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9781853399695

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This volume presents an intriguing overview of emerging new governance structures in complex urban environments in a variety of developing countries such as India, Vietnam and Ghana. This book focuses around three themes: the emergence of new forms of urban governance through collective action, the role of participation, in particular through self-organizing networks and the importance of sustainable governance. The authors show that the shift from urban management towards urban governance approaches that started in Europe can now also be observed, in their own specific way, in developing countries. This well written book is a must read for academics and professionals interested in urban governance in developing countries. --Leo van den Berg, professor emeritus in Regional Economics and Urban Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam This publication is timely and its contents appropriate. Its main topics are currently high on the international agenda and will enjoy therefore full attention at all levels. --Mingshun Zhang, Director and Professor, Beijing Climate Change Research and Education Centre, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture In good IHS tradition, this book captures a new mood in human settlements practice and scholarship. In the chapters of this insightful book, there is a new emphasis on public-private-community partnership, contractual solutions and institutional and incentive alignment. There is a willingness to believe in the power of cities to self-organize. There is a healthy scepticism of planned action along with a measured appreciation of the need for coordination of collective action. There is less of a presumption about which agency is best placed to organize the collective action that makes cities bearable, and in the end, prosperous. There is a realism about the threats posed by the natural, economic and political insecurities faced by cities in the 21st century. All this is not just pragmatism; it is a maturing of applied urban scholarship. Understanding the political economy of cities in terms of common resource problems and collective action solutions; and developing powerful case studies and stories to support and refute formal theories of the same, which are rooted in evidence-based and plausible models of individual motivation and collective dynamics, will not only improve urban scholarship it will help it survive and prosper. --Chris Webster, Dean, FoA and HKUrbanLab, University of Hong Kong

This publication is timely and its contents appropriate. Its main topics are currently high on the international agenda and will enjoy therefore full attention at all levels. --Mingshun Zhang, Director and Professor, Beijing Climate Change Research and Education Centre, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture In good IHS tradition, this book captures a new mood in human settlements practice and scholarship. In the chapters of this insightful book, there is a new emphasis on public-private-community partnership, contractual solutions and institutional and incentive alignment. There is a willingness to believe in the power of cities to self-organize. There is a healthy scepticism of planned action along with a measured appreciation of the need for coordination of collective action. There is less of a presumption about which agency is best placed to organize the collective action that makes cities bearable, and in the end, prosperous. There is a realism about the threats posed by the natural, economic and political insecurities faced by cities in the 21st century. All this is not just pragmatism; it is a maturing of applied urban scholarship. Understanding the political economy of cities in terms of common resource problems and collective action solutions; and developing powerful case studies and stories to support and refute formal theories of the same, which are rooted in evidence-based and plausible models of individual motivation and collective dynamics, will not only improve urban scholarship it will help it survive and prosper. --Chris Webster, Dean, FoA and HKUrbanLab, University of Hong Kong This volume presents an intriguing overview of emerging new governance structures in complex urban environments in a variety of developing countries such as India, Vietnam and Ghana. This book focuses around three themes: the emergence of new forms of urban governance through collective action, the role of participation, in particular through self-organizing networks and the importance of sustainable governance. The authors show that the shift from urban management towards urban governance approaches that started in Europe can now also be observed, in their own specific way, in developing countries. This well written book is a must read for academics and professionals interested in urban governance in developing countries. --Leo van den Berg, professor emeritus in Regional Economics and Urban Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Author Information

Meine Pieter van Dijk, is Professor of urban management at Erasmus University Jurian Edelenbos is Professor of Interactive Governance at the Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Kees van Rooijen is General Director at the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

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