Bernard Jouve

Bio: Bernard Jouve is an academic researcher from École Normale Supérieure. The author has contributed to research in topics: Metropolitan area & Politics. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 12 publications receiving 258 citations. Previous affiliations of Bernard Jouve include Université de Montréal.

Comparing metropolitan governance: The cases of Montreal and Toronto

Abstract: The transformation of metropolitan governance cannot be understood without adopting a double reading frame referring on the one hand to the actual content of policies aimed at the metropolitan scale, their raison d’etre, the macro-economic logics that underlie them, and on the other hand to the configurations of actors and institutions which evolved strongly in the last 20 years. Essentially, the metropolitan level, beyond the municipal, progressively became (and not without conflict or opposition) the new territory of reference for political leaders as well as for economic ones. Big cities bring pressures for a new configuration of intergovernmental relations. In this institutional and political flux, the main challenge of public policy-making is to stabilize a place for exchanges between institutions. There seem to be an emerging political space at the metropolitan scale, where collective action and claims for local democracy unfold. The recent reforms have created more and more organized local and metropolitan societies. Metropolitanization also means an internal reconstitution of the political sphere and its articulation with civil society. There is a diversification of local and metropolitan responsibilities and activities, from the

New State Spaces in Canada: Metropolitanization in Montreal and Toronto Compared

Abstract: This paper compares the transformation of metropolitan institutions in two Canadian city-regions (Toronto and Montreal). Taking Neil Brenner's argument about new state spaces as a starting point, we discuss comparatively how governance restructuring in recently consolidated Toronto and Montreal has been part of more general changes to the architecture of governance in Canada. We look specifically at changes to the mediation channels between civil society and metropolitan institutions. A "nationally" scaled comparison, this project must take into account the specific differences between Francophone and Anglophone Canada, between the different civic traditions in Montreal and Toronto and different traditional significance attributed to the scale and nature of metropolitan governance structures and variously scaled agency in both cities. This makes our case in many ways more like an international comparison.

Que gouvernent les Régions d'Europe

Abstract: Que gouvernent les regions d'Europe ? Au moment ou se negocie l'elargissement a l'Est et au Sud, il n'est pas inutile de faire le point sur les elements de convergence et de divergence et d'en expliquer les fondements. A partir de la comparaison entre l'Allemagne, I'Irlande, la France, la Grande-Bretagne, I'Espagne et le Portugal, cet ouvrage questionne une realite regionale fortement differenciee, au coeur des transformations politiques des societes europeennes.

In search of a stable urban regime for Montreal: issues and challenges in metropolitan development

Abstract: As with many major North American urban areas since the 1960s, Montreal has faced contextual changes that have brought to the fore the question of its development. However, because of its history and the uncertainties linked with Quebec's constitutional future, attempts to stimulate its development have required certain compromises, often with unexpected results. In order to evaluate the performance of coalitions formed with the objective of meeting the challenges associated with urban and metropolitan development, we have drawn upon the concept of urban regimes. Focusing specifically on Montreal, we ask whether it is possible to transpose urban regime analyses that consider both structural and cultural factors specific to local organized forces. Revealing though they might be, these analyses nevertheless possess certain limitations, notably the underestimation of the weight and increasing importance of players and forces occurring on a metropolitan scale. This is particularly true in the case of Montreal.

Cities: Reimagining the urban.

Abstract: This book develops a fresh and challenging perspective on the city. Drawing on a wide and diverse range of material and texts, it argues that too much contemporary urban theory is based on nostalgia for a humane, face-to-face and bounded city. Amin and Thrift maintain that the traditional divide between the city and the rest of the world has been perforated through urban encroachment, the thickening of the links between the two, and urbanization as a way of Quick links

Towards a relational comparative approach to the study of cities

Abstract: Recent years have witnessed the beginnings of a renaissance in the field of comparative urban studies. The paper discusses this body of work’s history, drawing on contributions from across the social sciences. Following this it highlights some of the work’s limits, namely its weak theorization of place, scale and causality. The paper then offers a relational comparative approach to the study of cities as a means of attending to these limits. This acknowledges both the territorial and relational geographies behind the production of cities.

Open questions on state rescaling

Abstract: Recent work on state rescaling has opened up productive lines of theorization and research. However, this literature contains many open theoretical, interpretive, methodological and empirical questions. By drawing attention to several of these, this article aims to promote reflection and debate on possible future lines of research within this field. I argue, in particular, for greater attention to questions of method—specifically, to the mediations linking

Old Mega-Projects Newly Packaged? Waterfront Redevelopment in Toronto

Abstract: The mega-project is experiencing revived interest as a tool for urban renewal. The current mode of large-scale urban development is, however, different from its predecessor in so far as its focus is flexible and diverse rather than singular and monolithic. However, the diversity that the new approach offers, we argue, forecloses upon a wide variety of social practices, reproducing rather than resolving urban inequality and disenfranchisement. Further, we suggest that the diversity of forms and land uses employed in these mega-projects inhibits the growth of oppositional and contestational practices. The new mega-project also demonstrates a shift from collective benefits to a more individualized form of public benefit. The article is based on Toronto's recent waterfront development proposals, which we identify as an example of a new paradigm of mega-project development within the framework of the competitive city. Its stated but paradoxical goal is to specialize in everything, allowing for the pretence that all interests are being served while simultaneously re-inscribing and reinforcing socioeconomic divisions. Our findings are centred on four areas: institutional change; the importance of mega-projects to global interurban competition; the exclusive nature of public participation processes; and the increasing commodification and circumscription of urban public space.

Introduction—Comparative Urbanism

Abstract: (2007). Introduction—Comparative Urbanism. Urban Geography: Vol. 28, Comparative Urbanism, pp. 1-6.