Models Of Urban Governance Research Articles

Are independent authorities the answer to integrated city planning?

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the capacity for metropolitan wide integrated planning coupled with underpinning governance ideology, not an independent planning authority, is most important for successful city planning, using Melbourne, Australia, as a case study. Advocates of independent planning commissions argue that such bodies are more likely to plan a city as a unitary system on the basis of evidence, expertise and policy in place of political considerations. However, such bodies are not the only effective means of achieving metropolitan governance. Three alternative successful urban governance models are examined: vertically integrated models, coordination of independent powerful local authorities, and state control over metropolitan governance coupled with regulatory land-use policies. The model of planning governance adopted for Melbourne in the 1980s combined strong centralised government overview of the planning system with cross-sectoral policy while delegating defined powers to local authorities. Its regulatory provisions were an explicit rejection of neoliberalism and led to accountable, efficient decisions from democratically elected state and local governments. Its eventual replacement by neo-liberal governance was a key factor leading to fragmentation and an end to continuity in metropolitan wide urban planning.

Are smart cities more ecologically efficient? Evidence from China

As a new mode of urbanization, smart city both influences the environmental load and economic performance of cities through technology effect, resource allocation effect and industrial structure upgrade effect. So comes the natural question: has smart city construction improved the eco-efficiency of cities In China? How does the impact change over time? Is the impact heterogeneous across cities? Based on Green Solow model, this paper adopts the Super-efficiency SBM model to measure the eco-efficiency of 152 prefecture-level cities in China covering the period 2003-2016, and then DID model is applied to investigate the impact of smart city pilot policy on eco-efficiency. On the whole, the smart city construction significantly improves the eco-efficiency, and the multi-stage DID results reveal that the promotion effect is increasing over time due to the annual superposition. Furthermore, the impact is heterogeneous across cities. Although the promotion effect on medium-sized cities is less than that of large cities, the promotion effect has actually weakened when the urban population size exceeds 5 million. Moreover, the lower the level of city’s economic development, the greater the role of smart city construction in promoting eco-efficiency. The research conclusion is of great practical significance for the reform of urban governance model and the realization of high-quality urban development.

Urban Sprawl and Sustainable Urban Policies. A Review of the Cases of Lima, Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

In recent decades, urban processes have experienced deep transformations. One of them has been the growing importance of urban sprawl. This article reviews its main features and the policies related to the paradigm of sustainability in three Latin American Megalopolises: Mexico City, Lima, and Santiago de Chile. For this purpose, we have carried out an extensive compilation of the existing academic literature. Urban sprawl in those cities cannot be understood without considering the rising housing needs of popular classes, usually addressed through the sequence settlement-parceling-building-urbanization. Simultaneously high-income groups tend to create separated and gated commodities and there is increasing spatial mobility of the middle classes. Those processes tend to generate highly segregated and increasingly patched metropolitan areas. Sustainability is framed on models of urban governance based on ecological modernization. In this context, three main sustainable policies are analyzed: water supply, green areas provision, and transport. Conclusions stress: (1) Deep changes experienced and the path-dependent element observed in the social construction of sustainability (2) Consolidation of a model of socially segregated and ecologically differentiated urban polycentrism (3) Relevance of the different megalopolises as niches of experimentation and innovation in the construction of specific forms of sustainable transition.

Legal Support for Participative Decision-Making as Part of ‘Service’ Model of Urban Governance in Russia

The research deals with urban governance in Russia from the perspective of the participative approach to decision-making. The authors used quantitative (semi-structured 'face-to-face' interview) and qualitative (in-depth semi-structured interview) sociological surveys in five cities of Russia over the period from 2001 to 2017 regarding the public expectations towards the service activity of the urban governance authorities. The respondents were the citizens over 18-years-old who live in Tomsk, Seversk, and Strezhevoy in Tomsk Region. The authors have analysed the official documents and the information of the federal and municipal level over the period from 1997 to 2018. It was stated that the citizens' preferences had changed from paternalistic to 'service' ones, but in most cases, the legal framework was based on the directive principle of decision-making and did not comply with public demands. The technology of participative decision-making in the sphere of public services in Russia, in particular, in the cities, gradually develop. The content of such decisions increasingly reflects public expectations. Taking into account the results of the sociological surveys and the analysis of the regulatory support for the public service delivery, the authors have developed the recommendations on the improvement of the legal regulation based on the participative principle.

