Introduction: Urban governance in the Realm of Complexity

Jurian Edelenbos and Meine Pieter van Dijk

Abstract

The introductory chapter reflects on the development of the urban governance concept and analyses the factors influencing urban governance at the national and local level. The essentials and issues of urban governance are explained before an overview is given of the chapters of the book. At the end of the chapter, the conclusions of the book are presented.

Keywords: urban governance, globalization, global cities, governance modes, new forms of governance, participation, self-organization

Introduction: from urban management to urban governance

Nowadays, climate change, urbanization and industrialization, population growth, urban sprawl, and rural-urban migration put pressure on cities. These forces lead to a shift in the existing urban governance structures. Reactions have focused on activities like energy saving, waste management, and closing the urban water cycle, but these require new governance structures and approaches that go beyond traditional management approaches and governmental top-down steering models. In recent years we have therefore seen an interesting shift in focus from urban management (Van Dijk, 2006) towards urban governance (Edelenbos, 2005). The emphasis on urban governance can be explained by the fact that urban development takes place in complex environments, in which different stakeholders from different organizations and domains, such as government actors, private actors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and citizens, are engaged. Kearns and Paddison (2000) argue that the traditional meaning of management as 'taking control, taking charge, directing' (c.f. Williams, 1983: 190) has lost meaning in today's urban context. City governments are no longer in control, and have lost the ability to direct events in the urban context. Urban management can no longer be characterized as top-down urban planning in a command and control management mode (Healy et al., 1995).

Different contextual developments and changes have helped to give rise to urban governance perspectives. In this introductory chapter we will briefly describe developments influencing urban governance at the national and local level and list the implications of these developments for urban governance.

Developments influencing urban governance at the national level are:

• a shift towards economic globalization;

• competition and cooperation between global cities.

Developments influencing urban governance at the local level are:

• growing complexity of projects;

• more powerful and vocal actors functioning in self-organized networks.

The implications of these developments for urban governance are:

• attention now has to be paid to the role of participation and, in particular, self-organizing networks;

• the emergence of new forms of urban governance through collective action, such as community-based organizations, NGOs, public-private partnerships, etc.;

• attention now has to be paid to sustainable urban governance, and to the importance of different levels of governance and their coordination at national, regional, municipal, neighbourhood, and ward levels.

A shift towards economic globalization

First, there is a shift towards economic globalization representing the emergence of worldwide economic sectors, international companies and institutions, and interurban competition. Cities are trying hard to 'sell themselves for a number of investments' and to transform themselves 'from the welfare-state model towards the economic development model' (Kearns and Paddison, 2000: 845). The rise of urban governance is concurrent with the shift from an industry-based local economy toward a postindustrial economy. It has also coincided with a decline in national urban policy and a growing emphasis on urban competition, competitiveness, and economic growth (Hall and Hubbard, 1996).

In this increasingly competitive world, city governments have the ambition to become entrepreneurial agents discovering the world and attracting economic flows and business investments. In achieving this aspiration cities sometimes delink themselves from national economies, as they no longer believe that national governments can help them realize their ambitions and fortunes. National governments also recognize this, and this explains trends of decentralization and devolution. This again reflects the changing urban-regional-national relationships in a globalizing world (Ohmae, 1995).

Competition and cooperation between global cities

Today cities collaborate and compete with other cities across the globe, leading to the emergence of city networks. Being or becoming a smart city depends on whether cities have brokering capacities in the context of such networks (Allen, 2010). City networks consist of nodes...