Metropolitan Policy Research Articles

Who Wants to Become a Role Model? Personal Narratives of Success and Internal Dynamics of Change in Nairobi’s Ghettos

Abstract This article contributes to an understanding of the internal dynamics of change in Nairobi’s ghettos (Kenya). Spaces of relegation for the urban poor, referred to by our interlocutors as “ghettos”, are often portrayed either as objects of international interventionism or as deprived areas neglected by national or metropolitan policies. We argue that social and material change in these spaces can be conceptualised at the interface between personal narratives of change and the structural urban dynamics at play. Using qualitative methods of individual narratives, we examine in particular how individuals identified as successful by those around them, born and raised in Nairobi’s marginalised neighbourhoods, construct their self trajectories as role models to invest themselves as vectors of change within their “ghetto”. Drawing on literature that focuses on the power of personal and collective narratives of social change, we explore how they perform their narrative and transform it into a “narrative capital”. This way, they contribute to the production of a narrative that is partially detached from external developmentalist imperatives, emphasising the importance of intergenerational links as a driving force for change, as well as the links that the ghetto maintains with its immediate urban environment.

A study of the effects and mechanisms of the digital economy on high-quality tourism development: evidence from the Yangtze River Delta in China

ABSTRACT This paper discussed the spatial effects and influence mechanisms of the digital economy on high-quality tourism development in the Yangtze River Delta. It is found that the digital economy promoted high-quality tourism development with a spatial diffusion effect. The digital economy of cities in metropolitan and adjacent area contributed to high-quality tourism development. In non-metropolitan and non-adjacent areas, the lack of core city leadership and support of metropolitan policy are important factors that hinder the functioning of digital economy. Mediation effect model shows that the digital economy could drive high-quality tourism development by improving government efficiency and expanding market potential.

Regionalism from above: intergovernmental relations in Canadian metropolitan governance

Robust metropolitan governance is increasingly viewed as necessary to address important economic, social and environmental problems. In this context, this article surveys recent developments in Canadian metropolitan governance. Canada was admired in the post-war period for the effectiveness of its two-tier and unitary metropolitan governments; however, few survive today as urbanisation patterns have become increasingly polycentric and intergovernmental relations more conflictual. Three models have emerged in Canada, sometimes in combination with one another: the multi-purpose regional intergovernmental organisation, the single-purpose metropolitan agency, and the provincial metropolitan policy overlay. Examples of each are discussed, with an emphasis on the interplay of horizontal (intermunicipal) and vertical (provincial–municipal) intergovernmental relations. Ultimately, provincial governments are by virtue of their constitutional authority and spending power the only actors capable of establishing and maintaining durable institutions and policies of metropolitan scope, and they have chosen to do so in Canada’s largest and most urbanised provinces.

The strategic-relational formation of regional and metropolitan scales: studying two Polish regions undergoing transformation

ABSTRACT This paper aims to capture a given spatio-temporal fix in the regional and metropolitan formation processes within two Polish regions: Lubelskie and Silesia. The strategic–relational approach (SRA) to the state analysis was adopted to discern the key elements of regional and metropolitan discourses. The wide SRA framework allows us to situate these discourses within formal and substantive dimensions of both scales, and then – using the territory–place–scale–networks (TPSN) framework – to connect them to the other aspects of socio-spatial relations. The selected regions occupy a special place within regional policy in Poland and discourse at a national level due to structural problems within their territories. Therefore, different actors have identified the need for thorough regional transformations. In turn, they should be analysed in the context of the state transformation, which began in Poland in 1989, with its currently unknown direction when it comes to the modes of regional and metropolitan policies. The results of the research prove that specific actors adopt regionally different strategies, aiming at pursuing their own goals as well as supporting regional raison d’états. At the same time, however, it is difficult to indicate evidence of political rescaling concerning the transfer of tasks and resources to the regional scale, except for its strengthening resulting from the implementation of European Union funds, which can be considered in terms of governance or meta-governance failure. The ‘stewards of hope’ image has been assigned in this context to new metropolitan-scale institutions.

