Showing papers on "Polycentricity published in 2021"

Polycentric urban development and urban amenities: Evidence from Chinese cities:

Abstract: The recent literature on the “consumer city” and the “love of variety” argues that the provision of urban amenities makes a city more attractive. Meanwhile, polycentric urban development has been h...

Polycentric regions: Proposals for a new typology and terminology:

Abstract: ‘Polycentricity on a regional scale’, or in short the ‘polycentric region’ (PR), is a key concept in both urban and regional research and planning. But the term is used in many different ways, maki...

Proximity and the evolving knowledge polycentricity of megalopolitan science: Evidence from China’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, 1990–2016:

Abstract: Despite the two key defining features of megalopolises as incubators and hinges in a globalising knowledge economy, how intercity knowledge flows could shape the polycentric structure of the scienc...

The Ostroms and the contestable nature of goods: beyond taxonomies and toward institutional polycentricity

Abstract: This paper builds on the Ostroms' oeuvre to suggest that the binary Samuelsonian taxonomy of goods – or the ‘sterile dichotomy’, as Elinor Ostrom calls it – cannot serve as a reliable guide for public policy. Using the Ostroms' insights on co-production, institutional matching, and polycentricity, we argue that the ‘inherent’ nature of goods and their specific taxonomy are not static and definitive concepts but are instead contestable and dynamic features that are institutionally contingent. We explore four crucial mechanisms and/or contexts, not altogether unrelated, whereby the nature of goods becomes contestable and malleable: namely, (1) technological and geographical factors, (2) coproduction and entrepreneurial ingenuity, (3) bundling and unbundling of services, and (4) ideologies and regime shifts. This exercise has twofold purposes. First, we generalize the notion that there is nothing ‘inherent’ in the nature of goods and services and that they are fluid, heterogeneous, and malleable concepts. Second, we contribute to the debate on the provision of public goods and the role of civil society by highlighting the need for institutional malleability and diversity adaptive to changing technology, contexts, and institutional conditions.

Transport relations among settlement centres in the eastern part of the Czech Republic as a potential for polycentricity

Abstract: Transport is one of the important factors influencing the arrangement of spatial relations and creating of spatial interactions in society. This proposition can also be applied to the forming of links within an urban system. In connection with this it is possible to point out that, to a large extent, the arrangement of transport relations also predetermines monocentric or polycentric organization of urban systems. The paper deals with an analysis of these connections, both in theory and in practice. The example of the eastern part of the Czech Republic, based on public transport supply, serves to identify transport interactions between 51 centres that make daily interactions between them possible. Apart from the typology of spatial pattern of the found transport interactions the paper also quantifies the benefits for the population of the centres, brought about by potential polycentricity (e.g. a greater plurality of choices regarding the place of daily activities). The benefits are analyzed by means of the calculation of the daily economic potential expressed as the total number of accessible jobs.

Polycentricity and Regional Ocean Governance: Implications for the Emerging UN Agreement on Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction

Abstract: The governance of the two-thirds of the world’s ocean in areas beyond national jurisdiction (the high seas and deep seabed beyond national jurisdiction or ABNJ) is currently fragmented into diverse institutions addressing specific activities, issues or regions. This has hampered the international community’s ability to redress critical issues including biodiversity loss, pollution, climate change, ecosystem degradation and declining fisheries in an integrated and ecosystem-based manner. Our analysis of polycentricity theory and associated enabling conditions shows that the current polycentric approach to marine biodiversity in ABNJ is not yet fully functional: it is missing the two key attributes of: 1) generally applicable rules and norms structuring actions and behaviours, and 2) processes to enhance cooperation, coordination, and conflict resolution. Based on the enabling conditions conducive for achieving “a functional polycentric governance system” identified in Carlisle and Gruby (2019), combined with a prior analysis applying resilience principles for socio-ecological systems to ABNJ (Yadav and Gjerde, 2020), this article suggests seven ways the emerging United Nations agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity of ABNJ (BBNJ Agreement) could stimulate coordinated and integrated action at both global and regional levels in ABNJ. These include: 1) overarching rules, goals and objectives; 2) formal and informal conflict resolution mechanisms; 3) robust global institutional arrangements; 4) strengthened global, regional and sectoral bodies with shared and overlapping responsibility for biodiversity conservation; 5) strengthened cooperation through integrated ecosystem assessments and strategic action programmes at ecologically meaningful scales that could include areas within and beyond national jurisdiction; 6) learning exchange mechanisms within and across regions; and 7) strengthened regional and national capacities for ecosystem-based management in ABNJ. Taken together, these tools could enhance the resilience of ocean institutions, ecosystems and biodiversity to cope with growing pressures, uncertainty and rapid change in ABNJ.

