Manufacturing Industrial Decline: The Politics of Economic Change in Chicago, 1955–1998

Contemporary urban political economy emphasizes the role of structural factors in explaining the deindustrialization of cities in the post‐World War II era. Urban economic restructuring, by most accounts, has left city officials with few choices other than to pursue corporate‐centered economic development strategies emphasizing downtown‐area commercial and residential growth. In Chicago, however, a corporate‐center redevelopment strategy advanced by a coalition of downtown business leaders competed with a production‐oriented strategy articulated by a coalition of neighborhood organizations, manufacturers, and labor. Centrally located industrial districts facing gentrification pressures became contested terrain, and manufacturers ultimately benefited from protective measures put in place by a sympathetic administration. This essay argues that urban economic restructuring is open‐ended and politically contested. It concludes that a fuller appreciation of the contingency of urban economic development would help uncover viable regime types featuring governing coalitions that include both community‐based organizations and neighborhood business establishments.     

PROGRESSIVE AND SUSTAINED SCHOOL REFORMS: FRAMING AND COALITION BUILDING IN SWISS CITIES

ABSTRACT: Urban politics in the early 21st century is structured by conflicts over social cohesion and economic competitiveness. Education policy takes center stage in this struggle as schools are institutions of both social and economic reproduction. I draw on arguments of urban regime and policy frame analysis to examine the politics of urban school reform in two Swiss cities. Empirically, I analyze neighborhood‐embedded bottom‐up school reforms committed to social cohesion. The paths these reforms eventually take were shaped by different coalitions geared around specific school policy frames. Frames indeed play a crucial role in building a coalition toward progressive school reforms. In addition, their sustainability in a political environment, increasingly shifting toward development policies, hinges on the dominant frame underlying the reforms as well as the properties of the network advancing them.     

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DECISIONMAKING IN A FRAGMENTED POLITY: Convention Center Expansion in Kansas City

ABSTRACT: Amid recent discussions of the shaping of economic development policies by urban governing regimes, little has been said about how these policies are made in cities which lack an effective governing coalition. This paper examines the planning of a major convention center expansion in Kansas City, Missouri, a city with a crumbling governing regime. That planning process does not conform to the work of Peterson or to Stone's model of regime policymaking where economic development policymaking is accomplished with ease. It conforms instead to a hyperpluralistic model wherein social production becomes a difficult and expensive proposition, requiring the building of a coalition on each issue anew. These findings may have broad relevance because many US cities appear to operate without effective governing coalitions.     

DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT AS AN URBAN GROWTH STRATEGY: A Critical Appraisal of the Baltimore Renaissance

ABSTRACT: Since the early 1970s, Baltimore has been heralded as a model of how declining, older U.S. cities can be revitalized Baltimore's economic development strategy has hinged on the creation of a “good business climate”; the linchpin of the strategy has been the redevelopment of downtown into the “corporate center” of a new Baltimore economy based on advanced services and tourism. Despite the favorable publicity accorded Baltimore's transformation, systematic analysis of social and economic trends suggests that corporate center-business climate redevelopment has done little to boost aggregate levels of prosperity in the city. Moreover, the Baltimore strategy has generated uneven patterns of growth and exacerbated urban dualism Baltimore has become “two cities”: a city of developers, suburban professionals, and “back-to-the-city gentry who have ridden the downtown revival to handsome profits, good jobs, and conspicuous consumption; and a city of impoverished blacks and displaced manufacturing workers, who continue to suffer from shrinking economic opportunities, declining public services, and neighborhood distress. The article explores three main reasons for these results: (1) business domination of Baltimore's public-private “partnership,” (2) the absence of explicit mechanisms linking downtown redevelopment to the revitalization of low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, and (3) the inherent pitfalls of building an urban economy on downtown-centered corporate services and tourism. The article concludes by briefly examining the implications of the Baltimore case for the general problem of how to generate equitable, sustainable economic development in older U.S. cities.     

Business Leadership Coalitions And Public‐Private Partnerships In American Cities: A Business Perspective on Regime Theory

This article strives to deepen our understanding of the nature and role of businesses and Business Leadership Coalitions (BLCs) in public‐private partnerships (PPPs) and in the formation and operation of urban governance regimes in major American cities. Our research reveals a greater heterogeneity and diversity of engagement and partnering types than is generally recognized in traditional regime typologies. An engagement portfolio framework for analyzing civic activism is proposed to encompass the diverse motives, activities, and partnering configurations exhibited by businesses. The findings suggest the need for changes in regime theory frameworks to capture the full richness and realities of business sector participation in PPPs.     

