Models Of Urban Governance Research Articles

Localising governance in the African city: a grounded model of multiple and contending forms of security governance in Hout Bay, Cape Town

ABSTRACT The paper articulates a model of urban governance, developed through emergent analysis of the rulers, methods, rules and logics evident in the practices of security governance in Hout Bay, Cape Town. Informed by the concept of hybrid governance, this grounded theorising draws on extensive fieldwork on security governance practices in a complex urban neighbourhood to present a model of multiple and sometimes contending forms of governance that include, but are not limited to, bureaucratic, market, developmental, network and informal governance. Our model emerges from a critique of top-down approaches to understanding governance that starts with the state, institutions and law, or approaches that primarily focus on formal partnerships between the state and business or other social partners. The view from above can miss important aspects of how residents are governed ‘from below’ and informally. Hence it is impossible to understand from the formal, and in advance of grounded research, exactly how many places in urban Africa are governed. Exposing the particular and local forms of governance in urban Africa can support improved forms of service delivery and citizen’s experiences of living in their city. In addition, while our model may be relevant in other places, more important is the methodology of identifying the rulers and methods, but especially the rules and logics of practice, to surface the specific, and complex, forms of governance in an urban place.

«Smart City» in Socio-Political Projection (The Case of Barcelona)

This article reveals the process of becoming a “smart city” based on the materials of Barcelona. The socio-political aspects of the use of “smart city” technologies in the information and communication era are revealed.The authors use of the system method made it possible to study the technologies of the “smart city” in aggregate, and the use of the comparative method made it possible to establish the specifics of the development of Barcelona during the tenure of Mayor Xavier Trias and Ada Colau. The authors draw attention to the reasons for the recognition of the capital of Catalonia as the most high-tech city in the world in 2015. It is emphasized that Barcelona has made a rapid breakthrough in a relatively short period of time, turning into a post-industrial city. It is noted that the driver of Barcelona’s transformation was the holding of the XXV Summer Olympic Games in 1992, which essentially changed the appearance of the city.The authors point to the additional opportunities in city management that the information and communication revolution led to and the speed of the Internet penetration rate. It is emphasized that information and communication technologies led to the transformation of a rigidly vertical bureaucratic system of exercising power and set the vector of its transition to a horizontal (network model) based on the effects of high technologies.It is noted that the modern model of exercising power in Barcelona presupposes the active involvement of citizens in the processes of city management, based on the use of technological platforms that simplify coworking processes.As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the contemporary paradigm of the “smart city” involves the involvement of citizens as active participants in decisionmaking and planning. Attention is focused on the formation of two models of urban governance in Barcelona, differing in the dynamics of the exercise of power and the prevalence of tendencies from “top to bottom” (mayors of the city of K. Trias) and from “bottom to top” (mayor of the city A. Colau). The authors emphasize that modern Barcelona is not only a flagship of technological development, but also a city with democratic traditions and a high level of humancentered orientation.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smart city performance in Europe

Today's global shocks, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or the current war conflict, raise serious challenges to cities. Smart cities, as engines of innovation, can respond to these shocks and show resilience. However, there are significant differences in the performance of smart cities around the world, which have been further widened by the COVID-19 pandemic. In our study, we use the IMD smart city index to examine how the pandemic has affected European smart cities and how their ranking has changed in a global comparison. The results suggest that there have been major shifts in their rankings, and that some of the differences in the performance of individual cities during the pandemic can be traced back to different urban governance models. The changes in the ranking of smart cities highlight the fact that different urban governance models operate differently in times of crisis, especially in terms of measurable short- and long-term effectiveness. These results highlight the importance of complex and combined urban governance models to deal effectively and flexibly with external shocks.

Analysis of Grid-Based Governance in Chinese Urban Communities

The community grid-based governance model could not only stimulate the governance function of the community as well as improve the scientificity and order of community governance, but also improve the enthusiasm and initiative of the residents and the refinement and regionalization of urban community governance. This model has gradually become one of the mainstream models of urban community governance. On the premise of systematizing and deeply analyzing the typical urban community grid-based governance models in China, this paper, based on theories of refined governance and seamless governance, looks at three management models of urban community grid-based governance: the “All-dimensional Integration” model, the “One basic and three aspects” model, the “4+6”model. The problems in the process of urban community grid-based governance include: lack of public awareness of participation, low quality of the overall team of grid members, poor operation mechanism, and lack of financial guarantee. It also proposes measures to improve the grid-based governance of urban communities based on the existing problems, including: stimulating residents’ awareness of participating in community governance, strengthening the team construction of grid members, promoting the management of refined operation mechanism, and expanding funding channels.