Sociolinguistic scales in retrospect

Abstract: Abstract In this commentary, I offer a review of how sociolinguistic scales featured in the development of my own work over the past decade. Scales, I explain, were always indispensable as an imaginative concept allowing a reimagination of sociolinguistic facts, but the concept of scales was never sufficient to adequately address this reimagined reality. I illustrate this point by means of an account of how scales helped me address three fundamental problems: the problem of meaning, that of situatedness, and that of indexicality.

Polycentric urban structure and innovation: evidence from a panel of Chinese cities

Abstract: This study investigates how a city’s innovation capacity could be influenced by its polycentric urban structure. Drawing upon a panel data set containing 267 Chinese cities at the prefecture level ...

Reconfiguring Water Governance for Resilient Social-Ecological Systems in South America

Abstract: The Global South is usually underrepresented in comparative water governance studies. Latin America has abundant water resources but is the most unequal region in terms of access to water. Water governance in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay has been gradually moving from a conventional-centralized mode towards a decentralized, participatory and potentially adaptive approach. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the main institutional changes in water governance during the past few decades in these three neighbouring South American countries, and how these changes have generated attributes which confer resilience to watersheds as social-ecological systems. A comparative case study approach was used to analyze the three countries, with document analysis as the key method. The findings show that the water governance reform started with changes or incorporations in the countries’ constitutions (Brazil – 1988, Argentina – 1994, Uruguay – 2004). Another common trend is the government interest to adopt integrated water resources management (IWRM) principles, such as the river basin approach and the formation of river basin organizations, including participatory forums or boards involving government institutions, users and civil society. Brazil shows clear signs of polycentric governance, while polycentricity is more limited in Argentina and Uruguay, although there exists some enabling legislation.

Measuring polycentric structures of megaregions in China: Linking morphological and functional dimensions:

Abstract: The idea of megaregions, which focuses on polycentricity, competitiveness, and integration attracts much attention in research and policy. China has used megaregions as a normative governance frame...

Using morphological and functional polycentricity analyses to study the Indonesian urban spatial structure: the case of Medan, Jakarta, and Denpasar

Abstract: The existence of polycentric urban form has been widely discovered in worldwide urban development, yet the topic has received little attention in Southeast Asia. This study aims to explore urban sp...

Assessing polycentric urban development in Shanghai, China, with detailed passive mobile phone data:

Abstract: Despite growing studies on the distinction between morphological and functional polycentricity, the present methods for identifying polycentricity often focus on the morphological dimension due to ...

Maximising Goal Coherence in Sustainable and Climate-Resilient Development? Polycentricity and Coordination in Governance

Abstract: This chapter argues that most efforts to mobilise non-state and subnational actor engagement so far has insufficiently contributed to goal coherence—the balanced implementation of internationally agreed goals. Despite the increased level of attention being given to the polycentric nature of sustainable development and climate governance—especially the role of non-state and subnational actors—the predominant focus of both policy-makers and researchers has been on filling functional gaps, for example closing the global mitigation gap, or financing gaps. As a result, voluntariness and self-organisation in polycentric governance could increase the level of incoherence. Insights on emerging polycentric structures should be combined with tools that map (goal) coherence. The combination of these fields of knowledge could inform supportive policies, for instance in development cooperation to ensure greater coherence in implementing sustainable development priorities.

Strategies for Sustainable Urban Mobility: Analysis of Best Practices

Abstract: The article is dedicated to the analysis of the approved strategies for sustainable mobility (sustainable transport) in the world’s leading cities It is shown that most strategic documents contain similar principles and goals that determine the transformation vectors for cities The fundamental principles include hierarchy of priorities (not only financial, but also in terms of equitable distribution of urban space, starting from pedestrian and bicycle mobility and public transport and ending with parking);increasing ecomobility, involving the “80:20” principle (fixing the goal of bringing the share of sustainable modes of mobility to 80% and decreasing the share of cars to 20% by 2030);“healthy streets, healthy people” and “complete streets” (reformatting car-oriented streets into bicycle and pedestrian spaces, administrative restrictions for cars, internalization of externalities);development of environmentally friendly high-speed rail public transport and the creation of preferential access rights for public transport;Vision Zero (zero tolerance for road accidents);compactness, polycentricity, and transit-oriented development;smart transport and multimodality;consideration of the transport system as one of the integral parts of the city’s stability (holistic view), etc It is determined that the analyzed mobility strategies organically integrate into the general trajectory of sustainable long-term development and promotion of real human wellbeing Most strategies focus on personal experience of their beneficiaries, which lies at the heart of any reform (people-centered approach) An additional benefit resulting from the implementation of sustainable mobility strategies is lower density and safer distancing within cities, which is highly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as reduced freight prices and development of a more just and secure city environment © 2021, Ekonomicheskaya Politika All Rights Reserved