Challenges in the management of urban natural protected area systems and the conservation of ecosystem services in Guadalajara and Monterrey, Mexico

The manuscript analyses the importance of the integrated management of urban and ecological systems to achieve sustainable development from the perspective of various social actors linked to natural protected areas (NPAs) located in urban contexts. The literature has mainly taken an urban planning perspective; however, fewer studies have been conducted on the environmental governance processes and collective actions carried out by governmental and non-governmental actors to achieve management integrated at the territorial and institutional levels. The objective of the manuscript is to study the collective actions and proposals carried out by strategic social actors linked to the management of urban NPA systems in Guadalajara and Monterrey, Mexico, to solve the many problems they are facing. An exploratory mixed-methods study was conducted to analyse the perceptions of 64 governmental and non-governmental actors concerning the challenges they face in the conservation of urban NPA systems and ecosystem services that they provide. The initiatives of strategic actors regarding the metropolitan management of NPA systems were analysed and combined with proposed hypothetical green belts that integrate urban NPA systems. A multitemporal analysis of land use and vegetation changes was carried out in combination with a study of the political-administrative structure of metropolitan areas with regard to the interconnection among NPAs. The results indicate that strategic actors perceive the following: (1) metropolitan management is necessary to achieve the comprehensive management of territory and NPA conservation; (2) to do so requires cross-cutting or intersectoral policies from a metropolitan perspective; and (3) the participation of non-governmental actors is indispensable in generating information and innovative ideas to establish decision-making processes and democratic and participatory urban planning institutions. This research seeks to provide useful findings for decision makers and those in charge of public policy in the implementation of sustainable urban and metropolitan policies.

Mayors’ attention to metropolitan policy: exploring communication and engagement patterns in Rockford, Illinois

ABSTRACT Mayors are important intergovernmental actors. Understanding how they conceptualize their roles in intergovernmental relations can help us better understand metropolitan governance. Network institutionalism and institutional role theory frame this investigation of how mayors discuss their metropolitan policy engagement in the Rockford, Illinois, USA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Through an exploratory case study of this mid-sized American metropolitan region, including in-depth interviews, social network analysis, and review of media coverage, embeddedness in metropolitan-wide policy dialogue is contrasted with clique-based interactions that advance policy goals for smaller groups of local governments in the region. Differentiating how mayors participate in metropolitan intergovernmental relations aids in a refined theoretical understanding of polycentric metropolitan governance while also highlighting practical challenges for political leaders in metropolitan collective action.

Determinants of Policy Diffusion in Brazil and the U.S.

This paper comparatively examines two highly decentralized federations, namely Brazil and the United States (U.S.) The study uses a combination of methods to determine which mechanisms explain the spread of metropolitan regions (Brazil) and the growth of the statewide smoking ban (U.S.) among state governments over the 1990s and 2000s. It uses Weibull distribution and Cox regression to measure the time until events occur and to estimate the influence of a variety of factors on the likelihood of two policies being adopted. I find evidence of electoral-year drive policy diffusion in both countries. In Brazil, a key structural variable associated with internal determinants stimulated metropolitan policy adoptions. In the U.S., structural factors – linked with citizen ideology – enhance the probability of enacting smoke-free laws.

Book review of: Fricke, Carola (2020): European Dimension of Metropolitan Policies. Policy Learning and Reframing of Metropolitan Regions

Book Review

The Europeanization of metropolitan regions from below: Comparing the European engagement of two archetypical metropolises

Since the early 2000s, the Europeanization of metropolitan regions from below takes place in a political process with variable geometry and differential intensity. While ‘the metropolitan’ as a political label and research topic has witnessed an impressive upswing in Europe, a concrete understanding of the Europeanization of metropolitan regions is still missing. This article highlights and explains the Europeanization of metropolitan regions in Europe as particular subnational authorities of which only a small group of forerunners recently develop the capacity to act at a European scale. The Europeanization of metropolitan regions is conceptualized as a political process from below, going beyond the initial definition of Europeanization as domestic impact. Thereby, the article lays particular focus on ‘where’ and ‘when’ the European dimension of metropolitan regions is produced. Moreover, the analysis puts the emerging European engagement of metropolitan regions into a larger perspective by discussing it in the context of the increasing international agency of cities. The article questions, first, how a European dimension has developed in metropolitan policies and, second, what modes of engagement contribute to the metropolitan regions’ increasing Europeanization. Empirically, the metropolitan regions of Lyon and Stuttgart present examples of Europeanized metropolises with an exceptional engagement. Comparing modes of engagement in these two metropolitan regions allows understanding the particular characteristics contributing to the formation of an archetype of Europeanized metropolis.

