School of the Built Environment

Urban Governance

Sue Brownill

Department of Planning

School of the Built Environment

Introduction

• Governance is central to debates covering in network • Two key questions in the proposal

• How is urban governance responding to challenges of globalisation and climate change?

• Are different, more flexible forms of governing capable of meeting such challenges emerging?

• But multi-faceted: about climate change and pro-poor/socially inclusive strategies in an era of competitiveness

• Poses challenges to urban governments and to how we understand and characterise urban governance.

• In particular move beyond competencies to explore multiple modes of governance

School of the Built Environment

Exploring Governance

• Context• Framing governance• The UK experience, with an emphasis on the

Thames Gateway• Some implications for the network

School of the Built Environment

Context

• Governance and sustainability, governance for sustainability

• Multi-level governance – global to local• Activity on the ground and growing evidence base of

drivers of and barriers to ‘effective’ governance for sustainability

• Debates about role and nature of governance

School of the Built Environment

Ways of Seeing

• Narratives of governance, localism and sustainability

• Some issues in practice –but generally a credible story

School of the Built Environment

Some alternative narratives

• Neoliberal governance• Commitment to markets• Forms of governance which promote

competitiveness, not inclusivity• Shift of power to private economic

interests• Contain tendencies to ‘governance

failure’

School of the Built Environment

Different Modes or Models of Governance

• Some trying to develop a more nuanced approach around competing discourses and modes of governance

• Raco -hybridity• Within these broader debates Bulkeley et al identify a number of

different modes of governance in relation to climate change have been identified in previous work• Self-governing• Provision• Regulation• Enabling• Partnership/networked

Self-governing/

participatory

Energy efficiency in municipal buildings

Regulation/Authority Strategic planning, targets, laws

Provision

Public transport, recycling

Enabling Campaigns, advice

Partnership Flex-fuel collaboration Sao Paulo

Some Examples

Capacity BuildingEmpowermentCounter-publicsCitizen power

Local FlexibilityNetworks – flows of powerDiversity of interestsStakeholdersConsensus

SELF-GOVERNANCEMODEL

OPEN SYSTEMS

MODEL

HIERARCHYMODEL

RATIONAL GOALMODEL

Formal processesStatutory requirementsRepresentative democracyFormal power/authority

Performance IndicatorsWhat works – guidanceManagerial Framing of issuesManagerial power Consumer preferences and service improvement

Decentralisation

Centralisation

TowardsContinuity

Towards competitiveness and multi-level government

An Illustration of Contrasting Modes of Governance; Newman

School of the Built Environment

The UK Experience

• Interesting times• Example of Thames Gateway and Sustainable

Communities• Example of New Conventional Wisdom – governance

as key to reconcling competitiveness and sustainability/equity

• However are they complementary or mutually exclusive? Are forms of governance more likely to promote competitiveness than sustainability? What modes of governance can be seen? Are they fit for purpose? What are the drivers and barriers that emerge?

School of the Built Environment

School of the Built Environment

Thames Gateway before: Eastern Quarry, Ebbsfleet 1997

School of the Built Environment

Thames Gateway after: Ebbsfleet Valley 2010

School of the Built Environment

Thames Gateway

School of the Built Environment

Aims and Objectives

Our aim is to use growth to regenerate and develop the Thames Gateway in a sustainable way. We want to create an attractive environment where people will choose to live, work and spend their leisure time (Delivering the Thames Gateway)

The Governance of the Gateway

Key.Sub-regional PartnershipsThames Gateway London PartnershipThames Gateway South Essex PartnershipThames Gateway Kent Partnership

Local Deveivery vehicles

London Thames Gateway UDCWoolwich Regeneration Agency Kent Thameside elivery Board Renaissance Southend Basildon Renaissance Partnership Swale ForwardInvest Bexley

School of the Built Environment

Jessop Governance Failure

• Self-Organisation

• Intersection with other governance structures – issue of resources

• Economic context

School of the Built Environment

Governance Failure?

• Governability v flexibility – crisis of leadership • Competition v co-operation• Accountability v efficiency

• Competitivenss v sustainability• Who is a sustainable citizen

• Open-ness v closure

School of the Built Environment

Related Issues

• Joining Up: sustainable communities need co-ordinated delivery

• Funding for infrastructure• Conflict over who pays between central and local

govt eg London Riverside and between public and private

• Devolution of responsibility of delivery without power of resources

• Ability to meet targets ; constraints of the wider economic context. What trends are showing versus what is in strategies

• Constraints of strategy - refusal to intervene in location decisions

• Impact of potential downturn in economy

School of the Built Environment

Wider Economic Context

• Ability to meet targets ; constraints of the wider economic context. What trends are showing versus what is in strategies

• Constraints of strategy - refusal to intervene in location decisions

• Impact of potential downturn in economy

School of the Built Environment

Overcoming Failure?

• Despite this there have been some examples of ‘success’ in Gateway and elsewhere, suggests that spaces are opened up within governance arrangements• Guided bus in North Kent• Attempts to link social inclusion to new

developments• Greenwich Millennium village

School of the Built Environment

School of the Built Environment

Some Issues to Explore

• Confirms pictures of drivers and barriers eg• Leadership• Resources, knowledge and funding• ‘fit’ with spatial area• Enabling policy framework• Capacity for ‘self governing’• Involving communities• Framing of issue as of local importance• Horizontal and vertical integration• structures

• But also suggests that ability to act through and co-ordinate different modes of governing will be critical to success alongside the modes of governance available to municipalities

School of the Built Environment

Some Issues to Explore

• Conceptual frameworks; modes/models of governance

• Resilience and modes of governance• Joining the gaps between competitiveness and

sustainability and participation• Governing the future• Mitigation and adaptation?• Further case studies and examples

School of the Built Environment

Over to you?

• Examples• Thoughts• Issues• Areas for further work