstractsURBAN GOVERNANCE AT THE NATIONALIST DIVIDE: COPING WITH GROUP-BASED CLAIMSJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2007SCOTT A. BOLLENS ABSTRACT:,This article examines how urbanism and local governance address group differences in cities of nationalistic conflict. I investigate four settings,Basque Country and Barcelona (Spain) and Sarajevo and Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina),that have experienced intergroup conflict, war, and major societal transformations. Findings come primarily from over 100 interviews with urban professionals (both governmental and nongovernmental), community officials, academics, and political leaders in these cities. I find that urban areas can constitute unique and essential peace-building resources that can be used to transcend nationalist divides. Urban interventions aimed at creating inter-group coexistence can play distinct roles in societal peace building and constitute a bottom-up approach that supplements and catalyzes top-down diplomatic peace-making efforts. I discuss why some cities play a progressive role in shaping new societal paths while others do not, how this peace-constitutive city function is actualized, and how this type of urbanism can be misplaced or neglected. [source] The Interface of Globalization and Peripheral Land in the Cities of the South: Implications for Urban Governance and Local Economic DevelopmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007RAMIN KEIVANI Abstract This essay examines the impact of globalization on land peripheral to large cities of the south. It identifies such land as providing major arenas for contested claims between the requirements of international firms and those of local inhabitants and businesses, entailing both threats and opportunities in terms of local economic development. Much depends on the urban governance and institutional processes surrounding the use and allocation of land that are themselves directly influenced by the globalization process. In many cities national, state or provincial governments have set up special parastatal organizations with substantial funding and significant decision-making powers over infrastructure development and land use to facilitate the rebirth of their cities as havens for international investment. In the process local municipalities and the local population are often excluded from the decision-making process, while being left to cope with the aftermath and maintenance of the grand projects. The essay identifies weaknesses in elite governance models usually centred at the state or national levels, and asks if a better alternative may be a local government-led ,inclusive leadership' model capable of clear leadership, greater coordination of different governance layers and inclusion of local actors. Résumé Cet essai étudie l'impact de la mondialisation sur les terrains situés à la périphérie des grandes villes du Sud. Il identifie ces terrains comme des scènes majeures de contradiction entre les besoins des multinationales et les revendications des entreprises et habitants locaux, ce qui créent à la fois menaces et opportunités en termes d'expansion économique locale. Le résultat dépend largement des processus institutionnels et de gouvernance urbaine qui entourent l'utilisation et l'affectation des terrains, processus eux-mêmes directement influencés par la mondialisation. Dans de nombreuses villes, les organes de gouvernement nationaux, étatiques ou provinciaux ont créé des entités para-étatiques spécialisées, dotées de fonds et de pouvoirs décisionnels considérables en matière d'aménagement des infrastructures et d'occupation des sols, afin de réinstaurer leur ville en terre d'accueil de l'investissement international. Or, les municipalités et populations locales sont souvent exclues du processus de décision alors qu'on les laisse assumer les conséquences et la maintenance des grands projets. L'article repère les faiblesses des modèles de gouvernance par les élites, généralement centrés aux niveaux de l'Etat ou de la nation, et se demande si un modèle de ,leadership inclusif' sous la houlette du gouvernement ne serait pas une meilleure alternative, permettant un leadership clair, une meilleure coordination des différentes strates de gouvernance et l'intégration des acteurs locaux. [source] Participatory Governance in Urban Management and the Shifting Geometry of Power in MumbaiDEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE, Issue 5 2009Marie-Hélène Zérah ABSTRACT This article questions the participatory dimension of urban governance in Mumbai. Based on surveys of a number of participatory projects for urban services, it compares the differentiated impacts of participation in middle-class colonies with those in slums. Results demonstrate that changing citizen,government relationships have led to the empowerment of the middle and upper middle class who harness the potential of new ,invited space' to expand their claims on the city and political space. In contrast, the poor end up on the losing side as NGOs function more as contracted agents of the State than as representatives of the poor. Direct community participation empowers influential community members, small private entrepreneurs and middlemen, and contributes to labour informalization. Ultimately, these processes consolidate a form of ,governing beyond the State' that promotes a managerial vision of participation and leads to double standards of citizenship. [source] Business Improvement Districts: Policy Origins, Mobile Policies and Urban LiveabilityGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2007Kevin Ward This article reviews the trans-nationalisation of Business Improvement Districts. It outlines the geographical and ideological origins of this much-heralded approach to downtown