Comparing metropolitan governance: The cases of Montreal and Toronto
TL;DR: 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 macroeconomic logics that underlie them, and on the other hand, the configurations of actors and institutions which evolved strongly in the last 20 years as mentioned in this paper.
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
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01 Sep 2003
TL;DR: This book develops a fresh and challenging perspective on the city and argues that too much contemporary urban theory is based on nostalgia for a humane, face-to-face and bounded city.
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
633 citations
TL;DR: Ekers et al. as mentioned in this paper trace the major modalities of suburban governance through a review of the extant literature on the matter and make a case for each and how they function and interrelate.
Abstract: Ekers M., Hamel P. and Keil R. Governing suburbia: modalities and mechanisms of suburban governance, Regional Studies. This paper traces the major modalities of suburban governance through a review of the extant literature on the matter. Based on the existing debate on suburban governance it appears that three modalities can be differentiated: the state, capital accumulation and private authoritarianism. A case is made for each and how they function and interrelate is developed. What are the universal and particular forces shaping suburbanization processes in different urban-regions? It is also argued that governance itself needs to be used in critical sense by extending its meaning towards issues of suburbanism, not just the process merely of suburbanization. Ekers M., Hamel P. and Keil R. 管治郊区：郊区管治的模式与机制. 区域研究. 本文通过大量文献回顾来追溯郊区管治的主要模式。基于现有郊区管治的争论，可以识别出三种模式：政府、资本积累和私人独裁主义。文中为每种模式给出了一个案例，而且探讨了这些模式是如何发挥作用和相互联系的。在不同的城市区域，塑造郊区化过程的普遍和独特驱动力是什么？本文还认为需要批判性地使用管治这个概念，将其含义扩展到郊区主义的各种问题，而不仅仅是郊区化的过程。 郊区化 郊区主义 管治 全球性郊区 ...
140 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify an urban problematic by reference to the essential characteristics of cities as spatially polarized ensembles of human activity marked by high levels of internal symbiosis and argue that this new dynamic is based in high degree upon the growth and spread of cognitive-cultural production systems.
Abstract: An urban problematic is identified by reference to the essential characteristics of cities as spatially polarized ensembles of human activity marked by high levels of internal symbiosis. The roots of the crisis of the classical industrial metropolis of the twentieth century are pinpointed, and the emergence of a new kind of urban economic dynamic over the 1980s and 1990s is discussed. I argue that this new dynamic is based in high degree upon the growth and spread of cognitive-cultural production systems. Along with these developments have come radical transformations of urban space and social life, as well as major efforts on the part of many cities to assert a role for themselves as national and international cultural centers. This argument is the basis of what we might call the resurgent metropolis hypothesis. The effects of globalization are shown to play a critical role in the genesis and geography of urban resurgence. Three major policy dilemmas of resurgent cities are highlighted, namely, their internal institutional fragmentation, their increasing character as economic agents on the world stage and the concomitant importance of collective approaches to the construction of localized competitive advantage, and their deepening social disintegration and segmentation.
91 citations
TL;DR: The influence of neoliberal policy ideas in urban government is widespread across the world of cities, making it a useful focus for assessing the internationalization of urban theory as mentioned in this paper. And the importance of building on analyses of connections and rigorous comparisons to generate new theoretical understandings based on attending to urban neoliberalism's travels.
Abstract: The influence of neoliberal policy ideas in urban government is widespread across the world of cities, making it a useful focus for assessing the internationalization of urban theory. To this end, the paper addresses three aspects of studies of urban neoliberalism that speak to the promise of methodological experiments in urban studies and potentially contribute to the internationalization of urban theory. These are the analytical potential of tracing the substantive connections among cities forged by neoliberal policy circuits; the possibility that formal comparative methods might contribute to building new theoretical understandings of the diverse landscape of urban neoliberalism; and the importance of building on analyses of connections and rigorous comparisons to generate new theoretical understandings based on attending to urban neoliberalism's travels. Together I hope that these offer some practical ways in which to generate more international urban theory and provide some methodological directions ...
87 citations
Cites background from "Comparing metropolitan governance: ..."
...Detailed studies such as the book-length case of Toronto open up the wide array of different social and political forces that shape urban outcomes alongside any neoliberalizing projects (Boudreau et al., 2009)....
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...A number of studies, however, reflect carefully on the experiences of particular cities in relation to the wider literature, thus performing a kind of individualizing comparison (see Tilly, 1984; Brenner, 2001) as the divergent outcomes of urban neoliberalization initiatives in different cities are considered (for example, McGuirk, 2005; Gotham and Greenberg, 2008; Boudreau et al., 2009; Guarneros-Meza, 2009; Varsanyi, 2011)....
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...…would do well to link some of the more positive discussions on democratic decentralization in developing-country contexts to the wider critique of conceptualizations of decentralization (or metropolitanization) as strategic elements of the neoliberal arsenal (Harding, 2007; Boudreau et al., 2009)....
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...developing-country contexts to the wider critique of conceptualizations of decentralization (or metropolitanization) as strategic elements of the neoliberal arsenal (Harding, 2007; Boudreau et al., 2009)....
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...…performing a kind of individualizing comparison (see Tilly, 1984; Brenner, 2001) as the divergent outcomes of urban neoliberalization initiatives in different cities are considered (for example, McGuirk, 2005; Gotham and Greenberg, 2008; Boudreau et al., 2009; Guarneros-Meza, 2009; Varsanyi, 2011)....
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TL;DR: The authors compared 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, and discussed comparatively how governance restructuring in recently consolidated Toronto and Montreal has been part of more general changes to the architecture of governance in Canada.
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.
