From our January 2015 issue: Whose Politics? Reflections on Clarence Stone’s Regime Politics

1. Michael Jones-Correa1
2. Diane Wong1

1. ¹Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

1. Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Email: mj64@cornell.edu

Abstract

Stone’s retrospective article holds to the view of his earlier work that a city’s fundamental capacity to confront existential challenges is made possible only by the engagement of elite actors with the resources for sustained politics. In this article, we set out to illustrate ways in which actors marginal to regime politics—neighborhood organizations, nonprofits, labor movements, and immigrant groups—can offer examples of sustained politics that provide alternate agendas for city politics by looking at three different policy arenas in three different cities: housing in New York, labor rights in Los Angeles, and education in Detroit.

• regime politics
 
• neighborhood organizations
 
• nonprofit organizations
 
• Detroit
• Los Angeles
 
• New York
• • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/161.abstract

From our January 2015 issue: Regime Politics in Geography

1. Katherine B. Hankins1

1. ¹Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

1. Katherine B. Hankins, Department of Geosciences, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3965, Atlanta, GA 30302, USA. Email: khankins@gsu.edu

Abstract

At the current conjuncture of neoliberal urbanism, when more than 20 years have passed since scholars identified the retrenchment of the federal state from urban affairs and the shift from urban government to urban governance, those of us engaged in questions of urban politics have much yet to learn about the power relations in American cities. At the same time, we must recognize those key concepts and frameworks that have shaped our ability to understand both the processes involved in urban politics and the expressions of those processes, as they are manifest in concrete places and often, literally, in places made of concrete. The urban regime, as explained by Clarence Stone a quarter century ago in Regime Politics, is one such concept, as illustrated in a very compelling empirical investigation, that has shaped the lexicon of how we understand cities. Stone’s contribution came along at a time when geographers were grappling with understanding the local and the global and their relationship to capitalism. Geographers engaged regime theory in fits and starts with other conceptual innovations in the field, including the regulation approach, flat ontologies, and relational sense of place. If we apply these three conceptual innovations to the regime approach, as I argue we should, then we get a much more robust conceptual tool to understand the contemporary urban political landscape.

• regime politics
 
• geography
 
• regulation theory
 
• Atlanta
• • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/150.abstract

From our January 2015 issue: Urban Regime Theory and the Problem of Change

1. Joel Rast1

1. ¹University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA

1. Joel Rast, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Bolton Hall 626, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA. Email: jrast@uwm.edu

Abstract

The 25th anniversary of the publication of Clarence Stone’s Regime Politics presents an opportunity to consider ways of moving forward theoretically in a world that has begun to look much different from postwar Atlanta. In recent years, Stone has turned his attention from stability to change in urban governing arrangements, proposing American political development (APD) as a promising theoretical approach. While broadly in agreement with Stone about the advantages of APD for the study of urban political change, I identify some potential problems with his efforts to combine APD and regime analysis. In particular, I suggest that Stone more fully embrace APD’s emphasis on friction and disorder as a driver of change in governing arrangements and that the role of institutions, in addition to informal arrangements, be considered more directly in arguments about how change occurs.

• American political development
 
• intercurrence
 
• periodization
• • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/138.abstract

From our January 2015 issue: Reflections on Regime Politics From Governing Coalition to Urban Political Order

1. Clarence N. Stone1

1. ¹George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

1. Clarence N. Stone, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. Email:cnstone@gwu.edu

Abstract

With hindsight covering a quarter of a century of Regime Politics, this reflection calls for refashioning the concept of an urban regime into a more encompassing idea of a multitiered political order. As an approach to political change, cross-time comparisons suggest that periodization can highlight how forces conjoin in different ways as political development unfolds. From this perspective, there is little reason to expect to find in today’s cities a stable and cohesive governing coalition held together around a high-priority agenda. Yet the need for resources to be commensurate with policy goals and the strength of purpose in the face of an established mind-set are key lessons to be retained from the past experiences of Atlanta and other cities. While systemic inequality continues as an overarching reality, mitigating responses can be worked out in the middle ground between structure and agency.

