This study demonstrates how grassroots and extended planners navigate urban governance contradictions by turning conflict into opportunities for learning and collaboration. Using a contested green space project in Sinza D, Dar es Salaam, as a case, it applies Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), expansive learning, and the ChangeLab framework to trace how shifting roles, fractured alliances, and cycles of reflection produced four distinct learning trajectories.
After more than a year of mobilisation, a four-month Extended ChangeLab was carried out through a series of structured activities, including resident consultations, negotiation meetings, reflection sessions, and a dissemination campaign. These engaged grassroots leaders, a community-established Green Space Committee (GSC), residents, and adjacent actors. Within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) design, the researcher combined facilitation with participant observation while systematically documenting interactions and artefacts such as minutes, maps, and letters.
Findings show that documentation, initially fragmented and contested, became a shared artefact that fostered transparency, legitimacy, and accountability, while reshaping relationships and supporting collective decision-making. The study reconceptualises the ChangeLab as a mobile, embedded learning infrastructure suited to hybrid governance contexts where formal authority and informal practices intersect. It advances methodological and practical insights for strengthening participatory urban governance in rapidly growing African cities.
{"title":"Adapting to Urban planning contradictions in community-led initiatives in growing African Cities: A case study of Sinza D, Dar es Salaam","authors":"Manyama Majogoro , Oswald Devisch , Fredrick Bwire Magina","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study demonstrates how grassroots and extended planners navigate urban governance contradictions by turning conflict into opportunities for learning and collaboration. Using a contested green space project in Sinza D, Dar es Salaam, as a case, it applies Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), expansive learning, and the ChangeLab framework to trace how shifting roles, fractured alliances, and cycles of reflection produced four distinct learning trajectories.</div><div>After more than a year of mobilisation, a four-month Extended ChangeLab was carried out through a series of structured activities, including resident consultations, negotiation meetings, reflection sessions, and a dissemination campaign. These engaged grassroots leaders, a community-established Green Space Committee (GSC), residents, and adjacent actors. Within a Participatory Action Research (PAR) design, the researcher combined facilitation with participant observation while systematically documenting interactions and artefacts such as minutes, maps, and letters.</div><div>Findings show that documentation, initially fragmented and contested, became a shared artefact that fostered transparency, legitimacy, and accountability, while reshaping relationships and supporting collective decision-making. The study reconceptualises the ChangeLab as a mobile, embedded learning infrastructure suited to hybrid governance contexts where formal authority and informal practices intersect. It advances methodological and practical insights for strengthening participatory urban governance in rapidly growing African cities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 527-537"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428501","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly central to sustainable mobility, yet their integration into smart city infrastructures remains limited by centralized data systems that restrict scalability, threaten user privacy, and heighten exposure to cyber risks. Most prior work has concentrated on technical performance, with little attention to governance requirements such as accountability, regulatory compliance, and citizen trust. To address this gap, this study develops a decentralized EV data management framework based on IOTA’s Tangle, a distributed ledger designed for secure, scalable, and fee-less interactions across vehicles, charging stations, and urban digital platforms. Using a comparative design, conventional blockchain systems are evaluated against IOTA through simulation results. Findings show that the IOTA-based model sustains faster validation, eliminates fees, and supports higher throughput, while also aligning with governance principles reflected in policies such as the GDPR. The study demonstrates how distributed ledgers can advance both technical feasibility and trust in EV ecosystems.
{"title":"Governing smart city EV networks: A privacy-preserving, IOTA-based architecture for decentralized urban infrastructure","authors":"Chhaya Dubey , Ashutosh Kumar Singh , Sulabh Sachan","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Electric vehicles (EVs) are increasingly central to sustainable mobility, yet their integration into smart city infrastructures remains limited by centralized data systems that restrict scalability, threaten user privacy, and heighten exposure to cyber risks. Most prior work has concentrated on technical performance, with little attention to governance requirements such as accountability, regulatory compliance, and citizen trust. To address this gap, this study develops a decentralized EV data management framework based on IOTA’s Tangle, a distributed ledger designed for secure, scalable, and fee-less interactions across vehicles, charging stations, and urban digital platforms. Using a comparative design, conventional blockchain systems are evaluated against IOTA through simulation results. Findings show that the IOTA-based model sustains faster validation, eliminates fees, and supports higher throughput, while also aligning with governance principles reflected in policies such as the GDPR. The study demonstrates how distributed ledgers can advance both technical feasibility and trust in EV ecosystems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 512-526"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.008
Rosa de la Fuente, Katie Friedman
A growing body of research recognizes urban regions as critical scales for understanding and addressing this century’s most “wicked” problems. However, these problems are often exacerbated by the fact that most urban regions are characterized by jurisdictional and administrative fragmentation, producing challenges in formulating and implementing policies that can tackle the kind of multifaceted issues which span geographic boundaries and levels of governance.