governance, and the means through which it has found itself in such diverse settings as Cape Town in South Africa, Kru,evac in Serbia and Liverpool in the UK. Analysing the emergence of Business Improvement Districts in terms of the external edges of the state and its internal architecture, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the context of discussions around urban liveability, this article reviews work across geography, planning, political science and sociology. It concludes by arguing that Business Improvement Districts are both interesting in their own right, for what they reveal about contemporary trans-national trends in urban governance, and for what they what they have to say about wider processes of neoliberal urbanisation. [source] Conflict, Collaboration and Climate Change: Participatory Democracy and Urban Environmental Struggles in Durban, South AfricaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010ALEX AYLETTArticle first published online: 28 JUN 2010 The South Durban Basin on the eastern coast of South Africa is home to both a large-scale petrochemical industry and a highly mobilized residential community. In a conflict cemented by apartheid-era planning, the community's campaigns to improve local air quality provide a test case for the value of conflict for participatory democratic structures. In the context of the work of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the South Durban Basin also provides an opportunity to push the boundaries of the established links between participation and the design and implementation of responses to a changing climate. Contributing to one of the main themes of the symposium, this article argues that the focus on collaboration and compromise within studies of governance and participation overlooks both the reality of conflict and its potentially positive effects. Addressing this requires particular attention to how power relationships influence processes of governance, and the role of civil society in balancing the influence of the private sector on the state. It also calls for a better understanding of conflict and collaboration as mutually re-enforcing elements of an ongoing and dynamic political process. Together, the elements of this critique help to build a more nuanced view of participatory urban governance: one that both better describes and may better facilitate the ability of urban populations to collectively, effectively and rapidly respond to the challenges of a changing climate. Résumé Le bassin Sud de Durban, situé sur la côte Est de l'Afrique du Sud, abrite à la fois un vaste secteur pétrochimique et une communauté résidentielle particulièrement mobilisée. Dans une lutte cimentée par un urbanisme datant de l'apartheid, les campagnes communautaires pour améliorer la qualité de l'air local testent la valeur de la lutte en faveur de structures démocratiques participatives. De plus, dans le cadre des travaux du Groupe d'experts intergouvernemental sur l'évolution du climat (GIEC), le bassin Sud de Durban offre une occasion de repousser les limites des liens établis entre la participation, d'une part, et l'élaboration et la mise en ,uvre de réponses au changement climatique, d'autre part. Contribuant à l'un des principaux thèmes du symposium, cet article montre que, compte tenu de leur focalisation sur la collaboration et le compromis, les études sur la gouvernance et la participation négligent la réalité de la lutte autant que ses effets positifs potentiels. Pour ce faire, il examine comment les relations de pouvoir modulent les processus de gouvernance ainsi que le rôle de la société civile visant àéquilibrer l'influence du secteur privé sur l'État. Il convient également de mieux appréhender lutte et collaboration comme des composantes qui se nourrissent mutuellement dans un processus politique permanent et dynamique. Les éléments de cette analyse critique, une fois réunis, aident àélaborer une vision plus nuancée de la gouvernance urbaine participative. Cette vision offre une meilleure description et peut faciliter l'aptitude des populations urbaines à réagir de façon collective, efficace et rapide aux défis du changement climatique. [source] The Importance of Being Connected.INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 20102005), City Networks, Eurocities (1990, Urban Government: Lyon Abstract The international dimension of cities and their role in inter-urban markets and inter-urban competition are now often studied and analysed from the perspective of public policy, urban planning or geography. Yet few studies highlight the political work that goes on in acquiring this dimension. Focusing on an inter-urban network such as Eurocities sheds light on this work and makes it possible to move away from an analysis of the Europeanization of cities in terms of centre and periphery. In this network, a horizontal form of Europeanization can be observed. The article examines this inter-urban network as an inter-urban configuration. The network is based on relationships between city councils, but due to a sort of cluster effect, it becomes more autonomous and , through resources as well as constraints , influences those relationships, indeed influences urban governance. Résumé La dimension internationale et la place des villes dans le marché et la compétition inter-urbaines sont aujourd'hui des objets bien étudiés à la fois en analyse de l'action publique, en urbanisme ou en géographie. Mais peu de travaux repèrent le travail politique à l',uvre pour acquérir cette dimension. Le détour par un réseau de villes comme Eurocités éclaire ce travail comme il permet de se défaire d'une analyse de l'européanisation des villes en termes de centre et de périphérie. C'est une européanisation horizontale qui est mise au jour à travers ce