Commoning Adaptive Heritage Reuse as a Driver of Social Innovation: Naples and the Scugnizzo Liberato Case Study

The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage assets is often problematic. What emerges is the urgency of a thoughtful negotiation between built forms and emerging needs and requests. In this view, a fruitful trajectory of development arises in commoning heritage by means of adaptive reuse. Hence, the purpose of this article is to investigate how community-led adaptive heritage re-use practices contribute to social innovation in terms of new successful model of urban governance, by providing a specific focus on innovative aspects that emerge in both heritage and planning sectors. Therefore, it also aims to improve the knowledge in the innovative power of heritage when conceptualized as performative practice. To this end, the paper presents the adaptation process of a former church complex located in Naples, today Scugnizzo Liberato, one of the bottom-up initiatives recognized by the Municipality of Naples as part of the urban commons network of the city. The research results are based on desk research, a literature review, and interviews with experts and activists, conducted as part of the OpenHeritage project (Horizon 2020). Initial evidence shows that profound citizen involvement throughout the whole heritage-making process might generate innovative perspectives in urban governance as well as conservation planning practice.

Spatial spillover effects of capital factor agglomeration on the urban industrial structure upgrading in China: Based on panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities.

The spatial agglomeration of capital factors has become an important force affecting regional economic development and industrial structure. Investigating the spatial relationship of capital factor agglomeration is a key way to accelerate the upgrading of urban industrial structure and realize sustainable development. Based on the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2008 to 2017, we use the theoretical framework of spatial econometrics and estimate the spatial effects of capital factor agglomeration on the upgrading of urban industrial structure. Both the global Moran index and the local Moran scatter chart present that the agglomeration of capital factors and the upgrading index of urban industrial structure shows the characteristics of spatial agglomeration. The results reveal that the agglomeration of capital factors can significantly promote the upgrading of the industrial structure of local and surrounding cities. Still, the spatial spillover effect is not significant. We then explore the possible factors that limit the spatial spillover effects of capital agglomeration. Using the results of the paper, we provide policy suggestions for strengthening urban industrial construction and optimizing the urban governance model.

COPING WITH THE DYNAMICS OF URBAN SUSTAINABILITY: POSITIONING URBAN EXPERIMENTATION PLATFORMS AS TOOLS FOR POLICY MAKING

Abstract. This research considers the creation of resilient organizational models of urban governance to foster urban sustainability. Building on large-scale urban experimentation initiatives, we identify relevant factors in establishing urban experimentation with the help of digital platforms as a means to support such resilient organizational models. Our findings suggest that digital platforms help establish urban experimentation platforms (UXPs) as a core means to innovate towards urban sustainability. UXPs utilize digital platforms to coordinate policy measures and stimulate collective intelligence in order to reach a sustained local socio-technical transformation process. Based on these empirical findings, we use a systems lens to decompose urban experimentation into interconnected sub-systems and then describe some characteristics of their dynamic interaction. Our goal is to develop a System Dynamics model and simulations to support urban public authority decision makers in formulating and implementing policy interventions towards urban sustainability.

Business Improvement Districts: A Systematic Review of an Urban Governance Model towards City Center Revitalization

For some time, business improvement districts (BIDs) have entered into the discourse and practice of academics and urban planners. This model for town centre revitalization was created in North America, whose success has led to its transfer to a growing number of countries. This evolution highlights the importance of BIDs as an urban planning practice, as well as an object of study for academics interested in new models for intervening in central urban areas. BIDs are public–private partnerships, framed within an entrepreneurial logic of urban management that aims to increase the cities’ competitiveness. In this article, we aim to unfold the main research subjects of the literature focused on BIDs. We develop a systematic review for said endeavor, resorting to the established PRISMA protocol. After the screening and analysis of selected articles, four main research subjects were documented: (i) urban governance; (ii) urban policies: mobility and transfer; (iii) activities/axis of intervention; and (iv) types of BIDs/places of intervention. The selected literature enhances the contradictory nature of BIDs, ranging from the economic revitalization of city centres to the occasional exclusionary stance, in which it is developed. Our analysis also points to the important role of different actors in all stages of the policy transfer and implementation.

