Cities: Challenges for Growth and Governance

Published April 30, 2006 - 12:00 Tags:
Joseph Konvitz PASCAL Observatory, Hot Topic No.11, May 2006
Author: Joseph Konvitz
Publisher: PASCAL Observatory, Hot Topic No.11, May 2006

This paper covers four aspects of cities in which space is of vital importance, either directly or indirectly: wealth creation, involving the links between macroeconomics and cities, and their role in generating innovation and lifting productivity; human and social capital, and in particular the benefits as well as the costs of density and diversity; democratic governance, referring especially to the capacity of municipal government to cope with the challenges of urban development and to promote freedom and the built environment itself, because urban space is an independent variable which can enrich our lives through good design.
Link: http://www.obs-pascal.com/resources/hot_topic_josef_konvitz_may_2006.pdf
Trailer Author: Chris Duke
Trailer Content:

PASCAL's second Hot Topic for 2006 is written in a personal capacity by the Head of the Regulatory Policy Division of the OECD in Paris. Josef Konvitz tackles the distinctly hot subject Cities: Challenges for Growth and Governance, in an authoritative and thought-provoking way. Woodrow Wilson's inaugural address is enlisted to exemplify the challenge, and to suggest what needs to be done:

There can be no equality or opportunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they cannot alter, control or singly cope with. Society must see to it that it does not crush or weaken or damage its own constituent parts. The first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves.

According to Konvitz, we have yet to find the optimal balance between freedom and constraint, or between the market and the state, when allocating resources in cities.

The challenge lies in finding ways that blend a liberal approach to economic change with the social and environmental concerns of people in the places where they live.

To manage space better is an imperative, not an option .

One part of a solution appears too often to be overlooked:

there is a large group of people whose experience, knowledge and interest remains untapped: the mayors themselves .

Konvitz considers four aspects of cities in which space is of vital importance, either directly or indirectly. These shape the Hot Topic, after an introductory review of the rise of the global city which features 'the new economy of security'. He notes that "three challenges, not uniquely urban, are concentrated in cities: (1) ageing and solitude in general — in many cities nearly fifty per cent of the population live in one- or two-person households; (2) immigration; and (3) the fate of the middle class".

This Hot Topic considers these four aspects of cities:

  1. wealth creation, involving the links between macroeconomics and cities, and their role in generating innovation and lifting productivity - Macro-economics and Space
  2. human and social capital, and in particular the benefits as well as the costs of density and diversity - Society and Space
  3. democratic governance, referring especially to the capacity of municipal government to cope with the challenges of urban development and to promote freedom - Politics and Space
  4. the built environment itself, because urban space is an independent variable which can enrich our lives through good design - Modernism and Post-modernism

Of the fourth he concludes somewhat acidly: "Perhaps we can indulge ourselves with post-modernist culture; we cannot afford postmodernist politics".

Josef Konvitz's study is of interest to scholars of urban development and planning as well as to those responsible for making cities healthy, in a balanced sense, not merely habitable. The Topic accords with the Observatory's wish to enable dialogue to mutual benefit between planners and scholars. The study accords much importance to space, echoing place management, an initially Australian term that features in Pascal's acronym title. The City of Melbourne, where Konvitz led an OECD review four years ago, now has professional 'place managers' for each of several areas within its central city arena.

This Hot Topic is practical and applied, as questions about 'politics and space' show:

  • What is the future of local government if trust in politicians continues to decline - and how can local government attract and retain more trained professionals?
  • Extra capacity in infrastructure is vital in an emergency. What are the implications for planning key facilities such as ports, airports, electricity generating plants, waste and water treatment facilities, parks and hospitals? How should the extra costs to meet security requirements be covered?
  • What principles should apply to fiscal policy co-ordination across levels of government? Is there a role for fiscal rules - such as expenditure ceiling, restraints on local tax adjustments, limits on sub-national governments' ability to borrow money?
  • What spending responsibilities are best suited to local provision? What should be the tax rates and base devolved to local governments? To what extent should their spending be covered by their tax base?
  • How can the delivery of public services be improved - and what should be the standards for public service, taking the needs of different groups into account?
  • What will be the future of city-regions in border areas? What will be the future of city-states?
  • What is the impact of privatisation and de-regulation on local democracy? How can citizens who identify with single-issue politics co-operate for area-wide initiatives - and who is responsible for developing a medium-term, area-wide vision?
  • Who is a citizen in a mobile society? There were nearly as many people living in Berlin in 2000 as in 1990, but one-third of the population had changed over that decade, as people moved into or out of the city. Should there be minimum residency requirements to vote in local elections? As much as a quarter of the population of any large European city will be foreign nationals. A medium-size city such as Kiel will have 100 nationalities represented; London has over 200. Should voting rights in local elections be given to foreign citizens resident in a city?
  • How can public interest in complex urban policy issues be stimulated, when the media focuses on fragments of the market, and over-simplifies?

Readers may ask whether what Konvitz sees here, with a focus especially on North America, appears to apply universally:

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in a seminal 1993 article, "Defining Deviancy Down" (Moynihan, 1993) argued that culturally and politically, Americans can only deal with a couple of major social problems at a time. As new problems rise in importance, trends and circumstances that had been the focus of attention recede, and are simply assimilated into the status quo. They become part of the landscape, factored into averages, and are considered to be matters about which nothing can be done.

Is it any different, for example in 'social Europe'?


Chris Duke is the Chief Executive of the PASCAL International Observatory

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