Władze regionalne w zarządzaniu metropolitalnym. Polskie doświadczenia w odniesieniu do Kanady i regionu metropolitalnego Toronto = Regional authorities in metropolitan governance. Polish experience in the context of Canada and Toronto city-region

The article attempts to present dilemmas related to shaping metropolitan policy in Canada, and then relate them to problems occurring in Poland. It is a part of the debate on seeking the right governance configurations and discourses in response to the communities’ needs. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the scales of governance and socio-spatial relations in the Toronto metropolitan area. The article has been divided into four main parts. Part one outlines the theoretical framework and the context of the conducted analyses. Part two describes the structures and processes of regional and metropolitan governance in Southern Ontario, with the earlier reference to the institutional conditions and directions of reforms characteristic of the whole of Canada. Part three of the study concerns the governance arrangements that may constitute important reference points for the scientific and political discourse taking place in Poland. Part four is an attempt to capture the similarities and universal premises that have a decisive influence on the processes of forming metropolitan structures and policies, both in Canada and in Poland. The assumption was made that, despite different historical and socio-cultural conditions, comparing Canadian and Polish experiences is justified, necessary and possible. Firstly, due to the reason that socio-spatial relations in various territorial systems are subject to the same development processes and the accompanying processes of transformation and adaptation. Secondly, residents (members of local, metropolitan, regional, national and supranational communities) have similar needs and expect a high quality of life. Decision-makers and actors of political scenes in different geographical spaces have (or may have) the same technologies, ways of information processing, access to knowledge and knowledge of socio-economic processes. They also face challenges related to the inclusion of citizens in decision-making processes. The analysis of metropolitan processes in both countries emphasizes the differences resulting from various historical and economic contexts of development and also makes it possible to identify universal mechanisms and regularities independent of these contexts. The practice of metropolitan policy proves that the process of re-territorialization of power structures and governance is shaped as a resultant of the impact of forces and interests at all levels of territorial authorities: central, regional and local. Based on the analysis of the processes of the formation of metropolitan structures in Canada and Poland, it can be stated that the rank and position of regional authorities play a key role in it. In Canada, strong regional authorities initiate actions for the shaping of metropolitan structures and formulate the scope of their competence and organization. The importance of central authorities for the dynamics of metropolitan processes is secondary in this case. The weakness of regional authorities in Poland leads to the inability to give metropolitan processes the dynamics of development and the legislative rank adequate for the role played by urban regions in the socio-economic development of the country. As evidenced by the example of Toronto, the evolution of the governance system in practice initiates the process of self-learning the system which goes from one to another phase of development, improving the quality of its operation. In Poland, however, the process of creation of governance structures adequate for realistically existing functional metropolitan areas has been stopped, notably, due to the unfavourable political decisions at the central level.

Urban Growth and Environmental Concerns: The Venture of the Greater Mexico City Metropolitan Area

During the second half of the twentieth century, Mexico City, the country’s capital, exhibited unprecedented demographic growth and physical expansion involving numerous local government jurisdictions transcending the historical city limits. The resulting spatial distribution of population and location of economic activities in a complex metropolitan structure generated direct and indirect pressures on the Mexico Valley environment and beyond. Comprising the metropolitan area, a set of weak municipalities impose an apparent insurmountable barrier to transcend roles and a traditional institutional structure. Most, if not all, metropolitan municipalities have shown limited capabilities to respond to what seems to be the cross‐cutting character of these trends that require coordinated multisectorial and multiscale management solutions. This article analyzes the impact of those processes and explores the scope (challenges and opportunities) of urban and environmental metropolitan policy responses.

La transition du paradigme de la politique culturelle de la France : de la démocratisation culturelle, la démocratie culturelle au developpement de la ville

In France, policy begins to take on a different meaning from the Popular Front government in the 1930s. This leftist government emphasizes the politics of the vulgarization of culture, a reserved for the bourgeoisie or to the nobility. In 1959, the Ministry of Culture was created and Andre Marlaux, Minister of Culture, rushed to embody his ideas on culture, the democratization of culture whose goal is to make everyone love culture. This policy, soon criticized for its spirit of elitism emphasizing the art and of the fine arts, is replaced (or supplemented) by the cultural in the 1980s. This policy of democracy supports the idea of citizen participation in the field either as spectators, as an artist, or even as an organizer. But following the decentralization of the 1980s, the deregulation and the globalization that happened in the 1990s, the state gradually lost control over the field. The process of “desetatisation” of the took place and it is then the cities, armed with a powerful theory, creative city, which start to structure the governance. The paradigm of French policy is beginning to change. This article aims to examine the evolution of French policy and analyze important elements causing this change, from the democratization of culture to cultural democracy, then to the metropolitan policy.