This paper explores the applicability of urban regime theory to the analysis of collaborative governance at the metropolitan scale through a longitudinal case study of the Chicago metropolitan region from 1950 through 2025. It proposes a refined metro-regime framework that situates the core elements of regime theory – a governing coalition, agenda, resource/s, and scheme of cooperation – within shifting political, economic, and environmental conditions. Findings underscore four recurring conditions that have facilitated the emergence of metropolitan coalitions across three distinct historical periods: previous forms of regional networks and established patterns of collaboration; changing external conditions such as economic and environmental crises that require cooperation and coordinated regional power to respond; different governmental and private actors lacking enough power to design and implement planning or policies on their own; and leadership fostering and encouraging consensus narratives about the need of broader cooperation among actors and jurisdictions.
By extending regime theory to the metropolitan scale and embedding it in long-term historical analysis, this study contributes to a growing body of scholarship on collaborative urban and regional governance. It highlights how local actors navigate fragmentation and uncertainty to forge durable coalitions and calls for comparative research to test the applicability of a metro-regime framework across diverse urban regions.
{"title":"Understanding metropolitan collaborative governance in Chicago: towards a new metro-urban regime approach","authors":"Rosa de la Fuente, Katie Friedman","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A growing body of research recognizes urban regions as critical scales for understanding and addressing this century’s most “wicked” problems. However, these problems are often exacerbated by the fact that most urban regions are characterized by jurisdictional and administrative fragmentation, producing challenges in formulating and implementing policies that can tackle the kind of multifaceted issues which span geographic boundaries and levels of governance.</div><div>This paper explores the applicability of urban regime theory to the analysis of collaborative governance at the metropolitan scale through a longitudinal case study of the Chicago metropolitan region from 1950 through 2025. It proposes a refined metro-regime framework that situates the core elements of regime theory – a governing coalition, agenda, resource/s, and scheme of cooperation – within shifting political, economic, and environmental conditions. Findings underscore four recurring conditions that have facilitated the emergence of metropolitan coalitions across three distinct historical periods: previous forms of regional networks and established patterns of collaboration; changing external conditions such as economic and environmental crises that require cooperation and coordinated regional power to respond; different governmental and private actors lacking enough power to design and implement planning or policies on their own; and leadership fostering and encouraging consensus narratives about the need of broader cooperation among actors and jurisdictions.</div><div>By extending regime theory to the metropolitan scale and embedding it in long-term historical analysis, this study contributes to a growing body of scholarship on collaborative urban and regional governance. It highlights how local actors navigate fragmentation and uncertainty to forge durable coalitions and calls for comparative research to test the applicability of a metro-regime framework across diverse urban regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 426-435"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.006
Muhammet Ali Heyik , Meral Erdoğan , José María Romero-Martínez
The ecosocial transition advocates for an approach that is ecocentric, transdisciplinary, resource-efficient, socially inclusive, equitable, and democratic. Over the past decade, digital participatory platforms (DPPs) have gained prominence in supporting ecosocial transitions by addressing chronic and wicked problems affecting both specific territories and the planet as a whole. However, fragmented overviews and biases in socio-spatial and socio-technical contexts have left a notable knowledge gap between technological advancements and research on their affordances in urban planning and design ecosystems.