Mapping of innovative governance models to overcome barriers for nature based urban regeneration

The implementation of urban Nature Based Solutions (NBS) projects is deeply determined by the novelty of the concept. Its innovation is both an opportunity and a challenge: as a new concept, it generates uncertainty due to lack of technical and operational preparedness, but it also allows to deploy innovative approaches, new ways to address old problems and more inclusive practices. Nature4Cities project has systematically conceptualized the barriers and drivers on NBS projects implementation by a review of the state of the art. To see how these barriers can be overcome by governance strategies, different urban and environmental governance models have been mapped and characterized to assess their suitability for different NBS projects. Five clusters have been identified where models are grouped according to the involved actors, their position in the spectrum from high to low government involvement and their level of participation. This theorical model has been applied to real cases to check the incidence of the different clusters. Results show that urban and environmental governance is a map where the different models coexist in different degrees regarding some key axes such as level of innovation, polycentric vs. monocentric, involved sectors, level of participation and scale. Collaborative, multisector, polycentric and adaptive governance models address significant number of previously identified cross-domain barriers showing their suitability. The work presented in this paper can be the basis to define new institutional and governance arrangements that will foster multi-stakeholder involvement, citizens’ engagement, leveraging both public and private funding of NBS in cities

Participatory Budgeting and Transformative Development in Brazil

In a context of democratic openness and strong demands for a more equitable distribution of public resources, PB was implemented for the first time around thirty years ago in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The local democratic innovations linked to such experiences have crossed national borders and reached different social, economic and political contexts. Currently, it is estimated that there are more than 3000 PBs around the world. However, almost three decades after PBs were first set up, to what extent has this participatory practice contributed to the establishment of a counter-hegemonic model of urban governance? Has it somehow upheld the right to the city? Focusing on a paradigmatic experience, the PB of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) – one of the most enduring and on two occasions honoured as best practice by the UN-Habitat –, we intend to answer these questions and discuss the recognition of PB as a model for urban governance within a general context of neoliberal politics. PB’s capability to foster a move beyond capitalism must be reassessed.

The ‘fluid governance’ of urban public spaces. Insights from informal planning practices in Rome

This paper investigates the emergence of informal planning practices and their relationship with the new geometries of power and responsibility that characterise what is here defined and described as ‘fluid governance’; and that leads to co-creative forms of public space governance. In particular, the research explores the key role played by some politically progressive forms of urban gardening in pivoting actions that transform green spaces through informal planning into areas for food production and collaborative management. This challenges traditional governance networks and re-defines the functioning of public spaces. The case of Parco delle Energie in Rome (Italy) serves as an example of a process of space re-appropriation, planning and finally co-management performed by a dense network of very diverse actors, who established a collaborative framework with the administration in order to re-shape decision-making dynamics. A comparative analysis of international cases confirms that urban gardening is challenging the dominance of a traditional planning perspective worldwide, both spatially as on the level of governance, and is turning citizens’ dissensus into a productive force in the re-imagination and stewardship of public urban space. The conclusion suggests the self-design and co-managing capacities of urban gardeners and citizens could lead to adequate synergies between actors, enabling new urban governance models in line with the global ambition to build more sustainable and inclusive cities.

Community Policing Goes South: Policy Mobilities and New Geographies of Criminological Theory

Policymakers seeking to design more effective crime control strategies increasingly reference ‘best practices’ developed in other contexts, enabling the translocal mobility of ‘zero tolerance’ or ‘hotspot policing’. Recent work on policy mobilities shows that such policies, and the conceptual models underlying them, are often contested and modified as they travel. Connecting emergent scholarship on crime control policy mobilities to recent calls to extend criminological theorization outside the global North, this article seeks to understand what happens when community policing travels. Specifically, it unpacks the often-implicit models of urban governance underlying community policing, examining the mobilities and mutations of these conceptual models as community policing is exported from cities in the United States to inner-city neighbourhoods in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Trap Within Anticipated Regrowth : Two Sides of Strategic Response to Urban Decline in Leipzig