Silk Road Heritage Branding and Polycentric Tourism Development

Abstract: Cultural heritage, considered as a tool for sustainable tourism development and place branding, makes a destination appealing to visitors; hence, cultural heritage tourism can be a driving force for economic growth in cities and regions. Polycentricity is a useful multi-scalar concept in spatial theory that describes how adjacent urban centers can interact with each other, creating synergies and generating broader spatial networks. Cultural heritage and tourism, perceived as important factors of integration in a polycentric spatial structure, can further promote regional branding strategies. In this paper, a polycentricity index is introduced as a methodological tool for networking cultural heritage destinations, with an application to the Silk Road heritage. Silk Road cultural assets traced on the historical Silk Road routes linking East and West, can serve as tourist attraction poles and as an essential component for branding destinations through networking at various spatial scales. The Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, endowed with a plethora of Silk Road cultural assets, most of which are still untapped, is used to highlight the proposed methodology. The ultimate objective is the designation of polycentric destination networks based on Silk Road assets, in order to build regional branding opportunities over the Region.

The innovation systems approach: an austrian and ostromian perspective

Abstract: The innovation systems (IS) approach—developed by Richard Nelson, Christopher Freeman and Bengt-Ake Lundvall, amongst others—has become perhaps the dominant approach in the academic literature for the study of innovation. It has also exerted considerable influence on policy. This paper examines both the theory underpinning the IS approach, which bears considerable affinities with Austrian economics, and also its policy implications. It is argued that the work of Friedrich Hayek and Elinor Ostrom in particular can be used to draw attention to some potential difficulties with the way in which the IS approach is often used to guide policy. Ideas drawn from Austrian economics, as well as the work of Elinor Ostrom, are used to help develop and improve the IS approach, both theoretically and in terms of its approach to policy.

Creating space for wind energy in a polycentric governance setting

Abstract: With the progression of the climate crisis, countries aim to achieve energy transitions by increasing their renewable energy shares. Onshore wind power plays a central role in facilitating this transition, especially in Germany, one of the pioneers of transitioning the electricity sector. Achieving transition targets and securing the supply are inextricably linked to the availability of land for and installation of renewable energy infrastructure. Challenges have increased to create space for wind power in Germany, i.e., allocate land for wind turbines. Bottlenecks could be attributed to mismatches in the underlying polycentric governance framework. Polycentric governance is a complex governance form with multiple yet independent decision-making centres. This article contributes to the question of how appropriate space for wind power can be identified. It analyses how governance processes evolve in a polycentric setting and with what consequences. In applying polycentricity, it assesses why it has become complex to create space for onshore wind power. Methods include a single-case study design and the polycentric lens as an analytical frame. Results demonstrate that wind power governance is a complex, multi-element endeavour with strengths and weaknesses. These can be attributed to six systemic issues in polycentric governance: structural inequities, incremental bias, high complexity, deep structural fissures, coordination failures, and lack of normative clarity. The analysis shows how polycentric governance can substantially support finding locations for wind power, yet this needs to be addressed deliberately. This covers relevant access points, e.g. from private, institutionalised or public actors and other channels of mobilisation.

Polycentricity and polyphony in international law: interpreting the corporate responsibility to respect human rights

Abstract: Complex multi-actors and multi-level governance structures have emerged in areas that were traditionally exclusively the preserve of the State and treaty-making. The adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) affirmed a corporate responsibility to respect human rights to be implemented through human rights due diligence (HRDD), ie via management processes. The open-ended character of the UNGP generated the emergence of other soft instruments offering guidance to corporations in structuring HRDD. This contribution conceptualises the UNGP from the perspective of regulation as a principles-based exercise in polycentric governance reliant on regulatory intermediaries for interpretation. It then assesses the role of various sui generis normative instruments in providing interpretation to the UNGP and, how the presence of an additional layer of interpretative material contributes to the institutionalisation of responsible corporate conduct. The analysis of instruments drafted by international, non-governmental and business organisations reveals both a decentralising tension between different intermediaries due to disagreements and divergence concerning the precise extent of corporate human rights responsibilities, as well as attempts to centralise the interpretation of the UNGP. The article concludes by recommending some caution towards the employment of polycentric governance regimes and their lack of centralised interpretive authority in this domain of international law and suggests possible ways to formally establish centralised interpretation.

Defining ‘centres’ in analyses of polycentric urban regions: the case of the Yangtze River Delta

Abstract: The analysis of ‘polycentric urban regions’ (PURs) crucially depends on the operational definition of their constituent centres. We extend an insight into this issue by exploring how analyses of th...