This study examines how DPPs are introduced and conceptualized in literature. It explores distinguishing characteristics, emerging trends, and key success factors of geospatial DPPs through the lens of the collective intelligence (CI) framework. Following the PRISMA protocol, a systematic review was conducted across Scopus, Google Scholar, and public repositories, identifying 312 platforms worldwide. The coded descriptions of platforms were analyzed using content analysis, network mapping, and AI-powered clustering to reveal underlying patterns and relationships.
Our findings reveal a diverse spectrum of technological features, human-computer interactions, and engagement levels across DPPs. However, geographical distribution and effective institutional adoption remain limited. Nearly half of the examined geospatial platforms rely on one-way information flow focused on data aggregation, while co-creation platforms increasingly adopt advanced technologies such as gamified urban simulators, extended realities, and networked sentient technologies to foster interaction and co-design capabilities.
The insights from this comprehensive review contribute to a better understanding of DPPs for ecosocial transition, emphasizing key design aspects such as accessibility, transparency, transferability, user-friendliness, follow-up mechanisms, and continuous feedback. Given the complexity of urban governance and the challenges commonly highlighted in the literature regarding participatory approaches, DPPs are predominantly deployed to complement—rather than replace—existing top-down and technocratic planning frameworks. Strengthening the concept of participants as co-researchers within action research remains essential for fostering long-term systemic impact and stakeholder empowerment.
{"title":"AI-powered meta analysis of geospatial participatory platforms for ecosocial transition in urban design and planning","authors":"Muhammet Ali Heyik , Meral Erdoğan , José María Romero-Martínez","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The ecosocial transition advocates for an approach that is ecocentric, transdisciplinary, resource-efficient, socially inclusive, equitable, and democratic. Over the past decade, digital participatory platforms (DPPs) have gained prominence in supporting ecosocial transitions by addressing chronic and wicked problems affecting both specific territories and the planet as a whole. However, fragmented overviews and biases in socio-spatial and socio-technical contexts have left a notable knowledge gap between technological advancements and research on their affordances in urban planning and design ecosystems.</div><div>This study examines how DPPs are introduced and conceptualized in literature. It explores distinguishing characteristics, emerging trends, and key success factors of geospatial DPPs through the lens of the collective intelligence (CI) framework. Following the PRISMA protocol, a systematic review was conducted across Scopus, Google Scholar, and public repositories, identifying 312 platforms worldwide. The coded descriptions of platforms were analyzed using content analysis, network mapping, and AI-powered clustering to reveal underlying patterns and relationships.</div><div>Our findings reveal a diverse spectrum of technological features, human-computer interactions, and engagement levels across DPPs. However, geographical distribution and effective institutional adoption remain limited. Nearly half of the examined geospatial platforms rely on one-way information flow focused on data aggregation, while co-creation platforms increasingly adopt advanced technologies such as gamified urban simulators, extended realities, and networked sentient technologies to foster interaction and co-design capabilities.</div><div>The insights from this comprehensive review contribute to a better understanding of DPPs for ecosocial transition, emphasizing key design aspects such as accessibility, transparency, transferability, user-friendliness, follow-up mechanisms, and continuous feedback. Given the complexity of urban governance and the challenges commonly highlighted in the literature regarding participatory approaches, DPPs are predominantly deployed to complement—rather than replace—existing top-down and technocratic planning frameworks. Strengthening the concept of participants as co-researchers within action research remains essential for fostering long-term systemic impact and stakeholder empowerment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 411-425"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.001
Modupe Odemakin
This study looks into the impact of government policies on housing affordability in Turkey, specifically how these policies affect the construction industry's ability to provide cheap housing. The study used a qualitative methodology, conducting in-depth interviews with 25 professionals from diverse construction organizations. The attendees comprised architects, civil engineers, and other industry stakeholders from mostly medium-sized businesses in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. Thematic analysis of the interview data yielded noteworthy insights. First, respondents universally observed little to no policy influence in supporting affordable housing or recycled material usage, highlighting a crucial policy gap. Bureaucratic delays, high loan interest rates, and restricted market availability for recycled materials were identified as the key barriers. However, there are potential to raise awareness among clients and industry stakeholders, incorporate affordable techniques into legislation, and build public–private partnerships to improve collaboration. The findings reveal that industry professionals have a largely negative impression of present government policies, further citing expensive plot costs, and tight regulations as major hurdles to affordable housing creation. Furthermore, while some respondents cited collaboration with government agencies and the use of recycled materials as potential solutions, the overall tone indicated a lack of effective government incentives and support. This study emphasizes the need for comprehensive policy reforms to improve stakeholder collaboration and to offer incentives that would reduce building costs and promote the use of sustainable materials. Policy implications include those targeted subsidies, improved administrative processes, and strengthened public-private partnerships are required to create a more favorable climate for affordable home creation in Turkey.
