Analyzing Urban Politics: A Mobilization–Governance Framework

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 1011-1052 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen J. McGovern
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Local Power ◽  
Carceral State ◽  
Governance Framework ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Contemporary Politics

This paper begins by examining recent scholarship on the carceral state and its political consequences as an opportunity to reassess the study of urban politics. Along with illuminating how race structures local power relations, research on the carceral state exposes gaps in the long-standing, political–economy paradigm, and in particular regime theory, concerning the political lives of ordinary people and the role of ideas, values, and ideology in shaping political behavior. At the same time, this paper recognizes the powerful impact of market forces on urban governance, as well as regime theory’s emphasis on organizational resources, intergroup collaboration, and coalition building in accounting for business influence over city policymaking. A new analytical approach is proposed—the mobilization–governance framework—that seeks to build on the insights of scholarship on the carceral state while retaining still-valuable aspects of regime theory. A case study of contemporary politics in Philadelphia is presented to illustrate how the mobilization–governance framework might be applied.

The Implications of State Takeovers for Urban Politics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Domingo Morel
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Urban Regime Theory ◽  
Urban Regime ◽  
Urban Regimes ◽  
State Takeovers ◽  
Changing Role ◽  
Local Leaders

As states increase their presence in localities, what are the enduring implications for urban governance and theories of urban politics? The chapter examines urban regime theory, the dominant urban political theory of the last 30 years, and argues that although urban regime theory is still a relevant framework to analyze urban governance, the changing role of state actors, particularly governors, in urban regimes requires an expansion of urban regime theory as a conceptual framework. The chapter introduces the concept of cohesive and disjointed state-local regimes. The concept proposes that local leaders can best represent the needs of their communities under cohesive state-local regimes, while localities are exposed to less desirable, even hostile, state-led policies under disjointed state-local regimes.

Developing Frameworks for Examining Community Participation in a Multi-Level Environment

2003 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Smith ◽  
Helen Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Community Governance ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Multi Level

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.

Race and State in the Urban Regime

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 490-523
Author(s):  
Domingo Morel
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
Urban Regime Theory ◽  
Urban Regime ◽  
Urban Regimes ◽  
Changing Role

Over the past four decades, cities have experienced greater oversight from state government. Why have states become increasingly involved in local affairs? How has the increasing presence of state government altered how we understand urban politics? Relying on a case study of Newark, New Jersey, this article argues that the increasing presence of state government in local affairs was a response to the growth of Black political empowerment. Furthermore, the Newark case reveals that the changing role of state actors, particularly governors, in urban regimes requires an expansion of urban regime theory as a conceptual framework. Building on the argument that urban regimes should be viewed as intergovernmental regimes, the findings from the case study suggest that local communities are best represented under cohesive state– local regimes, while localities are exposed to less desirable, even hostile, state-led policies, under disjointed state– local regimes.

Participating in Partnership

1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Strange
Keyword(s):  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Regime Theory ◽  
Urban Regime Theory ◽  
Urban Affairs ◽  
Urban Regime ◽  
Development Agenda

In the context of changing relations between the state, business, and urban policy, this article focuses on the role of business participation in the regeneration of Sheffield. It assesses whether Sheffield's business leaders have been able to establish a distinctive business-orientated development agenda in Sheffield's regeneration coalition, and considers the extent to which business participation in urban affairs has been influenced by the restructuring of the local state by central government. A further aim of the paper is to explore the relevance of urban regime theory in interpreting the role of local business leaders in urban governance.

Urban Politics Reconsidered

Urban Studies ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (12) ◽  
pp. 2629-2660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon MacLeod
Keyword(s):  
Urban Politics ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Business Improvement Districts ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Community Power ◽  
Role Of The State