réseau. Le réseau de villes est ici saisi comme une configuration interurbaine: il repose sur des relations entre municipalités urbaines mais par un effet d'agrégation, le réseau gagne en autonomie et pèse ,à travers des ressources comme des contraintes , sur ces relations voire sur le gouvernement des villes. [source] Local Governance as Government,Business Cooperation in Western Democracies: Analysing Local and Intergovernmental Effects by Multi-Level ComparisonINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2008CLEMENTE J. NAVARRO YÁÑEZ Abstract The internationalization of economics and politics has forced local governments to develop new context-appropriate strategies; these strategies, characterized by a greater degree of interaction with non-governmental key actors and with the business world in particular, have been termed local or urban governance. This article is intended to illustrate the impact of three factors , local leadership, local political arenas and intergovernmental relationships , on the formation of cooperative networks between local governments and business organizations as one of the basic types of urban governance model. To achieve this, a comparative multi-level analysis presenting the CEO's perpective on such issues was conducted. The results show how local and intergovernmental opportunity costs and leadership are the factors that largely determine the degree of collaboration between local government and business. Résumé L'internationalisation de l'économie et de la politique a forcé les gouvernements locaux àélaborer de nouvelles stratégies en fonction des contextes ; caractérisées par une interaction plus forte avec des acteurs-clés non gouvernementaux et avec le monde de l'entreprise en particulier, ces stratégies ont reçu l'appellation de gouvernance locale ou urbaine. L'impact de trois facteurs , autorité locale, arènes politiques locales et relations intergouvernementales , sur la formation des réseaux de coopération entre gouvernements locaux et entreprises est présenté comme l'un des types essentiels de modèle de gouvernance urbaine. Pour ce faire, une analyse comparative multi-niveaux a été menée sur la vision des directions générales d'entreprises concernant ces questions. Les résultats montrent la manière dont les autorités et les coûts d'opportunité locaux et intergouvernementaux déterminent en grande partie le degré de collaboration entre les gouvernements locaux et le monde des affaires. [source] The Interface of Globalization and Peripheral Land in the Cities of the South: Implications for Urban Governance and Local Economic DevelopmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2007RAMIN KEIVANI Abstract This essay examines the impact of globalization on land peripheral to large cities of the south. It identifies such land as providing major arenas for contested claims between the requirements of international firms and those of local inhabitants and businesses, entailing both threats and opportunities in terms of local economic development. Much depends on the urban governance and institutional processes surrounding the use and allocation of land that are themselves directly influenced by the globalization process. In many cities national, state or provincial governments have set up special parastatal organizations with substantial funding and significant decision-making powers over infrastructure development and land use to facilitate the rebirth of their cities as havens for international investment. In the process local municipalities and the local population are often excluded from the decision-making process, while being left to cope with the aftermath and maintenance of the grand projects. The essay identifies weaknesses in elite governance models usually centred at the state or national levels, and asks if a better alternative may be a local government-led ,inclusive leadership' model capable of clear leadership, greater coordination of different governance layers and inclusion of local actors. Résumé Cet essai étudie l'impact de la mondialisation sur les terrains situés à la périphérie des grandes villes du Sud. Il identifie ces terrains comme des scènes majeures de contradiction entre les besoins des multinationales et les revendications des entreprises et habitants locaux, ce qui créent à la fois menaces et opportunités en termes d'expansion économique locale. Le résultat dépend largement des processus institutionnels et de gouvernance urbaine qui entourent l'utilisation et l'affectation des terrains, processus eux-mêmes directement influencés par la mondialisation. Dans de nombreuses villes, les organes de gouvernement nationaux, étatiques ou provinciaux ont créé des entités para-étatiques spécialisées, dotées de fonds et de pouvoirs décisionnels considérables en matière d'aménagement des infrastructures et d'occupation des sols, afin de réinstaurer leur ville en terre d'accueil de l'investissement international. Or, les municipalités et populations locales sont souvent exclues du processus de décision alors qu'on les laisse assumer les conséquences et la maintenance des grands projets. L'article repère les faiblesses des modèles de gouvernance par les élites, généralement centrés aux niveaux de l'Etat ou de la nation, et se demande si un modèle de ,leadership inclusif' sous la houlette du gouvernement ne serait pas une meilleure alternative, permettant un leadership clair, une meilleure coordination des différentes strates de gouvernance et l'intégration des acteurs locaux. [source] From the Politics of Urgency to the Governance of Preparedness: A Research Agenda on Urban VulnerabilityJOURNAL OF CONTINGENCIES AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2005Will Medd To date, little social science understanding has been developed about what it would mean to