{"title":"Assessing the effectiveness and policy gaps of Turkish government policies in facilitating affordable housing","authors":"Modupe Odemakin","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study looks into the impact of government policies on housing affordability in Turkey, specifically how these policies affect the construction industry's ability to provide cheap housing. The study used a qualitative methodology, conducting in-depth interviews with 25 professionals from diverse construction organizations. The attendees comprised architects, civil engineers, and other industry stakeholders from mostly medium-sized businesses in Istanbul and other Turkish cities. Thematic analysis of the interview data yielded noteworthy insights. First, respondents universally observed little to no policy influence in supporting affordable housing or recycled material usage, highlighting a crucial policy gap. Bureaucratic delays, high loan interest rates, and restricted market availability for recycled materials were identified as the key barriers. However, there are potential to raise awareness among clients and industry stakeholders, incorporate affordable techniques into legislation, and build public–private partnerships to improve collaboration. The findings reveal that industry professionals have a largely negative impression of present government policies, further citing expensive plot costs, and tight regulations as major hurdles to affordable housing creation. Furthermore, while some respondents cited collaboration with government agencies and the use of recycled materials as potential solutions, the overall tone indicated a lack of effective government incentives and support. This study emphasizes the need for comprehensive policy reforms to improve stakeholder collaboration and to offer incentives that would reduce building costs and promote the use of sustainable materials. Policy implications include those targeted subsidies, improved administrative processes, and strengthened public-private partnerships are required to create a more favorable climate for affordable home creation in Turkey.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 493-499"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428937","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.005
Donizete Beck , Eran Vigoda-Gadot , Marcos Ferasso
Stakeholder salience (SS), characterized by attributes such as power, urgency, and legitimacy, and stakeholder cooperation (SC) play critical roles in urban governance; however, the interplay between these constructs remains underexplored. Our study investigates the relationship between SS and SC from the perspective of urban managers interacting with diverse urban stakeholder groups (e.g., governments, industry, citizens, and civil society). Drawing on stakeholder theory and empirical data from interviewing 79 Brazilian urban managers via adapted validated psychometric scales, we explored these relationships using correlation and regression analyses, controlling for demographic factors. Our key findings suggest the possibility of a reciprocal relationship, pointing towards a potential positive feedback loop where cooperation may be associated with increased salience (explaining nearly 48 % of its variance), and higher salience, in turn, could be related to fostering further cooperation (accounting for approximately 46 % of its variance). It is important to note that our sample data allowed us to conduct only descriptive and partial correlation analyses, which do not enable us to establish causation between SS and SC. Nevertheless, our results contribute to the literature by integrating stakeholder theory with social capital theory and highlighting the potential managerial implications of fostering cooperation to enhance stakeholder engagement in urban governance. Our study also offers preliminary policy recommendations for urban managers, businesses, and civil society organizations on how to potentially leverage cooperation for improved decision-making and more inclusive urban governance.