Research on the collaborative governance of urban regeneration based on a Bayesian network: The case of Chongqing

The rapid development of the economy and urbanization has led to numerous urban regeneration projects, and collaborative governance is increasingly advocated to address the management issues that occur during urban regeneration. However, strong collaboration is still a great challenge among multiple stakeholders during the process of urban regeneration. Based on Bayesian network theory and the case of Chongqing, this article aims to deconstruct the complex structure and explore the inherent mechanism of urban regeneration governance to achieve collaboration. First, a Bayesian network model of urban regeneration governance was developed to visualize the complex structure of multiple stakeholders’ interests. Second, the inherent mechanism was analyzed though Bayesian inference. The results indicate that the cooperation degree of related governments, conflict resolution efficiency, degree of public participation, and normality of public participation may be key factors that lead to collaborative behavior. Third, a further discussion was conducted, based on which policy implications were drawn to promote collaborative governance in urban regeneration.

Collaborative Urban Governance Model in Environmental Management of Industrial Area

This paper's purpose for this study is to provide an overview related to the partnership or the cooperation between the government and the private sector, specifically the manager of the industry and the community in the environmental management of the industrial area in Gresik and Sidoarjo Regency. This research used a qualitative approach to analyze the data, interviews, documentation, and questionnaires. This study revealed that the environment's management in a sustainable manner should be supported by stakeholders, the government, the community, and the private sectors. Also, this research attends to instill a sense of environmental concern in the entire party. Collaborative urban governance sustainabilitycan not be separated from the leader's success in embracing the related parties and using existing industry resources. The stakeholder determines the success of managing the industrial area in the Gresik and Sidoarjo Regency, government, public, and private parties through a Collaborative Urban Governance model.Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk memberikan gambaran kemitraan atau kerjasama antara pemerintah dengan pihak swasta, khususnya pengelola industri dan masyarakat dalam pengelolaan lingkungan kawasan industri di Kabupaten Gresik dan Sidoarjo. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif untuk menganalisis data, wawancara, dokumentasi, dan angket. Studi ini mengungkapkan bahwa pengelolaan lingkungan secara berkelanjutan harus didukung oleh pemangku kepentingan, pemerintah, masyarakat, dan pihak swasta. Selain itu, penelitian ini hadir untuk menanamkan rasa kepedulian lingkungan pada seluruh pihak. Keberlanjutan Collaborative Urban Governance tidak lepas dari keberhasilan pimpinan dalam merangkul pihak terkait dan menggunakan sumber daya industri yang ada. Keberhasilan pengelolaan kawasan industri di Kabupaten Gresik dan Sidoarjo ditentukan oleh keterlibatan pemangku kepentingan, pemerintah, publik, dan swasta melalui model Collaborative Urban Governance.

Los espacios públicos de gestión ciudadana Nuevas formas de gestión público-comunitaria en Zaragoza (España)

Analysis of urban governance models becomes evident the different attitude among cities in light of the possibility of meeting new ways of local public management. Most notably since the crisis of 2008 this was made clear in different European cities when several social actors began to claim the so-called “public-communitarian management”. One of the fields where the implementation of this type of management has been raised most frequently is that of the social centres. The article proposes the term “citizen management public spaces” in referring to these experiences. The research focuses in the city of Zaragoza (Spain) analysing two particularly relevant cases and based in a qualitative methodology including the conduct of 30 in-depth interviews with members of the local government team, councillors of the opposition parties, municipal technicians and advisers as well as the different social actors involved in the centres management. Conclusions highlight that while the opening to this management typology raises tensions and problems of varied nature, it does mean an opportunity to bring in the reform of the state agenda the citizen demand of greater participation and local institutions democratization.

The implementation of network governance for sustainable urban underground usage, a comparative analysis of the case studies of the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Helsinki, Finland.

