New State Spaces and Contested Territories: A Critical Analysis of Joint Regional Planning Panels

This article critically analyses the Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs), a series of planning panels in the New South Wales planning system predominantly made up of appointed planning experts to determine ‘regionally significant development’. The stated intent of the JRPPs is to improve objectivity and transparency in planning decision-making, however, this has come at the expense of the traditional role of local councils in determining planning applications. Key to this analysis are Brenner's concept of ‘new state spaces’ as evolutionary models of urban governance which act between conventional levels and hierarchies of political authority, and Allmendinger and Haughton's conceptualisation of new state spaces of planning operating in ‘soft spaces’ and ‘fuzzy boundaries’. This article explores the changing nature and function of the JRPPs since their establishment in 2009, and highlights that while opportunities exist for new state spaces to ‘harden’ as enduring tiers of urban governance, there is a pervasive need for connections between territory and politics to give popular legitimacy to permanent shifts of authority.     

Innovation or episodes? Multi-scalar analysis of governance change in urban regeneration policy in South Korea

Governance-beyond-the-state has been widely adopted in urban politics in recent decades of global neoliberalism. However, how the governance change actually takes place in the planning system needs careful substantiation and contextualisation. By applying the ‘levels of governance’ concept, this paper examines diverse factors of governance innovation with a reference to the recent participatory urban regeneration policy in South Korea. Through multi-scalar analysis of the comparative case studies of three districts in the city of Daegu, we explain a combination of various factors at the local level that has a significant influence on governance innovation. We also highlight that governance innovation is engendered on the basis of the material and relational resources available at other spatial scales and involves multi-scalar institutional restructuring. This multi-scalar dimension would broaden our understanding of what makes governance change possible and how it takes place.     

Space of Risk: The Contribution of Planning Policies to Conflicts in Cities,Lessons from Nazareth

This article defines a new concept, ‘Space of risk’, as a lived space that has low levels of trust among different urban groups; where people feel vulnerable and defenseless against terrorizing, urban clashes and riots. Based on a qualitative study, the article examines this concept in the city of Nazareth, which has been in turmoil since the introduction of a plan for a plaza. The article concludes that the reasons that may strongly contribute to the production of spaces of risk are: lack of the right to the city for urban inhabitants; the hegemony of the state over the city through ‘ethnocratic’ urban policies; the hegemony of global forces and neo-liberal agendas over the locale; deficient local politics; absence of communicative planning procedures; and contradictions between planners conception of the place and the way inhabitants conceive and experience it in their daily life practices. As planning has the power of creating and triggering risks in cities, the article suggests some practical ways for planners to avoid the production of spaces of risk through new techniques of collaborative planning.     

‘Clubification’ of urban public spaces? The withdrawal or the re-definition of the role of local government in the management of public spaces

This paper reports on a case study on the forms of urban public spaces governance that are emerging in the UK out of a rearrangement of governance responsibilities between local government, communities and private interests. Based on cases of public spaces in London under a variety of different governance arrangements, the paper critiques the dominant explanations of those processes, and suggests a far more complex picture in which empowerment and disempowerment of stakeholders of various types happen at the same time, along complex lines defined by geography, strength of stake and representation of that stake in a formalized governance transfer contract. As the paper suggests, the resulting ‘localization’ of governance, the devolution of governance responsibilities to those local actors with the stronger stake in them, does not intrinsically reduce the publicness dimension of public space, but it reshapes that notion towards one with a variety of ‘publicnesses’, with their own governance dynamics and positive and negative consequences.     

New Spaces of (Dis)engagement? Social Politics,Urban Technologies and the Rezoning of the City

This paper discusses the changing nature of urban space and urban technologies, using various conceptions of engagement in social politics to illuminate contemporary understandings of cultural change and social exclusion and the role of housing within this. The progressive reorganisation of urban space, which is at least partly a result of global economic changes, is producing complex forms of social politics organised around newly emerging varieties and scales of engagement and disengagement. These are cross-cut by a number of cultural themes that play out differently in different spaces. Thus ‘fear’ is universally significant, but perceived ‘differentially’ according to space, culture and socio-economic status. ‘Excitement’ is also an important theme, though more for some groups than others. The capacity to use resources—material, cultural, technological—and particularly the reflexive utilisation of these resources, also affects the nature of social politics and the specific nature of proactive and defensive (dis)engagement. The paper argues that the social scientific analysis of housing would do well to take cognisance of these debates if it is to continue to produce nuanced analyses able to take account of the socio-spatial, cultural and political realities of informational capitalism.     