Although a considerable body of literature on shrinking cities has been produced in the recent years, a majority is focused on the experiences of declining industrial regions from the Global North. Nonetheless, these cases still hold a significant basis for understanding a range of manifestations of urban decline and could also serve as important frameworks for evaluating effectiveness of urban governance models. Thus, the research presented in this paper focuses on the well-known case of Leipzig, which has been represented as a prime example of urban decline in Europe for decades. Through analysis of secondary literature sources, various urban redevelopment frameworks, and media coverage, this study contributes two major insights on strategic response to decline in Leipzig. First, many opportunities that national and international subsidy programmes offered, alongside with entrepreneurial urban governance managed to provide a locally adapted strategic framework that precipitated the return towards the trajectory of urban growth. Second, although the major growth objectives were finally achieved, the example of strategic planning in Leipzig also showed a general lack of preparedness in local governance with regards to considering and dealing with a broader spectrum of challenges that often occur alongside rapid urban regrowth.

New models of urban governance in Spain during the post-crisis period: the fight against vulnerability on a local scale

ABSTRACTAusterity policies and the bankruptcy of the welfare state in Spain since the crisis of 2008 have mobilized the population to demand new models of urban governance, an improvement of basic services (work, health, education and housing) and the right to the city in a context of democratic deepening. The emergence of new leftist parties, a result of the Indignados social movement, is perceived as an alternative to the economic and social consequences of the neoliberal economic model implemented in Spain from the mid-1980s to 2008. Confronting the situation of economic, social and residential vulnerability in which society is immersed requires collaborative, multilevel and network governance. This paper examines the new urban governance models, reflecting on their objectives and challenges. The cases of Madrid and Barcelona, where mayors of leftist parties are carrying out a new plan of city government, are analyzed with a particular focus on supporting the most vulnerable and promoting more collaborative governance. In the medium term, it remains to be seen whether this new model is sustainable or is simply a post-crisis reaction.

Learning pathways and the governance of innovations in urban climate change resilience and adaptation

ABSTRACTThe proliferation of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) has led to different innovative models of urban climate change governance. To date, there have been few reflexive inquiries into how urban governance actors and processes are learning to innovate as a result of participating in TMNs. In response, this paper draws on theories of institutional learning and urban governance to offer a conceptual distinction between innovations in governance and the governance of innovations in the context of climate resilience and adaptation. We apply these concepts to evaluate the case studies of Rotterdam and Berkeley, where we highlight the actors, networks, and resources required to motivate and sustain actions against concurrent sectoral interests. Experiences from the two cities show that learning pathways are constructed and reified through processes of communication and negotiation, which can result in the grounding of TMN resources. A focus on unpacking the variations in learning and implementation within cities across diverse political economic contexts can offer insights into the opportunities for enabling more meaningful and sustained forms of innovation.

Trento Social Commons. Community Engagement as Tools for New Physical and Cultural Relationships Between Rural and Peripheral Spaces

Expansion of urbanized areas heavily changed cultural landscapes' features in many European countries. Mountain territories have been hit by such processes too; due to their peculiar social and topographical characteristics these effects have been greater than in other territories. Moreover, urbanization expansion process in the Alps is strongly related with temporary dynamics depending from touristic fluxes, implementation of new spaces of mobility, economic development and living.In a context of extreme land scarcity like in the Alps, urban sprawl and dwellers' search for nature proximity to homes and residential areas put territorial governance instruments under pressure and opens up complex questions.Beside other experiences between urban and peripheral spaces, the essay aims at speculating that typical rural communitarian governance models are able to strengthen collective interests over individual ones and can be translated into urban governance models by public authorities. Direct observations in the city of Trento demonstrated how citizens - even where specific collective governance models are not commonly applied – involved in specific projects are able to generate systemic solution and self-develop associative and cooperative models to regenerate open spaces around the city. Such examples can be considered as pilots to be extended to other (alpine) urban territories following an approach that the city of Trento is implementing through different participatory policy instruments or through European projects.