This research investigates how cities faced with the intensification of underground space usage to accommodate urban infrastructure are being required to change their traditional method of planning and management of underground space use. The shift is represented by the replacement of an uncoordinated approach to new forms of planning and management that respects the multiple interactions between stakeholders and takes into consideration the multiple relationships that are created with urban underground usage. The study works with the hypothesis that there is a need for a special form of governance of this layer that may contribute to the capacity of continuance of underground space usage for present and future generations, thus contributing for urban sustainability. Two case studies are developed to verify how the concepts are reflected in these cities’ lives and to compare the choices made by cities’ administrations, presenting their similarities or differences in order to assess how different initiatives may behave in different contexts. These case studies are the Helsinki Underground Master Plan-UMP, one of the world’s most comprehensive and advanced urban underground planning instrument and the Rio de Janeiro’s Project Geovias an initiative designed to map and register under one single database all the underground infrastructure existent in the urban area. aimed to make possible a more efficient arrangement of the city’s underground. The research suggests that the implementation of network governance tools centered on coordination and guidance of interactions and relationships according to shared objectives are examples of operational models of urban governance that modify the way cities plan and manage underground space usage more capable to provide the continuance of underground uses into the future what may be considered as a contribution for urban sustainability as most of these uses are vital for the satisfaction of the city’s essential needs.

Collaborative approaches to urban governance model of historic districts: a case study of the Yu’er Hutong project in Beijing

ABSTRACT In recent years, the Chinses urban management system of historic districts has evolved into micro-scale and collaborative movements under the strong government-led actions in China. In this context, the position of experts in urban and architecture fields is emphasized as the mediator and the facilitator in collaborative processes. The leading groups address the serious problems of historic areas in Beijing such as (1) the overcrowded conditions, (2) the neglected illegal structures, (3) the fragmented property ownership, and (4) the poor infrastructures and living conditions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of collaborative governance in the Chinese historic districts and scrutinize the role of leadership in collaborative approaches. Based on field visits and publication reviews, this paper casts a light on how the leaders interact with the government-leaders and the residents and contrive to address the major problems of the historic site. This paper found that leaderships perform as the advisor for the decision-makers and the project manager/engineer to the residents. This trend pursues the horizontal and multidimensional mechanism to manage the historic districts. It would give an example of collaborative approaches to achieve sustainable urban revitalization in the inner-city of Beijing. Highlights It suggests a framework of collaborative governance by considering both Chinese and Western contexts. The setting regulations represent rigid government-led approaches in the framework. The leaderships and building relations explain the specific roles of experts in the framework. The leaderships act as the mediator between the governments and the residents. The performances of leadership contribute to addressing problems in the historic site.

A Study on the Intervention of Property Management Enterprises in Community Governance Model - Based on Property Management of Public Product in Attribute Perspective -

At the end of 2019, there was the major outbreak of “COVID-19” in China. In this outbreak prevention and control campaign, the property management enterprises(PME) performed actively, playing a vital role in China. This paper puts forward that the property management enterprises(PME) should be included as subjects of national urban and rural community governance from the perspective of the public product attribute of property management. Based on the properties of public goods in property management, this paper redefines the functions and positioning of PME with public affairs management, establishes the qualification of PME to participate in one of the main bodies of community public governance. And it forms a new model of community governance with community residents committees, owner’committee and PME as the main body. This research provides implications for national urban and rural community governance models by applying existing theories and practical examples.

Smart as the new Urban Utopia in post industrial nations, case of Dholera, Gujarat

Contemporary cities are faced with a rising population due to rural to urban migration, significant demographic changes, climate risks, economic shifts and rapid technological change. The proposals for new cities and its development process is looked at as a “ready- made” finished fit for all model where the planning fails to acknowledge the existing demographics and friction on ground. This paper argues that there is a disparity between vision and planning for Dholera Smart city. It investigates the strategy cantered on land use adopted by the Dholera Special Investment Region and its land development mechanism to understand the process of city making. It critically reflects on the Town Planning scheme model of development and the idea of greenfield city planning. Investigating Dholera as a case for special investment region and it tries to position it in the theoretical understanding of paradigm shift in the model of urban governance. The paper critically reflects on the narrative of speculative urbanism and state rescaling in the case of Dholera greenfield city. This research argues that new cities by themselves are not an answer to the urbanization challenges that India is facing in contemporary times.

Understanding the governance of urban water services from an institutional logics perspective

In recent decades, the urban water sector has experienced accelerating social complexity that derives from conflicting goals and beliefs, making the sustainability of the sector primarily a governance issue. However, existing governance models do not reflect the new reality. There is thus an urgent need to develop an urban water governance model reflecting this increasing complexity, to support sustainable governance. We integrate concepts from sociology, institutional theory and sustainability transitions to build a governance framework that includes interactions of social structures, and practices, shaped by different institutional logics and categorised at strategic, tactic, operational, and reflexive level.