The Mountain Metropolis’s Land Design Project. Grenoble, from Plain to Slope

Mountains are both an intangible geomorphological condition of and a structuring identity marker for a good number of activities in the Grenoble region. And yet, they stand out because of their absence from metropolitan policies. Such an absence calls the Grenoble metropolis project and its cultural basis into question – all the more so because the ambition “to assert its status as a mountain metropolis” and “to rethink its relationship with the mountains and their slopes in all its aspects and specificities” is an objective that is clearly stated in the planning documents. A careful reading of these documents reveals that the image of the mountains, as used therein, has not escaped the concepts imposed by modernity: they are presented as a nature reserve to be preserved, an emblem to showcase and a recreational activity area surrendered to tourism. Beyond what can only be described as a functionalist vision of an Alpine city, that is, a view that considers the mountains merely as objects among many others, what urban planning activities have actually been rolled out? What do they tell us about the representations of this “mountain metropolis” under construction, its narrativisation and its goal? And more generally, what do they teach us about the direction that the processes are taking and about our conception of the landscape? We propose to answer these questions by making use of the work that has resulted from the many urban project workshops held at the Urban Planning and Alpine Geography Institute (IUGA), as well as the notion of “progetto di suolo” (land design project) that Italian urban planner Bernardo Secchi developed in the 1990s.

Educação profissional e religiosa: a experiência jesuítica no Rio Grande colonial

A experiência jesuítica no Brasil apresenta diversas nuances e narrativas que descrevem a relação do jesuíta com índio, com o colono e as ações decorrentes desse contato, tudo como reflexo de uma política metropolitana e suas adaptações na Colônia. O principal agente dessa política era o jesuíta, aliado da Coroa e representante da Igreja. O jesuíta passava por uma preparação profissional meticulosa nos Colégios antes da experiência missional que produzia um verdadeiro gestor, aliando a necessidade espiritual e material num mesmo ser. Apresenta- se, nesse trabalho, dois papéis – religioso e artesão – desempenhados pelos jesuítas para atingir o objetivo da catequização. Para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa, utilizam-se referências que discutem a presença dos jesuítas no Brasil tanto observando o intuito espiritual, bem como a importância dos trabalhos manuais para a aproximação e fixação das populações indígenas nas missões. Entende-se que toda a preparação anterior à experiência colonial pode ser enquadrada no conceito de educação profissional, visto que o missionário era treinado durante sua formação para a execução do trabalho com os nativos. Apresentam-se fontes documentais produzidas pelos jesuítas sobre a sua experiência e análises produzidas por estudiosos locais. O espaço de estudo é o Rio Grande colonial e as narrativas decorrentes da vivência nessa localidade, portanto o objetivo desse trabalho é contribuir para a ampliação do entendimento da História da Educação no Rio Grande. Os resultados ainda são incipientes, visto que a pesquisa é nova e ainda está na etapa de mapeamento de dados mais específicos.

‘Who governs’ Berlin’s metropolitan region? The strategic-relational construction of metropolitan scale in Berlin–Brandenburg’s economic development policies

‘Who governs’ Berlin’s metropolitan region—and how? The article addresses this question by inquiring into the way metropolitan space is being constituted in current economic development policies for Berlin–Brandenburg. It follows the hypothesis that no single-unitary understanding of metropolitan space exists in Berlin as expression of an explicit metropolitan project, but rather a heteronomy of policy practices which express diverse and possibly competing ‘implicit’ metropolitan issues and agendas. Accordingly, rescaling in the Berlin metropolitan region is not occurring in a comprehensive political–institutional form, as an ‘explicit project’. The more significant, however, is that rescaling is occurring—as an ‘implicit project’—through policy and governance practices which constitute a variety of understandings of metropolitan space. Metropolitan space appears therefore as an emerging construct defined by strategic-relational interplays between public and private actors and by the selective involvement of their interests and resources in the domain of specific spatial-economic development policies. Analyzing the construction of metropolitan space within specific policy arenas therefore offers a significant perspective on ‘who governs’ metropolitan development and on how this is possibly tied to the emergence of hegemonic understandings of scalar references for metropolitan policies.

La pêche à la morue des Français d'Amérique du Nord de 1500 à 1763 : un atout dans la géopolitique française

The sedentary fishery of the French residing in North America became an element of support for France’s imperial metropolitan policy as it established claims on disputed fishing areas. As a result, France engaged in a strategy of appropriation of the New World – a policy affirmed diplomatically by Francois I and defended by his successors. This article establishes how the colonial sedentary fishery helped lead to the appropriation of the New World by France until this fishery was abandoned at the end of the French Regime.