Transnational urban spaces and urban environmental reforms: analyzing Beijing’s environmental restructuring in the light of globalization

In this era of globalization, ‘transnational spaces’ are being created within urban settings, providing a direct connection between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. Corporate headquarters, hotels, shopping malls, and airports are typical examples of such spaces, which while located within an urban territory, are often conceived by foreign designers, developers, and manufacturers, as well as maintained by multinational companies and banks. Such local–global interconnection is giving urban management a new shape, as urban management practices are now frequently intertwining with global construction and property management approaches. This paper argues that, at the same time, a set of new mechanisms that may help to tackle problems related to the urban environment and infrastructure is unfolding. Starting with a conceptual discussion of the role of globalization in urban environmental restructuring, this paper subsequently explores the context of Beijing and the environmental management possibilities introduced in this city by global actors (through the examples of World Tower, IBM Tower, and ABN AMRO and ING head offices). Beijing, due to China’s recent economic opening process, provides an intriguing backcloth to demonstrate how transnational urban spaces—standing in-between the local and the global—may canalize environmental innovations from the ‘global’, putting globalization at work for a better urban environment.     

Moving beyond the limits of joined-up government? Meta-governance,quality of relations and addressing the politics of joining-up

Recent research has questioned the ability of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to secure better coordination and management of regeneration across different branches of the state. In a period of economic recession and a curtailing of regeneration finance, reconsideration is therefore required of how to secure greater horizontal and vertical integration by LSPs in regeneration policy, budgeting and service delivery. To this end, it is suggested that there needs to be i) a deeper analysis of the quality of local relationships between partners; and ii) a greater emphasis on the politics of ‘joining up’. This paper critiques the relative influence of each of these factors. It is illustrated that the ongoing ‘meta-governance’ of LSPs, coupled with a number of horizontal barriers to ‘collaborative governance’, are impinging upon the level of integration being achieved. Further efforts will be required to address such issues, especially tackling a number of barriers identified to the politics of ‘joining up’ at a variety of spatial scales.     

The politics of urban informality in Philadelphia's recovery house movement

There are some 60,000 vacant properties in the city of Philadelphia, 30,000 of which are abandoned row houses. In the neighbourhood of Kensington, street-level entrepreneurs have reconfigured hundreds of former working-class row homes to produce the Philadelphia recovery house movement: an extra-legal poverty survival strategy for addicts and alcoholics located in the city's poorest and most heavily blighted zones. The purpose of this paper is to explore, ethnographically, the ways in which informal poverty survival mechanisms articulate with the restructuring of the contemporary welfare state and the broader political economy of Philadelphia. It is argued that recovery house networks accommodate an interrelated set of political rationalities animated not only by retrenchment and the churning of welfare bodies, but also by the agency of informal operators and the politics of self-help. Working as an alternative and partially vestigial boundary institution or buffer zone to formal regimes of governance, the recovery house movement reflects the ‘other story’ of the new urban politics in Philadelphia.     

Capacities for urban transformations governance and the case of New York City

The narrative of urban sustainability transformations epitomises the hope that urban governance can create the conditions to plan and govern cities in a way that they contribute to local and global sustainability and resilience. So far, urban governance is not delivering: novel governance approaches are emerging in cities worldwide, yet are unable to transform conventional policymaking and planning to allow for innovative, co-beneficial and long-term solutions and actions to emerge and institutionalise. We present a capacities framework for urban transformations governance, starting from the need to fulfil distinct output functions (‘what needs to happen’) for mobilising and influencing urban transformation dynamics. The framework helps to diagnose and inform urban governance for responding to disturbances (stewarding capacity), phasing-out drivers of path-dependency (unlocking capacity), creating and embedding novelties (transformative capacity) and coordinating multi-actor processes (orchestrating capacity). Our case study of climate governance in New York City exemplifies the framework's applicability and explanatory power to identify conditions and activities facilitating transformation (governance), and to reveal gaps and barriers of these vis-à-vis the existing governance regime. Our framework thereby functions as a tool to explore what new forms of urban transformation governance are emerging, how effective these are, and how to strengthen capacities.     

Planning olympic legacies: transport dreams and urban realities,by Eva Kassens-Noor

The purpose of this article is to deepen the understanding of the spread of participatory governance arrangements (PGAs) in urban politics. While PGAs tend to be viewed from a democratization angle, several studies interpret them as part of other logics, such as public management ideals and neoliberal governmentality. By analyzing the policy content, political roots and motives behind the politics of ‘citizen dialogue’ in the city of Göteborg, Sweden, this article provides empirical insight and elaborates on how the turn toward participatory governance can be understood both from an idealist and a cynical perspective.     