WHO BENEFITS FROM NONPROFIT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT? EXAMINING THE REVENUE DISTRIBUTION OF TAX‐EXEMPT DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATIONS AMONG U.S. CITIES

ABSTRACT: Questions surrounding the distribution of benefits have served as the focus for much research on local economic development. While nonprofit community development corporations (CDCs) emerged in the 1960s as one means of redistributing economic development benefits by targeting job training and business growth programs toward the urban poor, CDCs now represent only a portion of all nonprofit economic development organizations (NEDOs) in the United States. Newer forms of these organizations have emerged in recent years, carrying out diverse economic functions. This evolution of the nonprofit economic development subsector raises a critical question: Do nonprofit economic development activities remain concentrated today in poorer cities, or do wealthier cities also have high levels of nonprofit economic development activity? This study aggregates finance data for several types of NEDOs to the city level, for all U.S. cities with population 50,000 and over, in order to examine this question. Multivariate regression is used to estimate the effects of city‐level demographic, institutional, and fiscal explanations on the level of NEDO revenues per capita. The findings demonstrate that revenues from some types of NEDOs, such as CDCs, remain concentrated in higher‐poverty cities. However, wealthier cities have higher concentrations of revenue generated by nonprofit business assistance organizations and nonprofit real estate organizations. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for current federal and local policies related to tax‐exempt organizations.     

CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND URBAN PROBLEM SOLVING: THE CHANGING CIVIC ROLE OF BUSINESS LEADERS IN AMERICAN CITIES

ABSTRACT:  Our concern in this article is corporate civic elite organizations and their role in social production and urban policy in the United States. Recent urban literature has suggested that the power and influence of CEO organizations has declined and that there has been some disengagement of corporate elites from civic efforts in many urban areas. Yet while these trends and their likely consequences are generally acknowledged, relatively little empirical research has been conducted on the nature and extent of the shifts in corporate civic leadership and on how these shifts have affected the civic agendas of central cities and metropolitan regions. In this study we obtain data from 19 large metropolitan areas in order to more systematically examine shifts in corporate civic leadership and their consequences. Our results suggest that the institutional autonomy, time, and personal connections to the central cities of many CEOs have diminished and that the civic organizations though which CEOs work appear to have experienced lowered capacity for sustained action. These trends suggest that while many CEOs and their firms will continue to commit their time and their firms' slack resources to civic enterprises, the problems they address will differ from those tackled in the past. We discuss the important implications these shifts have for the future of corporate civic engagement in urban problem solving and for the practice of urban governance.     

VANCOUVER: THE SUSTAINABLE CITY

ABSTRACT: Vancouver exemplifies the richness of the many processes that set the civic culture of large contemporary cities. This paper focuses on what drives the social and economic construction of Vancouver, pointing to the complex linkages that tie agents to their environment. It shows that, in Vancouver, power arises from strong popular control and local democratic and participatory values, where group interactions produce and co‐produce community development. The Vancouver regime is open yet stable, socially progressive yet fiscally conservative and pro‐development. It is a regime that upholds an activist, tolerant and entrepreneurial civic culture. It emerges from an on‐going process where the openness of the regime is re‐negotiated in each neighbourhood and around each policy arena leading to the emergence of a culture of ongoing participation where civic, neighbourhood, ethnic and business groups constantly re‐invent the city.     

Land-centered urban politics in transitional China – Can they be explained by Growth Machine Theory?

With the emerging land-centered urban politics in China, can western Growth Machine Theory (GMT) explain local dynamics in Chinese cities? This paper argues that three major interest groups exist in a local land market: the central government, the local government, and local developers. Economic coalitions are expected to form between a local government and developers, and political coalitions are expected to exist between the central and local governments. To test this hypothesis and to examine the existence of local economic coalitions, this paper uses Suzhou and Shenzhen as case studies. It shows that individual land-related local interest groups are emerging and economic coalitions exist in both cities, but with varying degrees.     