Modernizing Macao, the Old-Fashioned Way: Macanese and Chinese Entrepreneurship in the Colonial City, 1877–1884

In 1877, Miguel Ayres da Silva and his Chinese partners were authorized by the governor of Macao to reclaim a portion of the city’s riverfront. Councilman Silva was one of the first native-born Portuguese, as the aristocratic mixed-blood Macanese called themselves, to bypass traditional employment in the administration or the military and to become a renowned entrepreneur. His project, in line with the government-promoted restructuring of the inner harbor from the 1850s to the 1870s, employed the modern principles of progress and sanitation and set the tone for a new age of centralized urban planning in Macao. The 1877 riverfront reclamation would be the first urban extension to be carried out under the supervision of the newly created Public Works Department. From the early 1870s on, a new generation of engineers, coming both from the metropolitan schools and from the military schools of the Portuguese State of India, promoted a modern European model of urban governance throughout the Empire. In Macao, this meant favoring the Portuguese government’s claim of full control over the territory to upgrade both the city’s insalubrious additive pattern and its inhabitants’ autonomous practices of appropriating space. However, Silva’s blatant disregard for government regulations in the construction process, as well as the ensuing succession of patched up settlements, resonated profoundly with Macao’s old-fashioned and informal methods of city-building. By focusing on Silva’s approach to the 1877 reclamation project, this essay looks at the transition from century-old bottom-up practices to the Public Works top-down model, a contested process that reflected both the ambitions and the contradictions of modern Macao.

Comparative Research on the Metropolitan Administration and Service in Porto

<p>The Porto Metropolitan Area (Área Metropolitana do Porto, AMP) is a framework of cooperation between 17 municipalities and several districts. This metropolitan area has a specific, inter-municipal model of urban governance. In our research, we found that cooperation is significant mainly in sectors where the central legislature has essentially made this mandatory, by designing the AMP and defining its powers. In addition to AMP, only partial cooperation has been established in the field of waste management, and in the field of human public services and in the performance of public authority, there is essentially a set of autonomous organisational solutions. However, despite all this fragmentation, the above system ensures the satisfactory functioning of the metropolitan agglomeration. This also underlines the importance of transport management in urban areas, since this functioning system is based on an integrated and intermodal transport system</p>

Consistencies and inconsistencies in urban governance and development

This research focuses on urban governance and development, by using Beijing as an example. It first shows that Beijing's key industries have changed from some low-end, heavy industries to some high-end, high-tech industries. These changes occurred alongside several fundamental transformations in Beijing's urban governance model. Specifically, Beijing's urban governance has increasingly reflected its own needs, and become more complicated characterized by a growing number of policies and a wider range of policy instruments, which are often industry-specific and target at certain industrial sectors. We further call for more attention not only to the role of the state in urban development, but also to what has been done by the state in practice. Our empirical results confirm the co-existence of consistencies and inconsistencies between what has been said in policies and what has been done in practice in Beijing's urban governance and development. Whether the city government follows its own policies announced beforehand is dependent on the intensity of technology use of industries, the potential economic and social impacts of industries, and the specific locations of industries in the city.

Towards an Integrated Framework to Measure Smart City Readiness: The Case of Iranian Cities

This paper introduces an indicator system to measure and assess smart city readiness. Analyzing smart city initiatives in Iran as case studies, the theoretical framework we present reflects on how cities explore the possibility of becoming smart, and prepare themselves to begin implementing the transition towards becoming a smart city. This theoretical framework is then applied to four Iranian cities aspiring to become smart and that already possess credible smart city brands. The findings reveal that the most significant difficulty in Iran is associated with the political context. The changing urban governance model is the most important factor in Iranian smart cities’ readiness. Utilization of open data policies and data sharing, as well as making reforms in government structures are all considered a sine qua non to gain momentum. Based on the results of our empirical analysis a Theory of Change is developed to address the cities’ technological, socio-economic, and political readiness vis-à-vis the desired transition. The framework for measuring smart city readiness and the Theory of Change provide practical guidelines to developing systematic roadmaps for developing and implementing smart city policies.