Governing cities: politics and policy

Abstract

Governing Cities aims to arm readers with ideas, concepts and practical examples to understand and improve urban politics and policy. Whilst presenting many standard theories, the approach is avowedly critical, problematising neoliberal assumptions and highlighting alternatives. Partly written during the Covid pandemic, the author explores its shortand long-term implications and signposts the possibility of a more equitable and democratic Future City. Lively and comparative examples bring the ideas to life and light a spark of optimism. The central three questions posed by Governing Cities are ‘how’ are cities governed? By whom, and according to what value? And, for whom? Exploring the importance of these questions, the book starts by exploring why cities matter – not just as homes to the majority of the world’s population, but also as pivotal in political transformation and as sites of manifest inequalities. The ideas of urban regime theory and urban governance theory are introduced, with a particular focus on the effects of the rise of neoliberalism and austerity policies. An important focus here is on the involvement of citizens, for example in the shift to network governance and to government ‘steering’ from the 1980s. Attention then moves to strategies and policies resulting from urban governance, together with the changing construction of the ‘urban problem’, the rise of policy translation and the increasing use of policy constructs like ‘smart cities’. Theories of the collective city, the city as a growth machine, and global cities are examined, highlighting the tension between cities’ goals of equity and efficiency. The idea of the collective, public city is increasingly challenged by the privatisation of public space and moves towards restricting access to previously public provision – what Frug (2017) called the privatisation of city governments. There is a fascinating discussion of the history and development of urban planning, including the early 20 century concept of garden cities which I hadn’t realised initially envisaged city property being owned and cooperatively managed by its citizens in order to maintain the city’s social fabric (an idea whose time apparently had not yet come but which returns in the later discussion of urban communing). This section concludes with an acknowledgement of the common focus on the need for local leadership and ‘local say’ if urban planning is to become more equitable. Cities are embedded in different levels or scales of governance, and this leads to consideration of global, national, regional, local and neighbourhood processes.