The idea of building business processes: the responsive housebuilder

In many market sectors there has recently been an apparent step change for the better in how companies perform their core business. The result has been increased competitive advantage for companies in the electronic products, automotive, insurance, banking and mechanical sectors. Careful research has shown that the way forward for the construction sector to similarly benefit from the new methodology is to apply well established ‘business systems engineering7rsquo; (BSE) principles. But business systems engineering is concerned with both engineering and integrating the technological, financial, organizational and cultural aspects of business processes. The responsive housebuilder is the particular example selected herein to demonstrate the power of the approach. By re-engineering the design, financing, and production processes, the housebuilder first learns to survive economic turbulence. However, second it grows by increasing market share via the exploitation of new opportunities enabled by much reduced delivery times. The outcome is therefore a welcome addition to the construction sector survivability categories originally listed by Steven Groák in The Idea of Building.     

FOLLOWING THE SIGNS: APPLYING URBAN REGIME ANALYSIS TO A UK CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT: As the debate continues regarding the applicability of urban regime analysis in a UK context, three aspects stand out as highly significant: the target for analysis, the mode of scrutiny, and the context of local governing arrangements with its implications for interdependence as an impetus for co‐operation. This article will examine urban regime analysis and the move from government to governance in order to answer why and how the private, voluntary and public sectors might be inclined to collaborate in regimes. In addition, the regime analysis will provide the parameters for examination whilst the issue of governance will afford context for local governing arrangements. Although some issues require slight reframing to reflect the UK context, the article will follow a rigorous framework for examination utilizing the full weight of regime analysis as articulated by Stone such that it could not be accused of “concept stretching.” Far from it: Through the examination of an informal partnership, a coalition of actors from the public, private, and voluntary sectors that has been in existence for more than 13 years, the article focuses, specifically, on the long‐term, less visible aspects of local governance. As such, it is able to demonstrate how economic and political change can have a tangible effect on the manifestation of interdependence as an impetus for co‐operation, not only for this specific locale but also for other cities facing similar challenges.     

National and regional corporate spatial structure

Much is known about the macro-impacts of business activities on national and regional economies; however, comparatively little is known at the micro level about the impact spatial agglomeration of corporate wealth and performance has on urban systems. This paper reports on a collaborative research project between the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and Dun and Bradstreet, an international financial credit agency, to analyse the spatial implications of corporate structure in metropolitan regions. This paper analyses spatial patterns of medium to large businesses in three Australian State capital cities at the postcode level in order to assess the agglomeration of corporate capital, sales, and performance. The research indicates that ratio analysis can provide a useful insight into the competitiveness of metropolitan regions and the control corporate headquarters have over decision making and investment processes. The findings of this research are of special interest to capital markets, business and urban researchers in the Asia Pacific Region. Received: September 1997/Accepted: September 2001     

Linking corporate social responsibility and organizational performance in the construction industry

In the construction industry, the subject of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming increasingly important as communities, employees and socially conscious clients expect firms to demonstrate they are good corporate citizens. However, while CSR research in construction has accelerated in recent years, it remains fragmented and unconceptualized and there is little understanding of the relationship between CSR and organizational performance, the types of CSR strategies employed and the strategic motivations behind them. To address this deficiency in current CSR knowledge and drawing upon contemporary CSR theory, a survey of 104 professionals from across the construction supply chain in Australia and New Zealand was undertaken. The results show that CSR initiatives in the construction sector are integrative, isolated, narrowly focussed (mainly on environmental activities), immature, compliance-based and operational rather than strategic. The link between CSR and economic performance increasingly espoused (and assumed) in much of the CSR literature does not appear to be accepted in practice with the main benefits being seen as relational in building corporate loyalty, brand and engagement with both internal and external stakeholders. By empirically showing that CSR in construction takes place within an integrative conceptual framework, our findings highlight the potential value of theoretical concepts such as stakeholder salience in moving this field of research forward. These approaches recognize the power that stakeholders (both internal and external) have over a business and the need to manage those relationships carefully in order to secure a licence to operate.     

Urban Interests and Campaign Contributions: Evidence from Los Angeles

Abstract: Political activity is a key determinant of group influence in urban politics. This article examines a form of political activity often ignored by urban scholars, namely, campaign contributions. Using data from the 2001 Los Angeles municipal elections, I explore contributions from various urban interests. Because of its ability to overcome collective action problems, I expect business to be the main contributors, and among corporate interests, I expect development concerns to predominate. Although business contributes the vast majority of funds, contrary to expectations, land use interests are not the most active contributors, a spot reserved for professional concerns. As a whole, non‐corporate interests, often allied against the business community, are as active or more active than many corporate contributors. And, in general, patterns of contributions reflect individual, rather than organizational, activity.     

