Analysing Urban Governance Networks: Bringing Regime Theory Back in

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismael Blanco
1994 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Stoker ◽  
K Mossberger

The urban literature has devoted increasing attention to cross-national comparison of urban change and governance. What is lacking, however, is the development of conceptual frameworks that are adequate to embrace the greater variation in conditions encountered in cross-national research, compared with conditions within a single country. Without such a framework, comparison remains an exercise in depicting unique and unrelated cases. Urban regime theory holds potential for explaining the variety of arrangements through which policymakers in cities have coped with change, because of its sensitivity to local conditions and local actors. Its essential contribution is to focus attention on the collective action problems that have to be overcome for effective urban governance to emerge. The nature of the collective action challenge varies according to the purpose, composition, and position of potential regime partners. Substantial differences in motivating factors must be taken into account in order to apply regime analysis cross-nationally. Drawing upon differences already identified in the regime literature, the authors propose a typology of organic, instrumental, and symbolic regimes.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Davies

Between Realism and Revolt explores urban governance in the “age of austerity”, focusing on the period between the global financial crisis of 2008-9 and the beginning of the global Coronavirus pandemic at the end of 2019. It considers urban governance after the 2008 crisis, from the perspective of governability. How did cities navigate the crisis and the aftermath of austerity, with what political ordering and disordering dynamics at the forefront? To answer these questions it engages with two influential theoretical currents, Urban Regime Theory and Gramscian state theory, with a view to understanding how governance enabled austerity, deflected or intensified localised expressions of crisis, and generated more-or-less successful political alternatives. It develops a comparative analysis of case studies undertaken in the cities of Athens, Baltimore, Barcelona, Greater Dandenong (Melbourne), Leicester, Montreal and Nantes, and concludes by highlighting five characteristics that cut across the cities, unevenly and in different configurations: economic rationalism, weak hegemony, retreat to dominance, weak counter-hegemony and radically contagious politicisations.


Author(s):  
Marianne E. Krasny ◽  
Erika S. Svendsen ◽  
Cecil Konijnendijk van den Bosch ◽  
Johan Enqvist ◽  
Alex Russ

This chapter explores the relationship between environmental governance and urban environmental education. It first provides an overview of environmental governance and governance networks before discussing research on the prevalence of organizations conducting environmental education in governance networks in Asian, European, and U.S. cities. It then offers suggestions on how environmental education organizations can be effective contributors in urban environmental governance and explains how the role of environmental education in governance can be made transparent to educators and participants. It argues that environmental education organizations are actors in urban governance networks and can play an important role in environmental governance. It also asserts that an explicit focus on governance will enable organizational leaders to target their partnerships and efforts to have a greater impact on urban sustainability and will enable youths and other participants to gain an understanding of critical concepts in environmental management and policy.


2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Smith ◽  
Helen Sullivan

The purpose of this paper is to explore public participation from the perspective of two parallel developments in English urban governance since 1997: namely the attempts to modernise local government and area-based approaches employed to tackle social exclusion. The paper will situate these developments within a system of multi-level governance and highlight the significance of the locality-neighbourhood axis. The paper seeks to explicate current changes by drawing on theories of governance. The emphasis on mechanisms that bring together relevant local interests to secure coherence and stability in matters of local governance, combined with the specific focus on the role of citizens and communities as key partners in these arrangements resonates strongly with the key concerns of regime theory. The strengths and limitations of regime theory are discussed with particular reference to matters of contextual specificity. Community Governance is then introduced as a means of better understanding the institutional framework of English localities and, we argue, of providing a sounder basis for the application of regime theory. More powerful still is the potential synthesis of regime approaches with different interpretations of community governance and the paper concludes by drawing on recent developments in English localities to elaborate the potential offered by the this synthesised framework.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 888-918
Author(s):  
Göktuğ Morçöl ◽  
Turgay Karagoz

A conceptual framework is proposed to investigate the accountability of business improvement district (BID) in urban governance networks and it is applied in analyses of BID state enabling laws in the United States. The conditions that lead to their emergence and the enhancement of their functions and how BIDs and their accountability issues should be conceptualized are discussed. The multidimensional framework proposed in this study includes political and bureaucratic accountability, transparency, liability, and responsiveness mechanisms. The results of the analyses show that the laws rely primarily on political and bureaucratic control mechanisms and provide some transparency mechanisms. The problems in implementing the bureaucratic and political control mechanisms are elaborated. The implications of the findings for future empirical studies are discussed.


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