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Istanbul, as the greatest metropolis of Turkey and one of the great cities of the world, has been rapidly transforming in recent years. This paper analyzes various aspects of this transformation to lead to an understanding of an appropriate strategy for metropolitan governance. Recent politicial developments indicate an apparent fragmentation of Istanbul citizens into segments with different expectations...
Place promotion is a key theme of urban governance in postfordist cities. Recent research shows that cities in Eastern European countries have seen similar changes. The trajectory of the transformation, however, varies from city to city. This paper illustrates the practice of place promotion in Shanghai. The research has drawn materials from the Internet to show how Shanghai has been depicted as a...
This paper sets out to explore how recent re-integration into the global economy has shaped the dynamics of urban development in two quite differently positioned southern African cities: Maputo in Mozambique and Cape Town in South Africa. Separate but similarly structured city profiles of the two cities were provided in an earlier issue of this journal, outlining how their different patterns of historical...
The effects of globalization on cities are complex, multifaceted and geographically diverse. As a result of national policy changes over the past two decades, the urban impacts of increasing global connectivity in China and Vietnam have been sudden and swift, in contrast to the more gradually formed transborder linkages of cities elsewhere in Asia. In each country, the shift to a market economy, opening...
Like many cities in the USA suffering from structural decline, in recent decades the city of Detroit has applied a 'pro-growth' agenda involving the encouragement of development within the core city. More specifically, entertainment and sports-related schemes have been the focus of this agenda in recent years. However, the use of such schemes to achieve broader regeneration aims presents problems...
The style of gated communities in Southeast Asia may be copied from those in the United States, but the function is different. In contrast to the United States, where Blakely and Snyder differentiate between lifestyle, prestige and security zone communities, most gated communities in Southeast Asia show a mixture of the three types. Resulting from the socio-economic and cultural background, security...
Current social dynamics have aggravated social inequalities in most European countries during the last two decades. The changes have accelerated differences in living conditions between groups in the cities and between neighbourhoods within cities. Along with increasing social polarization, there are clear signs of a spatial dimension to this process. The past gives clear indications that universal...
Few researchers have studied world cities from the perspective of sustainable development. This paper argues that in this era of globalization cities should aspire to be great cities, rather than just world cities. Great cities are places with an enlightened mode of governance; where technological and economic advancement sustain global and local development, thereby enriching socio-economic, human,...
Urban agglomerations continue to be defined primarily by spatial and demographic criteria which signal their position within the domestic and international urban networks. We consider that these criteria are overly static, and lack indicators of both the potential inherent in medium-sized cities, and the risks they are prone to. On the occasion of a research action project conducted jointly with the...
Current debates on urban governance suggest that multi-stakeholder arrangements between providers and users of environmental services – especially those in which there are direct links between providers and users in decision-making – lead to more accountability and better performance in service provision. The article analyses the situation in two municipalities around Chennai, India, with regard to...
Specific forms of urbanisation are evolving on the peripheries of the large developing metropolises. These processes of peri-urbanisation result in the formation of “mixed spaces”, midway between urban centres and rural spaces – transitory spaces subject to rapid and multiple transformations. Our initial hypothesis in order to understand these processes is the non-neutrality of location in the metropolitan...
Local governments are responsible for the supply of important public services in cities. On many occasions the management of those services is externalized. There is extensive literature analyzing the explanations for the governance option taken by local governments, aiming to ascertain the reasons why the management of certain services is externalized. Recent research has highlighted the fact that...
One of Europe’s newest capital cities, Skopje occupies a unique geographical position at the intersection of several major transport corridors linking Central Europe with Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean. It is a vibrant, dynamic and rapidly-transforming Balkan metropolis that has received very little academic attention to date. This is despite the city’s turbulent history, which has seen...
This paper is a summary and update, where feasible, of the United Nations first-ever report on The State of Asian Cities 2010/11. With 42% of its population in cities in 2010, Asia is urbanising rapidly; its cities are highly productive and generate an estimated 80% of the region’s GDP. Despite the sustained economic growth of Asian economies in the recent decades, urban poverty, inequality, slums,...
Historic towns are preserved and given new importance within the new cultural economy. This paper examines the conditions under which built heritage is being preserved in urban regeneration programmes in a Norwegian context. An interesting finding from this study of three towns, Stavanger, Mosjøen and Risør, is that the conservation plan itself was not the most important factor. Part of the answer...
The purpose of this article is that of analysing institutionalisation processes of professional activities linked to cognitive and cultural sectors in two different urban contexts: Milan and Barcelona. Similarities with and differences between respective outcomes will be underlined. The process is observed also in relation to the deep economic crisis that the two cities, and their national and supranational...
Recently, an international debate on urban shrinkage has brought together national strands of research on those cities that have experienced considerable population loss over a prolonged period. Partially as the result of language constraints and varied terminology used, these national debates have occurred rather separately and the huge potential for eliciting cross-national knowledge has just begun...
Lyon is France’s second city, located in south-eastern France at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. Historically, it was a significant European trade and financial centre during the 15th and 16th centuries, and from the 16th century, also became the largest producer of textiles in France, particularly associated with silk weaving. By the 19th century Lyon had become an important industrial...
The current paper addresses the issue of performance measurement and benchmarking in local government. It briefly reviews some relevant international experiences and categorizes the existing assessment tools according to their general features. The authors argue that more than the benchmarking results themselves it is the evaluation process that matters. Furthermore, it is suggested that focusing...
Contemporary explanations of urban governance in Europe have underlined the increasing influence of the ‘networks paradigm’. For some, urban network governance revitalises local democracy by fostering a more plural, inclusive and participative approach to urban policymaking. For others, the shift towards collaborative governance facilitates the concentration of urban political power and the cooptation...
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