Jonathan S. Davies - Innovations in Urban Politics

Innovations in Urban Politics

If it does not already, the population of cities will very soon make up more than half the global population. As the global urban population continues to expand, the challenges facing urban politics grow with it.

Innovations in Urban Politics discusses many issues such as:

This book demonstrates the contribution of urban scholarship to answering these questions. It draws together the work of new and established scholars from the UK, Canada, the US and South Africa in an impressive and wide ranging collection of chapters. It demonstrates the vitality of the field of urban politics and presents challenges for urban political research in the years ahead.

This book was previously published as a special issue of Policy Studies.

Dr Jonathan S. Davies is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy at the Institute for Governance and Public Management University of Warwick.

Journal of European Public Policy Series

Series Editor: Jeremy Richardson is a Professor at Nuffield College, Oxford University

This series seeks to bring together some of the finest edited works on European Public Policy. Reprinting from Special Issues of the Journal of European Public Policy, the focus is on using a wide range of social sciences approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, to gain a comprehensive and definitive understanding of Public Policy in Europe.

Towards a Federal Europe

Edited by Alexander H. Trechsel

The Disparity of European Integration

Edited by Tanja A. Brzel

Cross-National Policy Convergence:

Causes Concepts and Empirical Findings

Edited by Christoph Knill

Civilian or Military Power?

European Foreign Policy in Perspective

Edited by Helene Sjursen

The European Union and New Trade Politics

Edited by John Peterson and Alasdair R. Young

Comparative Studies of Policy Agendas

Edited by Frank R. Baumgartner, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Bryan D. Jones

Innovations in Urban Politics

Edited by Jonathan S. Davies

Innovations in Urban Politics

Edited by Jonathan S. Davies

First published 2008 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2008 Edited by Jonathan S. Davies

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

ISBN 10: 0-415-42088-1 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-42088-4 (hbk)

Contents

J ONATHAN S. D AVIES

C LARENCE N. S TONE

K RISTIN G OOD

V IVIEN L OWNDES

J ONATHAN S. D AVIES

P ATRICK B OND

M IKE G EDDES

This book highlights recent research in urban politics. It draws together an international and cosmopolitan group of scholars working on urban politics, each making a distinctive contribution. In a diverse collection of essays, it is challenging for an editor to make connections and generalisations about the contributions and this book is no exception. Each chapter speaks for itself. Yet, there is a common theme, which lies in the implicit or explicit assertion of each author that the study of politics at the urban scale is essential. In short, urban politics matters. It does so in different ways and to different degrees depending on context, but the case for studying the politics of cities is clear. This book serves as a show-case for new thinking in the urban politics discipline.

We begin with Clarence Stones chapter. Debate in urban politics has, in many ways, been defined by Stones work on regime politics over the past 20 years. His master thesis is that despite the long shadow cast by global neo-liberalism, urban politics matter. His chapter develops this argument further and in doing so, provides the context for the remaining contributions. Stone undertakes a critique of Petersons City Limits to assert convincingly that urban politics matter in the formulation of policy. He begins with a critique of Petersons conjecture that economic and development imperatives dictate policy, that policy shapes politics and that cities therefore have a unitary interest in development a form of structural determinism overlaid by a rational conception of the unitary interest. Stones purpose is to illustrate how politics are relevant in the determination of policy and how apparently neutral goods in Petersons scheme, like the notion of a unitary interest, are the objects of political struggle. Stone argues for research sensitive to issues monopolized by short term calculation on one hand and where long term considerations are important on the other. The second face of power how some issues gain attention while others do not is vital. He therefore cautions against the injudicious use of the term unitary interest, suggesting that cases where there is a genuine unitary interest are unusual. Building on this argument, Stone takes regime theory beyond its traditional focus on city-business relations in the US, looking anew at how it can help us understand local politics in Europe where, in the formal system of local governance at least, business is much less prominent than public sector interests. He proposes a looser conception of regime than hitherto, whereby a regime is the informal arrangements through which a community is governed.

Stone provides empirical examples from US, UK and Swedish cities to demonstrate that analytical power need not be sacrificed in comparative research making his case that urban politics matter. Each of these cases, in different ways, illustrates the vitality of local politics and the centrality of networked governance to policy development. Here Stone re-states his commitment to a structuring analysis of politics resonating with Lowndes argument that while structures may delineate the rules of the game, the game can be played in many ways which in turn influence the rules. In short, argues Stone, while city politics is structured by growth and development imperatives, decision-makers are creatures of the relationships in which they are embedded, and they understand their choices from that standpoint and subjectivity is unavoidable. Stone concludes that there is no static relationship between policy and politics and that despite his insistence on a unitary interest, Petersons own work reveals this.

Kristin Goods contribution takes up the same theme, drawing on a combination of urban regime theory and Heros social diversity perspective to confront a common perception in the Canadian literature that localities are the creatures of provinces. Good examines the findings from a comparative study of seven diverse municipalities within the primary immigrant receiving city regions in English speaking Canada; the Greater Toronto Area and the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Her main argument is that the ethnic configuration of municipalities influences the likelihood that local leaders pursue multiculturalism goals and local governing arrangements. She finds that local government in racially bifurcated communities with a single concentrated minority group tends to be more responsive than local government in areas where several minority groups have settled. The reason is that it is easier to build community capacity in bifurcated areas than in racially heterogeneous communities. However, there were exceptions to this finding. For example, community activism drives a powerful multiculturalism agenda in an ethnically diverse area of Toronto, while it turns out that a biracial population is no guarantee that localities will pursue a responsive policy agenda. In other words, the population structure is important, though not determining of the local governmental response to ethnic minority issues. The other important factor is the relative organisation of ethnic groups, well-organised groups providing a mediating force between ethnic configuration and policy responsiveness. Good concludes that urban regimes with a strong multiculturalism agenda are more likely to emerge in areas with a bi-racial population, but that the ability of political leaders to mobilize requisite resources around a common purpose is also important. Thus, locality is doubly important in determining the policy agenda: in terms of structural conditions and the activism of political leaders.