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.     

Tending the infrastructure commons: Ensuring the sustainability of our vital public systems

It is by now well recognized that civil infrastructure systems are essential in providing the range of services generally considered necessary to support a nation's economic well-being and quality of life. Consequently, it is of the utmost importance to government, business, and the general populace that these services are sustained over the long term by periodic replenishment of the physical systems that deliver them. This has proven challenging for several reasons. First, civil infrastructures do not all lie within the public domain. Second, infrastructures are complex systems that are vulnerable to failures or service degradations in other systems because of their interconnected and interdependent natures. Third, despite the obvious importance of reliable and resilient systems to our collective social, economic, and political well-being, it has been difficult to fund the necessary maintenance and capital improvements. Deciding what levels of reliability should be provided and who should pay for it are not simple questions to be addressed solely by service providers, customers, or government regulators. This paper will present the concept of an infrastructure commons and recommend some initial actions that the federal government could take to ensure that the national ‘public good’ aspect of civil is preserved and enhanced. These actions include the beginning of an informed and serious dialogue between the public and private sectors, building coalitions for action among stakeholders in the governance process, and exploring alternative mechanisms for ensuring dependable and sustainable resource streams.     

WHY REGIONS? WHY NOW? WHO CARES?

ABSTRACT: This article examines the emergence of the region as a platform for achieving economic competitiveness and social equity. We use a combination of empirical exercises to examine the timing and degree of actor interest, including convergence regressions and coefficients of variation analysis to see if regional economic and social performance is more heterogeneous, and logistical analysis to determine what metropolitan‐level factors can explain the rise of regionalist interest by business organizations and/or social justice organizations. We find that performance is, in fact, generally more heterogeneous, that different actors are motivated by different factors, and that interest by business groups seems to trigger a “reactive regionalism” by equity proponents (but not the other way around).     

Offering Incentives for New Development: The Role of City Social Status,Politics, and Local Growth Experiences

The propensity of municipal governments to offer incentives for new development is empirically examined, drawing upon both the literature on local economic development policy and studies of local residential restrictions. The data are from a 1998 mail survey of city managers in California in which officials assessed the likelihood that their local governments would offer financial assistance or zoning changes to various types of new business and residential land uses in their communities. Multivariate analysis indicates that local conditions resulting from past growth patterns—commuting times, job/population balance, and housing affordability—play an important role in shaping respondents’ assessments as to whether their cities are likely to grant incentives. Such factors deserve an important role in explaining local government growth orientations, alongside measures of community status, political institutions, and the strength of progrowth coalitions.     

老工业城市的复兴：格拉斯哥的经验及对中国东北的启示

本文回顾了一个英国主要城市的衰退和复兴经验．以期发现适合于中国东北城市的一般性政策。格拉斯哥早先发展为一个面向出口市场的重工业综合体，由于严重的失业和随之而来的社会问题，其经济在20世纪60至80年代出现了衰退。通过在一定范围内针对人、地点和企业发展三大关键要素采取的行动已取得了一定成效，这些努力包括经济结构转型、地方企业的现代化、吸引国内投资、劳动力再培训、扭转物质性退化和废弃、提升住房质量、改善周边环境以及投资交通和其他基础设施等。对于地方当局来说．没有中央政府切实而长期的支持要完成这些任务是十分艰难的。     

The Film Industry and South African Urban Change

Internationally there has been considerable discussion on the role that creative industries play as a strategy by which post-Fordist cities can revive stagnant urban economies. Among those sectors of the economy that form part of the creative industries, the filming sector counts as one. On the whole, these debates have been conducted with reference to the post-industrial cities of the north. Little attention has been placed on the role of the filming sector in the developing south generally, its spatial distribution, and its relationship to other economic and social geographies in those urban places. The paper provides a spatial analysis of the filming industry in urban South Africa and relates it to general economic and social geographies in two South African cities that have identified the filming industry as a key development strategy. In addition, an agenda for future research, in particular pertaining to urban South Africa is outlined. It is concluded that there is a broader urban planning and geography project at hand. Questions need to be asked about how the filming industry interacts with other government programmes and the ongoing transformation of physical and symbolic spaces in urban South Africa.