La gobernanza del transporte público urbano en México: un comparativo de las localidades de Hermosillo, Sonora y León, Guanajuato

Objetivo: encontrar diferencias y similitudes en la evolución del servicio de transporte público urbano en Hermosillo y León, así como sus resultados y determinar la aproximación a la buena gobernanza de cada sistema. Metodología: es un estudio comparado de dos sistemas relativamente similares con una diferencia, el nivel rector del servicio, guiado por la adaptación del modelo de Buena Gobernanza Urbana de Hendriks. Resultados: muestran que el sistema de León obtuvo un mayor alcance de indicadores y dan soporte a la tesis sobre las capacidades de organización (capacidad de respuesta y efectividad) y los poderes compensatorios (resiliencia) como factores clave para la buena gobernanza urbana. Limitaciones: el estudio no analiza las dimensiones Justicia Procesal y Contrapesos. Conclusiones: la gobernanza urbana es sensible a cambios en la estructura institucional y que los arreglos entre actores públicos y privados no siempre resultan arreglos de buena gobernanza urbana, por lo que la elección de la política pública no es una explicación suficiente a la trayectoria de desarrollo de este servicio.

Innovative post-neoliberal policy as a way out of crisis? Another reflection on the case of urban decline in Detroit

IntroductionMany scholars have discussed urban decline, and one of the emerging discourses has called for redefining the crisis as an opportunity to establish new urban governance models. This paper evaluates the outcomes of such innovative approaches to managing urban decline by identifying its major implementation challenges, effects and outcomes, and pointing out long-term development perspectives.Case descriptionThe focus was on Detroit, the ‘greatest failure’ among the troubled large cities in the US, whose municipal government, policy makers and elites have invested a great deal of effort to stem the city’s rapid decline.Discussion and evaluationOf particular interest was the period since 2013 when the city government declared bankruptcy. An innovative strategy based on stabilisation, recovery, and irreversible degrowth was then embraced. The research method to investigate the efficiency of its implementation is centered on analysis of the secondary literature, strategies and official documents designed by the local government and private foundations in Detroit, as well as of supporting news reports.ConclusionsIn conclusion, besides the importance of redefining approaches to urban policy-making in declining cities, the study illustrated the necessity of developing equally innovative alternative ways for their successful implementation.

John Lindsay, the Association for a Better New York, and the Privatization of New York City, 1969-1973

Focusing on the collaboration between Mayor John Lindsay and business advocacy group the Association for a Better New York (ABNY), this article illustrates the utility of public and elite anxieties over street crime in legitimizing new, privatized models of urban governance during the early 1970s. ABNY’s privatized crime-fighting initiatives signified a new direction in city law enforcement strategies, a new “common sense” regarding the efficacy and authority of private or voluntarist solutions to urban problems, and proved of lasting significance for labor relations, the regulation of urban space, and the role of the private sector in urban policy. It concludes that, despite their limitations, the visibility of ABNY’s initiatives, their ability to construct a pervasive sense of crisis, and their apparent demonstration of public and elite consent played a significant role in the transformation of New York into the “privatized” or “neoliberal” city of today.

The Private Eye of Public Life: Surveillance, Security, and Urban Governance in the City of Toronto

Market forces increasingly drive the development of urban space in globalized cities. Following deindustrialization, some municipalities have become dependent upon tax revenues derived from office towers. City managers and officer tower developers work under the pressure of competition to ensure their spaces are attractive to this highly mobile work force; safety and security are key selling points. In Toronto, large sections of urban space have been privatized and are policed by private security. Much of the privately owned space is designed to be publicly accessible, creating new dynamics between private security and public police. Changes to federal and provincial legislation, combined with a rapid expansion in the deployment of private security guards, signal an emerging urban governance model that supports private-public partnerships in policing. Under the supervision of David Murakami Wood, I conducted interviews with high-ranking politicians, security professionals, and social services executives in Toronto. These interviews revealed concerns about the erosion of public space, the treatment of marginalized populations, and inadequate private security regulations. Some argue the legal rights of private property owners permit security and surveillance practices that violate democratic values. Clearly, there is tension between the market forces that inform private policing, and the civic accountability of public police forces that remains unresolved. My research suggests new legislation is required to ensure this emerging urban governance model, which features private policing, preserves the democratic rights and freedoms of all citizens.