{"title":"The virtuous cycle of stakeholder salience and cooperation in urban governance: Evidence from Brazilian cities","authors":"Donizete Beck , Eran Vigoda-Gadot , Marcos Ferasso","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Stakeholder salience (SS), characterized by attributes such as power, urgency, and legitimacy, and stakeholder cooperation (SC) play critical roles in urban governance; however, the interplay between these constructs remains underexplored. Our study investigates the relationship between SS and SC from the perspective of urban managers interacting with diverse urban stakeholder groups (e.g., governments, industry, citizens, and civil society). Drawing on stakeholder theory and empirical data from interviewing 79 Brazilian urban managers via adapted validated psychometric scales, we explored these relationships using correlation and regression analyses, controlling for demographic factors. Our key findings suggest the possibility of a reciprocal relationship, pointing towards a potential positive feedback loop where cooperation may be associated with increased salience (explaining nearly 48 % of its variance), and higher salience, in turn, could be related to fostering further cooperation (accounting for approximately 46 % of its variance). It is important to note that our sample data allowed us to conduct only descriptive and partial correlation analyses, which do not enable us to establish causation between SS and SC. Nevertheless, our results contribute to the literature by integrating stakeholder theory with social capital theory and highlighting the potential managerial implications of fostering cooperation to enhance stakeholder engagement in urban governance. Our study also offers preliminary policy recommendations for urban managers, businesses, and civil society organizations on how to potentially leverage cooperation for improved decision-making and more inclusive urban governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 436-446"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.004
Filipe Rocha, Sara Moreno Pires
Food transition to more sustainable models has been increasingly the focus of public policies and scientific studies, given the threat that current food practices pose to the well-being of humanity and the Planet. However, at the moment, few systematic studies have been carried out in this field to assess and understand how food governance, especially at the urban level, has considered new strategies, practices or innovative actions for the food systems sustainability. This article fills this gap by presenting a systematic review of the scientific literature produced in last ten years on existing urban food policies, strategies and plans, challenges and constraints to governance and possible directions for innovation. The review process selected thirty three documents for analysis based on their content and objectives.
The synthesis of results highlights persistent gaps in urban food governance, particularly in institutionalizing practices for long-term impact, clarifying the roles of and empower diverse governance actors, enhancing knowledge and resources sharing, and taking the most out of exiting global networks to promote more integrated urban food policies aligned with global sustainable food systems.
{"title":"Innovating in food systems: challenges and opportunities in urban governance for sustainable transition","authors":"Filipe Rocha, Sara Moreno Pires","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.10.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Food transition to more sustainable models has been increasingly the focus of public policies and scientific studies, given the threat that current food practices pose to the well-being of humanity and the Planet. However, at the moment, few systematic studies have been carried out in this field to assess and understand how food governance, especially at the urban level, has considered new strategies, practices or innovative actions for the food systems sustainability. This article fills this gap by presenting a systematic review of the scientific literature produced in last ten years on existing urban food policies, strategies and plans, challenges and constraints to governance and possible directions for innovation. The review process selected thirty three documents for analysis based on their content and objectives.</div><div>The synthesis of results highlights persistent gaps in urban food governance, particularly in institutionalizing practices for long-term impact, clarifying the roles of and empower diverse governance actors, enhancing knowledge and resources sharing, and taking the most out of exiting global networks to promote more integrated urban food policies aligned with global sustainable food systems.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 466-481"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.007
Manuel A. Zambrano-Monserrate
This article reflects on the role of governance in influencing urban development in intermediate cities across the Global South. Drawing primarily on experiences from Santo Domingo, Portoviejo, and Cuenca, it examines how weak coordination, fragmented planning, and limited citizen participation often prevent even well-designed policies from achieving meaningful results. These Ecuadorian cases are discussed alongside comparable situations in cities such as Kisumu, Teresina, and Surat, revealing common governance barriers in contexts marked by decentralization and institutional fragility. Rather than proposing technical fixes, the article calls for a shift in perspective—toward strengthening institutional continuity, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that citizen engagement is not merely symbolic. These are not definitive solutions, but necessary steps to improve how cities function and respond to complex challenges.
{"title":"Rethinking urban governance in the global South: Lessons from Ecuador’s intermediate cities","authors":"Manuel A. Zambrano-Monserrate","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article reflects on the role of governance in influencing urban development in intermediate cities across the Global South. Drawing primarily on experiences from Santo Domingo, Portoviejo, and Cuenca, it examines how weak coordination, fragmented planning, and limited citizen participation often prevent even well-designed policies from achieving meaningful results. These Ecuadorian cases are discussed alongside comparable situations in cities such as Kisumu, Teresina, and Surat, revealing common governance barriers in contexts marked by decentralization and institutional fragility. Rather than proposing technical fixes, the article calls for a shift in perspective—toward strengthening institutional continuity, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that citizen engagement is not merely symbolic. These are not definitive solutions, but necessary steps to improve how cities function and respond to complex challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 538-541"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.009
Isabella M. Lami, Francesca Abastante
How can measuring urban sustainability foster creativity in designing assessment models? This paper addresses this question by presenting a multi-methodological approach for developing an operational, synthetic and site-based Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tool (NSAT) to support urban design. By integrating the Strategic Choice Approach and Analytic Hierarchy Process within the MuVAM (Multi-Values Appraisal Methodology) software, the framework enables a dynamic combination of qualitative and quantitative assessments, enhances stakeholder participation, and tailors sustainability evaluation to the specific contexts of urban projects. The approach is demonstrated through a case study on repurposing a large urban area into a hospital excellence hub, showcasing its applicability in complex urban transformations.
