Review Article: North Urban Political Economy, Urban Theory and British Research

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALAN HARDING
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
City Government ◽  
Growth Machine ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Urban Regime ◽  
Urban Political Economy ◽  
Urban Regimes ◽  
The Us ◽  
The City

In 1976, when European debates within urban theory were dominated by neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian approaches to cities as sites for the provision of social and welfare services, the very different notion of ‘the city as growth machine’ slipped into the US urban studies lexicon with the publication of Harvey Molotch's article of the same name. In 1983, the year in which Castells brought the radical phase of European urban studies to a halt with a famous warning against ‘the useless construction of abstract grand theory’, the concept of an urban regime had a similarly unobtrusive birth when the phrase was used by Fainstein and Fainstein to describe ‘the circle of powerful elected officials and top administrators’ in US city government. Had the story ended there it is unlikely that the world – especially outside North America – would have heard much more of urban regimes and growth machines. As it has turned out, though, from the late 1980s onwards urban scholars have hardly seemed able to hear enough about these two approaches within US urban political economy.

Current debates in urban theory from a scale perspective: Introducing a scenes approach

Urban Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (8) ◽  
pp. 1487-1497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Wu ◽  
Rima Wilkes ◽  
Daniel Silver ◽  
Terry Nichols Clark
Keyword(s):  
Urban Studies ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
Urban Scenes ◽  
The World ◽  
Geographical Scale ◽  
The City ◽  
Review Current ◽  
Hierarchical Scale

Cities, all over the world, have become more diverse than ever. This poses great challenges to urban studies and theorising. In this article, we review current debates in urban theory through Howitt’s (1998) three-facet conceptualisation of geographical scale and find that urban theorists have high levels of disagreement on the areal (scale as size), the hierarchical (scale as level) as well as the dialectical (scale as relation) aspects of the city. We show that, if urban theorists are to find a common approach to the city, we should contemplate: 1) what cities to study; 2) from which geographical level(s); and 3) how the city relates to other entities. We illustrate how the theory of urban scenes could potentially be used to address these debates in urban theory.

scholarly journals (De-)Activating the growth machine for redevelopment: The case of Liede urban village in Guangzhou

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 1420-1438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youliang Guo ◽  
Chengguo Zhang ◽  
Ya Ping Wang ◽  
Xun Li
Keyword(s):  
City Government ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Machine Model ◽  
Growth Machine ◽  
Urban Village ◽  
The Village ◽  
The City ◽  
Land Manager

This research investigates the mechanism of urban village redevelopment in south China. Through a revised typology of place entrepreneurs based on the growth machine thesis and a case study of Liede village in central Guangzhou, it illustrates how land-based interests embedded in an imbalanced power relationship can (de-)activate urban village redevelopment. The study reveals that while urban villagers, as represented by the village collective, have entrenched interests in the redevelopment process, the city government – as monopolistic land manager and place entrepreneur – plays the deciding role in forging and halting a growth machine geared towards urban village redevelopment. Although developers are also part of the process, the (de-)activation of redevelopment growth machine/coalition in Guangzhou has largely been dominated by the city government. With a comparative view on the original growth machine model, it is hoped that this study would furnish both theoretical and practical thoughts for future research.

Urban theory with an outside

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Jazeel
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Urban Studies ◽  
Spatial Process ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Urban Theory ◽  
City Formation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Value ◽  
The City ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

This paper critically engages planetary urbanization’s claim that it generates ‘Urban Theory Without an Outside’. It argues planetary urbanization is part of the broader ideological terrain of urban studies whose textual field reifies the city, the urban and urbanization as objects and processes of analyses through a kind of ‘methodological urbanization’. The paper argues the conceptual and political value of delineating views from outside urban studies and planetary urbanization – in particular from domains like area studies – that unmoor the primacy of the city, the urban and particularly urbanization in understandings of socio-spatial processes across planetary space. It suggests how these perspectives can usefully act as ‘supplements’ indifferent to urban studies, reminding urban studies of the limits of its own forms of knowledge production in relation to socio-spatial process and city formation. To do this, the paper sketches an anti-colonial history of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

“The Transparency of Democracy”: The Production of Washington’s Nationals Park as a Late Capitalist Space

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Friedman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Government ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
The Us ◽  
Baseball Team ◽  
The City

Following the trend of cities throughout the United States subsidizing new baseball stadiums within their economic redevelopment strategies, in 2005, the city government of Washington, D.C. agreed to subsidize the construction of Nationals Park for the use of the Washington Nationals baseball team. In its design of the stadium, HOK Sport architects sought to represent the “transparency of democracy” as they were inspired by the democratic image and iconography of the US Capital city. Using a perspective based in Lefebvre’s (1991b) production of space, I explore the power relations produced and reproduced within spatial and cultural production. I argue that instead of creating an inclusive space, architects designed a space that exemplifies the late capitalist moment in its focus on consumption, social control, and aesthetic production. Nationals Park, thus, excludes people by class, privileges visitors over residents, and provides an unrealistic view of the city that marginalizes less powerful groups.

scholarly journals Vaccination Diffusion and Incentive: Empirical Analysis of the US State of Michigan

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hwang Kim ◽  
Vithala R. Rao
Keyword(s):  
Causal Inference ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Control Method ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
City Government ◽  
Incentive Scheme ◽  
Synthetic Control ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
The Us ◽  
The City

Vaccination is the only way to reach herd immunity and help people return to normal life. However, vaccination rollouts may not be as fast as expected in some regions due to individuals' vaccination hesitation. For this reason, in Detroit, Michigan, the city government has offered a $50 prepaid card to people who entice city residents to visit vaccination sites. This study examined vaccination rates in the US using Detroit, Michigan, as the setting. It sought to address two issues. First, we analyzed the vaccination diffusion process to predict whether any region would reach a vaccination completion level that ensures herd immunity. Second, we examined a natural experiment involving a vaccination incentive scheme in Detroit and discovered its causal inference. We collected weekly vaccination data and demographic Census data from the state of Michigan and employed the Bass model to study vaccination diffusion. Also, we used a synthetic control method to evaluate the causal inference of a vaccination incentive scheme utilized in Detroit. The results showed that many Michigan counties—as well as the city of Detroit—would not reach herd immunity given the progress of vaccination efforts. Also, we found that Detroit's incentive scheme indeed increased the weekly vaccination rate by 44.19% for the first dose (from 0.86 to 1.25%) but was ineffective in augmenting the rate of the second dose. The implications are valuable for policy makers to implement vaccination incentive schemes to boost vaccination rates in geographical areas where such rates remain inadequate for achieving herd immunity.

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