The ideological alignment of smart urbanism in Singapore: Critical reflections on a political paradox

Over the past decade, much has been written about the potential of smart urbanism to bring about various and lasting forms of betterment. The embedding of digital technologies within urban infrastructures has been well documented, and the efficiencies of smart models of urban governance and management have been lauded. More recently, however, the discourse has been labelled ‘hegemonic’, and accused of developing a view of smart technology that is blinkered by its failure to critique its socio-political effects. By focusing on the case of Singapore’s ‘Smart Nation’ initiative, this paper embraces the paradoxes at the heart of smart urbanism and, in doing so, interrogates the tension between ideology and praxis, efficiency and control, access and choice, and smart governance and smart citizenship. It also demonstrates how such tensions are (re)produced through ‘fourthspace’ – the digitally enabled spaces of urbanism that are co-created, and that contribute to an expansion and diffusion of social and political responsibility. It ends by suggesting how such spaces have the potential to radically transform not just the urban environment, but also the role of government and citizens in designing urban futures.

Transformando los modelos de crecimiento y cohesión: cambios en la gobernanza de Barcelona y Madrid

Analysis of urban governance models not only requires consideration of the structural context but also the specific local conditions of cities. The evolution of the Barcelona and Madrid urban governance models show an extreme complexity and strong particularities for both cases. This study is based on a series of in-depth interviews with public authorities and civil society entities, a literature review and an analysis of secondary sources referred to the evolution of governance and the agenda for competitiveness and social cohesion in Barcelona and Madrid. Results clearly show two different models of urban governance, each with its own characteristics and its specific historical development. Nevertheless, in both cases the accelerated exhaustion of the previous models allowed for new attempts of socio-political and economic proposals in the context of the new urban agenda.

Local Governments’ Roles as Connectors of Healthy Communities and Governance of Place ( breakout presentation )

Background With opportunities to walk having been significantly diminished in many cities over the last fifty-plus years, developed societies in particular are leading increasingly sedentary lifestyles and witnessing firsthand the consequential health impacts. Therefore, a strong case exists for urban planning initiatives that address community health concerns and reduce non-communicable diseases. Aims This paper’s aims are twofold: To examine current governance structures in terms of provision of walkable (healthy) communities in Australia and elsewhere as a response to the above community health considerations; and secondly to further delve into how this role can be fostered as the centrepiece or meeting point of “grassroots and government” to create more walkable localities and healthier communities. This is likely to be of interest to health and built environment professionals, and also to community members interested in advocacy roles. Method The current state of play in Australia regarding walkability and health is examined, and using a socio-ecological framework examines the Australian urban governance model against a global context, briefly comparing it to some North American and European cases. Data from surveys and interviews undertaken with built environment practitioners and healthy urban design and planning advocates are then presented through a multiple streams lens, focusing on local scale governance and initiatives, and community health and walkability. Results This paper identifies Australian local governments as being at a critical crossroads between “grassroots and government” where considerations of walkability and community health are concerned. While higher levels of governance act as important enablers to community health promotion, local governments remain significant ‘place shapers’ and stakeholders of built environments. However the current Australian situation can be seen to create disparities in walkable areas (and health) spatially. Nevertheless, the identification of this presents opportunities for a true connection of grassroots and governance, with place-based, walkable solutions the ultimate (and achievable) target. Conclusion Local government currently plays a significant role in community health in Australia. However, this paper argues that as the intersection between community and government, the role of local government can provide even greater community health benefits, including through improved planning and provision of walkable places.

Bringing urban governance back in: Neighborhood conflicts and depression

Urban governance and its impact on contentious politics have received remarkably little attention in existing studies on mental health. Drawing on a measure of neighborhood conflicts developed in a survey of thirty-nine urban neighborhoods in Guangzhou, China, this article investigates the potential link between urban governance and mental health. Net of sociodemographic, relational, and environmental measures, it finds that among residents' conflicts with different entities of urban governance, only those with local/grassroots governments are significantly associated with more depressive symptoms. Moreover, these subgroups of government-oriented conflicts associated with more depressive symptoms are related to neighborhood planning and communal properties, reflecting a dilemma in the Chinese model of urban governance. By offering a relational interpretation of neighborhood conflicts, this study not only challenges the previous view that community building in China improves mental health, but calls attention to the significance of urban governance in research on mental health.