The Intergovernmental Regime and Public Policy in Hartford,Connecticut

Regime theorists have not included state government as a member of urban governing coalitions even though governors and state legislatures have the constitutional authority and fiscal resources that can facilitate local governance. In this research, I analyze economic development and education policies in Hartford, Connecticut to illustrate that the governor is a leader of Hartford’s regime. Like other regime actors, the governor provides selective inducements to other coalition members to gain support for his policies. The Hartford regime came to include the governor because the city lost much of its business and political leadership, and management and accountability problems crippled public policy. Because governors have the capacity to act as a powerful regime partner, it is important to study the effect they have on urban governance.     

全球绿道运动中的中国实践：理念思辨与理论展望

绿道是一个弹性景观概念，在全球的不同语境中具有多样化的表现形式。自2010年以来，中国绿道实现了快速发展并成为具有国家影响力的环境管治策略。在学术研究中，尽管绿道的表现形式始终存在争议，但是绿色出行与城市游憩已逐渐成为两种具有影响力的绿道功能。绿色出行路径与城市游憩路径的兴起与当前中国城市生活对慢行交通与开敞空间的现实需求相呼应。在公共政策中，绿道的政策定位却逐渐趋向生态与环境范畴。生态性不足、过于人工化与交通化问题将成为绿道规划与实施的主要困扰。中外绿道知识图谱显示，尽管对于绿道过度人工化“误区”的学术思辨存在已久，但是仍然缺乏对绿道生态功能与实现方式的深入研究。在生态环境政策定位下，绿道研究应该加强对资源调查、多学科协作、环境管治与公众参与等研究方向的关注。     

‘Urban entrepreneurialism’ in the Post-socialist City: Government-led Urban Development Projects in Kazan,Russia

While the dominance of urban entrepreneurialism, governance and competitiveness in Western cities has been well documented, much less is known about the drivers and mechanisms of urban development in the Russian context. This article examines the role of the local state in urban development under the conditions of post-socialist transition in the Russian Federation. The article focuses on the Special Federal Programme for the Preservation and Development of the Kazan Historic Centre (2001–2005). The study challenges the assumption of a key role of partnership between the public and the private sector. Under conditions of post-socialism, the state may have sufficient economic resources and the capacity to govern which may make the role of public–private partnership less relevant. Other findings are as follows: (i) the local authorities play a leading role in entrepreneurialism; (ii) there is a mismatch between the entrepreneurial rhetoric and reality; (iii) while the authorities in Kazan engage in ‘entrepreneurial urbanism’, the similarities with Western cities are superficial or even deceptive, due to the underlying political and economic conditions of Russian cities.     

全球化与再地域化:欧盟城市管治的尺度重组

近年来,有关全球化的文献在学术界不断涌现,它们主要集中探讨社会关系脱离本土-地域各件的现象。然而,这些理论大多忽略了相对固定和静止的地域组织（如城市区域集群和国家）在全球化发展中所起的重要作用。本文的主要论点为,再地域化（retemtoriali sation）——即各类地域组织（如城市与国家）的结构重整与尺度重组,是全球化的固有现象。本文把全球化理解为社会、经济和政治制度空间的再地域化,以及这种再地域化与外在多重地理尺度相互交织的过程。城市空间和国家机器等地域组织与全球化互为因果。它们既是全球化的前提,也是全球化作用于地方的载体与结果。因此,当代欧洲城市管;台应该理解为一种“尺度的政活”（politicsof scale）,是城市转型与国家地域重构相互作用的产物。     

Social Justice and the Centralisation of Governance in the Australian Metropolis: A Case Study of Melbourne

The prodigious, low-density spread of the Australian metropolis is creating communities of divergent aspirations and diminished social mobility. To a large degree, these patterns can be attributed to structural economic change, characterised by powerful centripetal tendencies within high value added, ‘knowledge-intensive’ and globally linked industries. However, reforms in metropolitan governance have also played a part. As evidenced in Melbourne, most Australian cities have seen a steady centralisation of planning, infrastructure and development facilitation functions into State Governments, the only constitutionally recognised sphere of governance in Australia besides the Commonwealth (federal) government. The upshot is that metropolitan communities effectively have no voice for their collective will. Many urban policy initiatives and investments that may have mitigated some of the socially adverse features of the modern economy have been foregone or implemented in a desultory manner. Moreover, these foregone opportunities to foster a more compact and connected metropolis have diminished human capital accumulation to the detriment of Australian productivity and competitiveness. Reinstatement of a metropolitan governance forum, with its own democratic mandate and fiscal capacity, to operate separately from, but in cooperation with, state and local governments, may be necessary if the trends in social division and lost productivity in the Australian city are to be reversed.     