• urban regime
 
• multitiered political order
 
• periodization
 
• political development
• governing coalition
 
• purpose
 
• systemic inequality
 
• structure and agency
• • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/101.abstract

From our January 2015 issue: Reclaiming the European City and Lobbying for Privilege Business Improvement Districts in Germany

1. Boris Michel1
2. Christian Stein2

1. ¹Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
2. ²Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

1. Boris Michel, Institut für Geographie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Kochstr. 4/4, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany. Email: bmichel@geographie.uni-erlangen.de

Abstract

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are an increasing global phenomenon. In diverse places, they are established and sought of as helpful means to improve urban places. BIDs are frequently seen as a showcase for new forms of globalizing urban policies. This paper contrasts and broadens the frequent examples from the United States and the United Kingdom with experiences from Germany. We argue that this presents not just another example of BIDs as a mode of global neoliberal urban governance in yet another country. Instead, our case study highlights the elasticity and resilience of said concept and the impact of local trajectories on the mobilization of modes of urban governance. Compared with other places, BIDs in Germany remain relatively weak in terms of financial power. Nonetheless, the case of Hamburg shows how they are made suitable for discourses and practices of a neoliberalized “European City.”

• policy transfer
 
• mobile urbanism
 
• Business Improvement Districts
 
• Hamburg
• • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/74.abstract

From our January 2015 issue: Cities and Sustainability Polycentric Action and Multilevel Governance

1. George C. Homsy1
2. Mildred E. Warner2

1. ¹Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, USA
2. ²Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

1. George C. Homsy, Department of Public Administration, Binghamton University, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA. Email: ghomsy@binghamton.edu

Abstract

Polycentric theory, as applied to sustainability policy adoption, contends that municipalities will act independently to provide public services that protect the environment. Our multilevel regression analysis of survey responses from 1,497 municipalities across the United States challenges that notion. We find that internal drivers of municipal action are insufficient. Lower policy adoption is explained by capacity constraints. More policy making occurs in states with a multilevel governance framework supportive of local sustainability action. Contrary to Fischel’s homevoter hypothesis, we find large cities and rural areas show higher levels of adoption than suburbs (possibly due to free riding within a metropolitan region).

• sustainability
 
• municipal policy
 
• environmental governance

http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/46.abstract

From our January 2015 issue: Adrift at the Margins of Urban Society What Role Does Neighborhood Play?

1. 1. George Galster1
   2. Anna Maria Santiago2
   3. Jessica Lucero3

   1. ¹Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
   2. ²Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
   3. ³Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

   1. George Galster, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State University, 656 W. Kirby St., Detroit, MI 48202, USA. Email: george.galster@wayne.edu

   Abstract

   We quantify how social detachment (measured as neither working nor attending school) of low-income African-American and Latino young adults relates to their teen neighborhood conditions. Data come from retrospective surveys of Denver Housing Authority (DHA) households. Because DHA household allocation mimics quasirandom assignment to neighborhoods throughout Denver County, this program represents a natural experiment for overcoming geographic selection bias. Our multilevel, mixed-effects logistic analyses found significant relationships between neighborhood safety and population composition and odds of social detachment of low-income, minority young adults that can be interpreted as causal effects. The strength of these relationships was often contingent on gender and ethnicity, however. We draw conclusions for macroeconomic, income-support, subsidized housing and community development policy.
   • neighborhood effects
    
   • social detachment
    
   • natural experiments
   • • http://uar.sagepub.com/content/51/1/10.abstract

January 2015 Issue: Available to Download for Free

The January issue of Urban Affairs Review is now online and free to download. Please see http://uar.sagepub.com/content/current to download this issue.

Welcome New Editorial Board Members: Yue Zhang, Alicia Ziccardi

Yue Zhang is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University. Her principal research interest is comparative urban politics, urban governance, and urbanization in developing countries. She is the author of The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation: Beijing, Chicago, and Paris. 

http://pols.uic.edu/political-science/people/faculty/yzhang

Alicia Ziccardi has a PhD in Economics (National Autonomous University of Mexico- UNAM), and is a researcher at the Institute for Social Research- UNAM, member of the National System of Researchers and the Mexican Academy of Sciences. She is currently the Director of the University City Studies Programme – UNAM, and author and coordinator of several books and journal articles on urban poverty, social exclusion, urban policy, citizen participation, governability and local governments. 