58 citations
Cites background from "Comparing metropolitan governance: ..."
...In future work (see also Boudreau et al., 2006, for a more comprehensive treatment of our research), we note the necessity of engaging more concretely with individual areas of governance such as competitiveness strategies, environmental policy, or transportation management....
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...We examine specifically if and how these regions have been emerging as collective actors in the areas of international competitiveness, environmental policy, and transportation governance (Boudreau et al., 2006)....
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References
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TL;DR: The authors show that the Musgrave-Samuelson analysis, which is valid for federal expenditures, need not apply to local expenditures, and restate the assumptions made by Musgrave and Samuelson and the central problems with which they deal.
Abstract: NE of the most important recent developments in the area of "applied economic theory" has been the work of Musgrave and Samuelson in public finance theory.2 The two writers agree on what is probably the major point under investigation, namely, that no "market type" solution exists to determine the level of expenditures on public goods. Seemingly, we are faced with the problem of having a rather large portion of our national income allocated in a "non-optimal" way when compared with the private sector. This discussion will show that the Musgrave-Samuelson analysis, which is valid for federal expenditures, need not apply to local expenditures. The plan of the discussion is first to restate the assumptions made by Musgrave and Samuelson and the central problems with which they deal. After looking at a key difference between the federal versus local cases, I shall present a simple model. This model yields a solution for the level of expenditures for local public goods which reflects the preferences of the population more adequately than they can be reflected at the national level. The assumptions of the model will then be relaxed to see what implications are involved. Finally, policy considerations will be discussed.
12,105 citations
Book•
01 Mar 2004
TL;DR: The Rise of the Creative Class as mentioned in this paper describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant, with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing.
Abstract: The national bestseller that defines a new economic class and shows how it is key to the future of our cities. The Washington Monthly 2002 Annual Political Book Award WinnerThe Rise of the Creative Class gives us a provocative new way to think about why we live as we do today-and where we might be headed. Weaving storytelling with masses of new and updated research, Richard Florida traces the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy. Just as William Whyte's 1956 classic The Organization Man showed how the organizational ethos of that age permeated every aspect of life, Florida describes a society in which the creative ethos is increasingly dominant. Millions of us are beginning to work and live much as creative types like artists and scientists always have-with the result that our values and tastes, our personal relationships, our choices of where to live, and even our sense and use of time are changing. Leading the shift are the nearly 38 million Americans in many diverse fields who create for a living-the Creative Class. The Rise of the Creative Class chronicles the ongoing sea of change in people's choices and attitudes, and shows not only what's happening but also how it stems from a fundamental economic change. The Creative Class now comprises more than thirty percent of the entire workforce. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.
7,252 citations
TL;DR: In recent years, urban governance has become increasingly preoccupied with the exploration of new ways in which to foster and encourage local development and employment growth as mentioned in this paper, and urban entrepreneurship has become a hot topic.
Abstract: In recent years, urban governance has become increasingly preoccupied with the exploration of new ways in which to foster and encourage local development and employment growth. Such an entrepreneur...
4,183 citations
"Comparing metropolitan governance: ..." refers background in this paper
...Political rescaling is thus a strategy employed by states to respond to the new post-fordist accumulation regime that destroys the very basis of the welfare state and transforms city-regions into the ecosystem of contemporary capitalism (Harvey, 1989; Swyngedouw, 1989; Goodwin et al., 1993; Goodwin and Painter, 1996; Jessop, 2000; Amin, 2002)....
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...…by states to respond to the new post-fordist accumulation regime that destroys the very basis of the welfare state and transforms city-regions into the ecosystem of contemporary capitalism (Harvey, 1989; Swyngedouw, 1989; Goodwin et al., 1993; Goodwin and Painter, 1996; Jessop, 2000; Amin, 2002)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the relevance of growth to the interests of various social groups is examined in this context, particularly with reference to the issue of unemployment, and recent social trends in opposition to growth are described and their potential consequences evaluated.
Abstract: A city and, more generally, any locality, is conceived as the areal expression of the interests of some land-based elite. Such an elite is seen to profit through the increasing intensification of the land use of the area in which its members hold a common interest. An elite competes with other land-based elites in an effort to have growth-inducing resources invested within its own area as opposed to that of another. Governmental authority, at the local and nonlocal levels, is utilized to assist in achieving this growth at the expense of competing localities. Conditions of community life are largely a consequence of the social, econimic, and political forces embodied in this growth machine. The relevance of growth to the interests of various social groups is examined in this context, particularly with reference to the issue of unemployment. Recent social trends in opposition to growth are described and their potential consequences evaluated.
1,662 citations
"Comparing metropolitan governance: ..." refers background in this paper
...…on mobilization for collective consumption in the 1970s and 1980s: a struggle between use value and exchange value, between the perceived needs of global competitiveness and the needs of local residents (Castells, 1972, 1983; Molotch, 1976; Cox and Mair, 1988; Jonas and Wilson, 1999; Donald, 2001)....
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Book•
18 Nov 2004
TL;DR: The State Spatial Process under Capitalism: A Framework for Analysis as discussed by the authors ) is a state spatial process under capitalism framework for analysis, focusing on cities, states, and the explosion of spaces.
Abstract: Preface 1 Introduction: Cities, States, and the 'Explosion of Spaces' 2 The Globalization Debates: Opening up to New Spaces? 3 The State Spatial Process under Capitalism: A Framework for Analysis 4 Urban Governance and the Nationalization of State Space: Political Geographies of Spatial Keynesianism 5 Interlocality Competition as a State Project: Urban Locational Policy and the Rescaling of State Space 6 Alternative Rescaling Strategies and the Future of New State Spaces Bibliography Index
1,459 citations