Examining three roles of urban “portals” in their relationship with “places” using social media photographs

Portals are the transition spaces between paths and places in an urban environment such as the entrance to a square from a connecting street. This paper aims to explore different forms of portals by considering their relationship with places. In doing so, a people-generated image analysis was adopted for two case studies conducted in popular Chinese recreational venues: Sanlitun Village, Beijing; and Xintiandi, Shanghai. Through an analysis of nearly 53,000 Instagram photographs, three different roles that a portal can fulfil are identified and defined as the ‘doorway’, the ‘showroom’, and the ‘place’. These typologies are derived from a deeper understanding of urban space through the ‘eyes of the users’, and this knowledge can in turn influence the design process for the public realm and urban spaces.     

Auckland: Rescaled governance and post-suburban politics

The nature and politics of urban development in Auckland have undergone rapid transformation following amalgamation of eight separate authorities in 2010. Institutions governing metropolitan planning and infrastructure provision were rescaled to form the Auckland ‘Super City’ Council in 2010, with an ambitious vision to become the world's most liveable city and ongoing political contestation between the local and central government. Amalgamation of Auckland's governance was conceived and imposed by the central government as part of a broader economic strategy for “competitive cities”. However, Auckland Council's first strategic plan adopted a contrasting agenda, centred around the goal of “liveability”. Auckland's recent developments illustrate the challenges of a distinctly post-suburban polity. The majority of employment is located in suburban areas and the city has variegated and overlapping patterns in spatial form generated through inconsistent infrastructure interventions across local and national authorities. Conflicting urban policy agenda at national and local scales shows a tension between the pursuit of economic development and provision for collective needs. The politics of post-suburban development create specific challenges for Auckland's governance. Liveability and economic competitiveness are treated as complementary terms in political rhetoric, however trade-offs emerge at a smaller spatial scales. Public concern over housing affordability and risks to the financial stability of New Zealand's economy have led to central government intervention and renegotiation of authority between different tiers of government for land use and infrastructure provision. Auckland's position as New Zealand's largest city and economic centre frequently blurs the distinction between issues of local and national significance. Auckland's governance challenges are not unique, however the current tensions are exacerbated by its dominance in a small and geographically-isolated nation.     

Globalization and urban governance in Istanbul

Since the 1980s, the topic of governance has been extensively investigated in parallel with the effects of globalization on policy issues. Meanwhile, there has been an increasing fragmentation of responsibilities in the urban arena. Now, the main focus is on new institutional relations and the policy process in which different constituents and agencies participate at both the national and the local level. As a result of the rescaling process of the state, networked forms of governance constitute a new form of politics. The changing governance structure in Istanbul, as in many other cities, is shaped by the interaction of economic and institutional factors, which are mediated through political, cultural and other contextual forces. To demonstrate that global forces influence urban management systems, this article describes the increasing participation of the private sector in urban development in Istanbul. An evaluation of urban governance is made to ascertain whether the concept of governance can explain the urban management model prevailing in Istanbul.     

Framing a new discourse on petromodernity: the global petroleumscape and petroleum modernism*

The concept of the Global Petroleumspace is an analytical tool which engages the roles which different oil actors play in the development of new urban ideas and built forms. Coined by Hein, this concept contributes to enriching our understanding of globalization, modernity, and architectural history and their impacts on space through time. Petroleum is modern industry’s fuel par excellence. For much of the world, it is the arrival of petroleum on the local scene that introduces modernity with its attendant spaces, forms, materials, and discourses. To frame this new discourse on urban development and petromodernity, three events were organized: ‘Petroleumscape Roundtable’ held as part of the 17th IPHS Conference at TU Delft, ‘Petroleum Modernism Symposium’, organized at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and ‘The Global Petroleumscape Conference’ held at the Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft. This article briefly recounts and reflects upon the scholarly discussions which took place at these events, in order to outline an emergent discourse on petroleum’s imbrication in architecture and planning.     

‘Fourth places’: the contemporary public settings for informal social interaction among strangers

This paper introduces ‘fourth places’ as an additional category of informal social settings alongside ‘third places’. Through extensive empirical fieldwork on where and how social interaction among strangers occurs in the public and semi-public spaces of a contemporary masterplanned neighbourhood, this paper reveals that ‘fourth places’ are closely related to ‘third places’ in terms of social and behavioural characteristics, involving a radical departure from the routines of home and work, inclusivity and social comfort. However, the activities, users, locations and spatial conditions that support them are very different. They are characterized by ‘in-betweenness’ in terms of spaces, activities, time and management, as well as a great sense of publicness. This paper will demonstrate that the latter conditions are effective in breaking the ‘placelessness’ and ‘fortress’ designs of newly designed urban public spaces and that, by doing so, they make ‘fourth places’ sociologically more open in order to bring strangers together. The recognition of these findings problematizes well-established urban design theories and redefines several spatial concepts for designing public space. Ultimately, the findings also bring optimism to urban design practice, offering new insights into how to design more lively and inclusive public spaces.