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.iis.unam.mx/indexcontent.php%3F_module%3D120&prev=search

Welcome New Editorial Board Members: Jessica Trounstine, Ron Vogel, Mildred Warner

Jessica Trounstine is Associate Professor of Political Science at University of California, Merced. She studies representation, elections, political parties, and public goods distributions at the local level in the United States. Trounstine uses both quantitative and qualitative evidence in her research and focuses on inequality across different political dimensions. She is the author of Political Monopolies in American Cities: The Rise and Fall of Bosses and Reformers (University of Chicago Press) and has published numerous articles in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, American Politics Research, Urban Affairs Review, and Political Research Quarterly. She earned her PhD in 2004 from the University of California, San Diego and served as an Assistant Professor at Princeton University prior to moving to UC Merced.

http://polisci.ucmerced.edu/trounstine

Ronald K. Vogel is Professor of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. He serves on the Governing Board of the Urban Affairs Association and heads the Comparative Urban Politics group in the American Political Science Association.

http://www.ryerson.ca/politics/facultyandstaff/bio_RonVogel.htm

Mildred Warner is a Professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. Her work focuses on local government service delivery (privatization and inter-municipal cooperation), devolution and state-local relations, and economic development policy. She explores geographic disparity in service delivery and public finance across the urban to rural spectrum.

http://aap.cornell.edu/people/mildred-warner

Welcome New Editorial Board Members: Clarence N.Stone, Todd Swanstrom, Pawel Swianiewicz

Clarence N. Stone is Research Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at George Washington University. His research interests have long centered on city politics. Most recently he has co-authored a book on urban neighborhoods, forthcoming with the University of Chicago Press.

https://politicalscience.columbian.gwu.edu/clarence-stone

Todd Swanstrom is the Des Lee Professor of Community Collaboration and Public Policy Administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. His co-authored book, Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century (3^rd ed. 2014) won the Michael Harrington Award from the New Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

http://www.umsl.edu/~polisci/About%20The%20Department/profiles.html

Pawel Swianiewicz is Professor of Economics at University of Warsaw and Head of the Department of Local Development and Policy at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies. He is an adviser on local government issues to the President of Poland since 2010. From 2005 to 2010 he was President of the European Urban Research Association.

http://www.president.pl/en/advisors/voluntary-advisors/pawel-swianiewicz/

Welcome New Editorial Board Members: Ringa Raudla, Jefferey Sellers, Gerry Stoker

Ringa Raudla is a Professor of Public Finance and Governance and the director of the PhD Program at Ragnar Nurkse School of Innovation and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Her main research interests are institutional economics, public finance, budgeting, financial management and performance management. She has published widely in leading journals, including Governance, Public Administration, and Journal of Public Policy. She is a board member of NISPAcee and coordinates the study group on fiscal administration in IIAS. 

http://www.ttu.ee/faculty-of-social-sciences/ragnar-nurkse-school-of-innovation-and-governance/department/the-chair-of-governance/ringa-raudla/

Jefferey Sellers is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern California. His research is focused on comparative analysis of institutions and state society relations from the “bottom-up” perspective of cities and communities.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/polsci/sellers/

Gerry Stoker is a Professor of Politics and Governance at the University of Southampton, UK. His main research interests are in governance, democratic politics, local and regional governance, urban politics, public participation and public service reform. He was the founding chair of the New Local Government Network that was the think-tank of the year in 2004 and his most recent book Why Politics Matters won the 2006 political book of the year award from the Political Studies Association of the UK. He has provided advice to various parts of UK government and is also an expert advisor to the Council of Europe on local government and participation issues. 

http://www.southampton.ac.uk/politics/about/staff/gs1l06.page