strategically build resilience in the context of such rich interdependencies between social, technical and natural worlds. We argue that shifts in strategies to deal with urban crises marks a turn from the politics of urgency, characteristic of crisis management, towards a governance of preparedness, characterised by strategies to build urban resilience. Social science needs to develop research agendas that critically engage with different understandings of resilience and the challenges of building resilience across different scales of urban governance. [source] From social networks to public action in urban governance: where does benefit accrue?JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 7 2001Jo Beall The key question addressed in this paper is in what ways strategies at the community level make a difference to urban governance and for whom? The research on which it draws was concerned with two issues of relevance. The first was what poor people and communities do for themselves when city governments are unable or unwilling to extend resources to them. The second was to understand the institutional relationships, both formal and informal, between people in poverty and the organizations of city governance. In addition to local government, business and NGOs, these are understood to include associations of mutuality and community level organizations, particularly households, social networks, and political and developmental CBOs (see also Beall and Kanji, 1999). Drawing on research conducted in the nine case study cities, evidence of local level networks and associational life is examined to assess where benefits accrue when they are harnessed in the interests of city governance. These are very different cities and livelihood strategies and patterns of public action and urban governance are undoubtedly context-specific. However, patterns emerge that are comparable and worthy of comment. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND URBAN PROBLEM SOLVING: THE CHANGING CIVIC ROLE OF BUSINESS LEADERS IN AMERICAN CITIESJOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2010ROYCE HANSON ABSTRACT:,Our concern in this article is corporate civic elite organizations and their role in social production and urban policy in the United States. Recent urban literature has suggested that the power and influence of CEO organizations has declined and that there has been some disengagement of corporate elites from civic efforts in many urban areas. Yet while these trends and their likely consequences are generally acknowledged, relatively little empirical research has been conducted on the nature and extent of the shifts in corporate civic leadership and on how these shifts have affected the civic agendas of central cities and metropolitan regions. In this study we obtain data from 19 large metropolitan areas in order to more systematically examine shifts in corporate civic leadership and their consequences. Our results suggest that the institutional autonomy, time, and personal connections to the central cities of many CEOs have diminished and that the civic organizations though which CEOs work appear to have experienced lowered capacity for sustained action. These trends suggest that while many CEOs and their firms will continue to commit their time and their firms' slack resources to civic enterprises, the problems they address will differ from those tackled in the past. We discuss the important implications these shifts have for the future of corporate civic engagement in urban problem solving and for the practice of urban governance. [source] The Completely Decentralized City: The Case for Benefits Based Public FinanceAMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2001Fed E. Foldvary An alternative to centralized top-down city governance is a multi-level bottom-up structure based on small neighborhood contractual communities. This paper analyzes the voting rules and public finances of decentralized, contractual urban governance and the likely outcome of such a constitutional structure, substantially reduced transfer seeking or rent seeking. Tax and service substitution, with lower-level funding and services substituting for higher-level public finance, is the general process by which the governance would devolve. Land rent is the most feasible source of such decentralized public finance, and local communities could also engage in local currency and credit services. Some empirical examples demonstrate the implementation of some of these governance structures. [source] In search of a governance institution model for Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA) under Indonesia's new decentralisation policy: old problems, new challengesPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2008Tommy Firman Abstract This study explores a possible governance model for Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA) under Indonesia's new Decentralisation Policy. At present the management of JMA development is coordinated by Badan Koordinasi Pembangunan Jabodetabekjur (BKSP) ,Coordinating Board for JMA Development, but this agency is ineffective and powerless to perform its tasks because of lack of authority and power. The establishment of JMA governance model should take into account the existence of the BKSP which has been politically accepted by all provincial and local governments in the region. Involvement of central government in JMA governance is very important. A mixed model of urban governance is most suitable for the JMA. Thereunder the central government should have authority to plan and develop major physical infrastructure for the whole JMA, while the provincial and local governments retain their respective general administrative functions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||