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There are many critiques of existing forms of urban governance as not fit for purpose. However, what alternatives might look like is equally contested. Coproduction is proposed as a response to address complex wicked issues. Achieving coproduction is a highly complex and daunting task. Bottom up approaches to the initiation of coproduced governance are seen as fruitful, including exemplification of utopian alternatives though local practices. New ways of seeing the role of conflict in participation are needed, including ways to institutionalise agonistic participatory practices. Coproduction in governance drives demands for forms of knowledge production that are themselves coproductive. New urban governing spaces need to be coproduced through participative transformation requiring experimentation and innovation in re-designing urban knowledge architectures. Future research in this field is proposed which is nuanced, grounded in explicit weightings of different democratic values, and which mediates between recognition of contingency and the ability to undertake comparative analysis.

L'auteur présente l'état des recherches sur le gouvernement local en Grande-Bretagne. Le pouvoir local a connu dans ce pays des changements majeurs avec l'arrivée des conservateurs en 1979. Le débat s'est d'abord centré sur l'étude des forces de changements, pour aboutir aujourd'hui à une analyse de la nature du système émergent. Ceci pose des problèmes théoriques, incite à étudier les réseaux politiques, le rôle du marché et soulève des questions sur le rôle nouveau de l'Etat et des citoyens.

Urban governance in general & partnerships in particular are commonly legitimized as being more efficient than traditional forms of government, whereas their relationship to democracy is only mentioned in passing or even neglected. In most of the literature, a number of efficiency-related arguments in favor of the partnership approach are presented, although its alleged capacity to create synergetic effects for the partners normally ranks number one. Of course it is an empirical question, whether a partnership is efficient or not, but the point is that the efficiency rhetoric is strong enough to legitimize the creation of partnerships anyhow. Partnerships are more or less ascribed the function to solve any governance problem. Taking its point of departure in a theoretical discussion of partnerships & their role in urban governance, & using illustrations taken from recent empirical studies, the main aim of the paper is to develop a research strategy for crossnational/crosscountry research on partnerships & urban governance. The paper concludes by discussing some policy implications of the growing role of partnerships in urban governance, highlighting their so far neglected relationship to democracy. 32 References. Adapted from the source document.

Urban governance in general and partnerships in particular are commonly legitimised as being more efficient than traditional forms of government, whereas their relationship to democracy is only mentioned in passing or even neglected. In most of the literature a number of efficiency–related arguments in favour of the partnership approach are presented, although its alleged capacity to create synergetic effects for the partners normally ranks number one. Of course it is an empirical question, whether a partnership is efficient or not, but the point is that the efficiency rhetoric is strong enough to legitimise the creation of partnerships anyhow. Partnerships are more or less ascribed the function to solve any governance problem. Taking its point of departure in a theoretical discussion of partnerships and their role in urban governance, and using illustrations taken from recent empirical studies, the main aim of the paper is to develop a research strategy for cross–national/cross–country research on partnerships and urban governance. The paper concludes by discussing some policy implications of the growing role of partnerships in urban governance, high–lighting their so–far neglected relationship to democracy.

"Der Governance-Begriff durchzieht die Politikwissenschaft, von den Internationalen Beziehungen über die Europapolitik bis hin zur Analyse von Stadtpolitik. Unter dem Schlagwort 'urban governance' werden neue Formen des Zusammenwirkens von privaten und öffentlichen Akteuren in der Bearbeitung kommunaler Angelegenheiten diskutiert. In diesem Beitrag betrachten die Verfasser ein in Deutschland neues Phänomen dieses Zusammenwirkens, so genannte Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). Das Konzept stammt aus dem nordamerikanischen Raum und hat seit wenigen Jahren in einzelnen deutschen Ländern Fuß gefasst. Der Beitrag beschreibt seine Besonderheiten, seine Probleme und die Grenzen des Policy-Transfers angesichts europäischer Ideen von Urbanität." (Autorenreferat)

This article develops an integrated framework for comparing urban governance cross nationally. Joining together structural, cultural, and rational actor approaches to cross-national comparison, it explains the institutional milieux of urban governance in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Comparison of public-private partnership arrangements in cities of these four countries is used to demonstrate the utility of this integrated framework.

Increasing attention has been paid to forms of urban governance, or how public and private sector actors cooperate in generating new policies. In fact, almost everywhere where urban governance structures have been looked for, they have been found. This apparent ubiquity of governance networks has ushered in a new era for urban studies, but it raises the issue of whether such structures vary and whether the differences can be measured and used in explaining other dimensions of city difference. The author argues that the ubiquity problem does not reflect a fatal deficit in urban governance concepts but is, rather, a correctable problem of methods. Urban governance research would benefit greatly from the more widespread use of existing descriptive methods and techniques which produce results that are easy to compare across cities, and thus expand the basis for inductive theory building. As the high cost of such methods discourages comparative research designs with multiple cases, a similar but more cost-effective research method—which has advantages and disadvantages—is discussed. The kinds of simple structural features of governance networks it reveals represent a new potential dimension of explanation in urban research.