Over the past three decades, research in urban politics or increasingly urban governance reveals a landscape powerfully reflecting what might now be defined as a post-political consensus. Following a waning of the community power, urban managerialist and collective consumption debates, this ‘new urban politics’ has appeared conspicuously absorbed with analysing a purported consensus around economic growth alongside a proliferation of entrepreneurially oriented governing regimes. More recent contributions, acknowledging the role of the state and governmentalities of criminal justice, uncover how downtown renaissance is inscribed through significant land privatisations and associated institutionalised expressions like Business Improvement Districts and other ‘primary definers’ of ‘public benefit’: all choreographed around an implicit consensus to ‘police’ the circumspect city, while presenting as ultra-politics anything that might disturb the strict ethics of consumerist citizenship. Beyond downtown, a range of shadow governments, secessionary place-makings and privatisms are remaking the political landscape of post-suburbia. It is contended that the cumulative effect of such metropolitan splintering may well be overextending our established interpretations of urban landscapes and city politics, prompting non-trivial questions about the precise manner in which political representation, democracy and substantive citizenship are being negotiated across metropolitan regions, from downtown streetscape to suburban doorstep. This paper suggests that recent theorisations on post-democracy and the post-political may help to decode the contemporary landscape of urban politics beyond governance, perhaps in turn facilitating a better investigation of crucial questions over distributional justice and metropolitan integrity.

Directing the Show? Business Leaders, Local Partnership, and Economic Regeneration in Sheffield

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
I Strange
Keyword(s):  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Economic Restructuring ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Local Business ◽  
Growth Coalition

The processes of urban economic restructuring in Britain, and the political responses to it, have entailed not only a drive but also a need for greater cooperation between government and nongovernment actors. The process of economic restructuring, together with a raft of centrally determined urban policy measures which have transformed the modus operandi of the local state, have made governing at the local level a more complex and more fragmented task. In this context of shifting relations between business, state, and urban policy, I examine the role of business in the regeneration of Sheffield and assess whether local business leaders have been able to establish a distinctive business-oriented agenda for regeneration. In the analysis I trace the evolution of business participation in the city's regeneration network, and reveal the struggles faced by the business community in the process of coalition building. A further aim in the paper is to examine the relevance of growth-coalition and urban-regime theories in interpreting the role of local business leaders in the changing landscape of urban governance.

scholarly journals Gift giving in the neoliberal city: Polanyi's substantivism and the exchange of density for affordable housing in Vancouver

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110227
Author(s):  
Zachary Hyde
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Economic Research ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Housing Provision ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Land Use Decisions

The policy of density agreements, allowing extra density for condominium developers in exchange for affordable housing units, is seen as an example of the neoliberalization of urban governance in North American and European cities. The consensus of scholarship on urban neoliberalism has suggested this practice is indicative of the rise of the entrepreneurial, market-orientated local state. Through a study of urban development in Vancouver, British Columbia. I illustrate how exchanging density for affordable housing also operates on the basis of gift giving. In doing so I integrate Karl Polanyi's framework of substantivism, which highlights various forms of economic exchange including markets, redistribution, and reciprocity, into research on urban governance. Applying the principles of substantivism to the case of Vancouver, I argue that reciprocity obfuscates the negative effects of the privatization of affordable housing provision by making social welfare contingent on increasing profits for developers, concealing the role of political power in land-use decisions, and gentrifying low-income neighbourhoods. These findings hold implications for the study of urban politics, the neoliberalization of affordable housing, and urban-economic research more generally.

Capitalists against financialization: The battle over German pension funds

2021 ◽  
pp. 102452942199300
Author(s):  
Nils Röper
Keyword(s):  
Pension Funds ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Coalition Building ◽  
Investment Companies ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Strategic Goals ◽  
Old Age Provision ◽  
Political Battle ◽  
The Welfare State

Despite renewed interest in the role of business in shaping the welfare state, we still know little about how factions of capital adapt their strategies and translate these into political infighting and coalition building. Based on a detailed process tracing analysis of the political battle over German pension funds, this paper shows that cleavages within business do not necessarily run along the lines of finance vs. non-finance. While ‘financial challengers’ (banks and investment companies) advocated financialized pension funds, ‘financial incumbents’ (insurers) defended a conservative understanding of old age provision. Tremendous political momentum towards financialization notwithstanding, challengers remained largely unsuccessful. Incumbents elicited support from the wider business community by adjusting their strategic goals and engaging in discursive reformulations to effectively fight pension financialization from within capital. To accommodate such competition politics and coalition building, the paper argues for a more dynamic understanding of business strategizing and highlights the importance of discursive political strategies. It shows that some capitalists may act as antagonists of elements of financialization and problematizes the actual mechanisms of coalition building through which business plurality affects political outcomes.

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