Gobernanza metropolitana en México: instituciones e instrumentos

AbstractMetropolization is a global trend that results from a scale adjustment process in the context of globalization. The fragmentation inherent to metropolis always raises problems for intergovernmental coordination. This paper analyzes the existing institutional structures at the macro level in Mexico and from them the type of intergovernmental relations and the capacity for coordinating policies and sharing resources for metropolitan planning and management. The argument is that the unusual magnitude of transformations that Mexican cities have experienced have not been problematized from a metropolitan governance perspective but until very recently. Thus, the reforms undertaken since 1976 have come slowly from deep-rooted thinking logics that allows few spaces for innovation and always insufficiently, especially from the perspective of the instruments to seek a greater and more effective coordination of planning and implementation of metropolitan policies. One conclusion is that although the new General Law on Human Settlements, Urban Planning and Urban Development enacted in November 2016 represents a step forward towards metropolitan integration it will not unleash intergovernmental collaboration on its own. Better designed instruments are to be developed in order to produce the necessary incentives to achieve the agreements that constitute the cement of the collaboration envisioned by the law itself. The article ends with a proposal for a research agenda on these issues.

Inventing Grand Paris: metropolitan planning history and its valorization

ABSTRACTPlanning of the Paris Region has a long history that began a century ago in conjunction with the global development of metropolitan planning policies. In 2013, a group of scholars working on the planning history of the Paris Region launched a series of four two-day annual international conferences entitled ‘Inventer le Grand Paris/Inventing Grand Paris’, which were held each December from 2013 to 2016. These conferences sought to expand the knowledge about the planning history of the Paris Region as well as to develop international comparative studies. This initiative was a reaction to the lack of historical depth in the discourse of the main actors of the Grand Paris planning process. It also sought to assemble for the first time and complete the historical research on the overall planning of the greater region, connecting it with research on other metropolitan planning histories. Beyond the conferences, a new website opened in June 2017 giving access to the proceedings but also providing a platform for sharing new historical material and research on this subject.

Metropolitan Regions as a Changing Policy Concept in a Comparative Perspective

In Europe, metropolitan policies emerge in a multi-scalar system of supranational, national and regional scales. Besides national policies on metropolitan issues, more and more European policies address metropolitan regions. They propose varying attributes of what characterizes a metropolitan region, for instance, defining them as functional and statistical areas, or as nodes for European spatial development. These conceptualizations of metropolitan regions have implications for institutional forms of metropolitan governance. However, existing research has not yet comparatively explored the development of metropolitan concepts in national and supranational policy contexts. This paper compares the changing concepts of metropolitan regions in the European Union, France and Germany. It raises the question of how different policies conceptualize metropolitan regions. Thereby, the paper proposes a comparative perspective on concepts in policies addressing metropolitan regions, such as policy documents, planning strategies, regulations or reports. It analyses shifts in metropolitan policies by describing the change of concepts and the reference to frames of spatial development such as polycentricity, competitiveness or integrated development. Three analytical perspectives contribute to understanding the change of metropolitan policies. First, the comparison of concepts in different national and supranational policy contexts develops an understanding of metropolitan regions beyond national specificities. Second, a historical comparison contributes to understanding changes in metropolitan concepts since the late 1990s. And third, analysing the development of metropolitan policies comparatively explores similarities of concepts and frames between policy contexts, despite differences in institutional settings.

The Weight of Necessity: Counterfeit Coins in the British Atlantic World, circa 1760–1800

Though ubiquitous in the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world, counterfeit coins have received little scholarly attention. This article reconstructs the imperial trade in counterfeit foreign coin in the latter half of the eighteenth century, a time when British and American merchants, ship captains, and even officials strategically exported bad coin to the Caribbean, profiting from the region's heterogeneous money supply and rapidly shifting economic and political conditions. Examining the counterfeit trade from Rhode Island to Jamaica in the 1770s and then from Birmingham to the eastern Caribbean in the 1790s highlights the trade's size, persistence, complexity, and eventual expansion from a colonial commerce to a metropolitan industry. Colonial governors', the Board of Trade's, and eventually Parliament's fraught attempts to demonetize bad coin reveal how embedded counterfeits were in economic life. Caribbean residents used bad coins in ways that best suited local circumstances, sometimes in implicit and sometimes in outright violation of metropolitan policy and the king's prerogative to regulate coin. Decades before the official rejection of commodity coin, people on the fringes of empire insisted that money's value came from ease of use and widespread acceptability, rather than metallic content. Debates about counterfeits thus became important sites for questioning the limits of metropolitan authority and the very definition of money itself.