{"title":"Towards a software-supported operationalization of neighborhood sustainability assessment tools: Combining problem structuring methods and multicriteria decision analysis","authors":"Isabella M. Lami, Francesca Abastante","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.08.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How can measuring urban sustainability foster creativity in designing assessment models? This paper addresses this question by presenting a multi-methodological approach for developing an operational, synthetic and site-based Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tool (NSAT) to support urban design. By integrating the Strategic Choice Approach and Analytic Hierarchy Process within the MuVAM (Multi-Values Appraisal Methodology) software, the framework enables a dynamic combination of qualitative and quantitative assessments, enhances stakeholder participation, and tailors sustainability evaluation to the specific contexts of urban projects. The approach is demonstrated through a case study on repurposing a large urban area into a hospital excellence hub, showcasing its applicability in complex urban transformations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 482-492"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.001
Jorge Gonçalves
Public participation is frequently framed as a cornerstone of democratic spatial planning. Yet, in practice, it often oscillates between symbolic inclusion and civic resistance. This article offers a critical reframing of participatory practices in Portugal by proposing a three-part typology: Participation as Legal Obligation, Civic Attitude, and Civic Conquest. Drawing on Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation as a heuristic point of departure, the study engages with contemporary critiques and presents an expanded framework grounded in empirical observation.
Through the development of analytical sheets and a series of comparative case studies, the article maps how participatory processes emerge, are shaped, and contested across different institutional and civic contexts. It highlights the coexistence of formal compliance, strategic inclusion, and grassroots mobilization as simultaneous forces in the participatory landscape. The analysis reveals persistent tensions between regulatory formalism and democratic agency and calls for a shift toward more context-sensitive, power-aware, and co-productive approaches to participation.
The article contributes to participatory planning theory by offering a situated and pluralistic typology, and to practice by equipping actors with diagnostic tools to improve participatory processes. It ultimately argues that participation must be reclaimed as a struggle for democratic deepening and spatial justice, rather than a procedural checkbox in planning governance.
{"title":"Participation beyond the ladder: A critical framework for understanding spatial engagement in Portugal","authors":"Jorge Gonçalves","doi":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ugj.2025.09.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Public participation is frequently framed as a cornerstone of democratic spatial planning. Yet, in practice, it often oscillates between symbolic inclusion and civic resistance. This article offers a critical reframing of participatory practices in Portugal by proposing a three-part typology: Participation as Legal Obligation, Civic Attitude, and Civic Conquest. Drawing on Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation as a heuristic point of departure, the study engages with contemporary critiques and presents an expanded framework grounded in empirical observation.</div><div>Through the development of analytical sheets and a series of comparative case studies, the article maps how participatory processes emerge, are shaped, and contested across different institutional and civic contexts. It highlights the coexistence of formal compliance, strategic inclusion, and grassroots mobilization as simultaneous forces in the participatory landscape. The analysis reveals persistent tensions between regulatory formalism and democratic agency and calls for a shift toward more context-sensitive, power-aware, and co-productive approaches to participation.</div><div>The article contributes to participatory planning theory by offering a situated and pluralistic typology, and to practice by equipping actors with diagnostic tools to improve participatory processes. It ultimately argues that participation must be reclaimed as a struggle for democratic deepening and spatial justice, rather than a procedural checkbox in planning governance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":101266,"journal":{"name":"Urban Governance","volume":"5 4","pages":"Pages 447-454"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145428933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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