Circulating planning ideas from the metropole to the colonies: understanding South Africa's segregated cities through policy mobilities

In the early part of the twentieth century, South African cities were segregated in accordance with British city planning concepts that embodied the belief that social order can be manipulated through the urban form. This paper surveys the history of South African planning practices to understand the spread of segregation policies and practices. Whereas scholars tend to agree that the apartheid city (post?1948) is a more highly organized and structured version of the colonial city (pre?1910), the literature lacks consensus on the development of the segregated city (1910?1948) within South Africa. How did concepts of segregation circulate and why was it implemented with such consistency? Accordingly, this paper employs concepts of policy mobilities to trace historical configurations in South Africa to international influences. The focus on the circuits of knowledge explains how concepts and designs transplanted from elsewhere helped create the form of South African cities today. Understanding the movement of planning ideas through policy mobilities furthers geographical understandings of historical circulation processes, the role of the local actors, and policy mobilities failure. This history of learning also challenges the assumption that South African cities are unique and in so doing opens the doors for knowledge sharing between postcolonial cities.     

世界城市中的跨国机构研究综述

在全球化的冲击下, 超越或嵌入国家地理疆界范围的行动者改变着世界政治地理格局。国际组织、国际非政府组织、跨国政府组织和跨国非政府组织等跨国机构在全球地缘政治中的角色越来越重要。地理学视角的研究认为, 不同类型的跨国机构在全球尺度上创造了复杂而多样化的全球政治地理结构, 也形成具有政治特色的世界城市体系。不仅如此, 跨国机构通过地方尺度的行动, 深入城市的全球化发展过程, 成为与世界城市紧密关联的影响因子, 对城市制度和内部空间等方面的变化发挥着不可忽视的作用。对当代西方地理学中跨国机构研究进行梳理和评述, 在此基础上指出目前存在的不足, 不仅是从地理学视角对跨国机构研究进展的把握, 也希望对中国当代政治地理和城市地理中跨国机构的研究有一定的借鉴和启示意义。     

Models of local governing coalitions: city politics and policy effects in Spanish municipalities

Local governance involves coalitions between public and private actors on policy issues. Actors participating in these coalitions may vary according to the issue in question, even within the same city. Based on a survey carried out among actors from different sectors of the local political community in four Spanish cities, governance networks are analyzed across five different issues: public housing, cultural tourism, urban regeneration, social policy, and citizen participation. Using network analysis and indexes in a comparative examination of 20 policy networks, we show that variations across networks are explained by policy issue content and supra-municipal regulations, regardless of the cities’ political characteristics.     

“Building glass refrigerators in the desert”: discourses of urban sustainability and nation building in Qatar

Planners around the Arab Gulf states are increasingly drawing on narratives about “urban sustainability,” despite the fact that the explosive growth of urban centers in the Arabian desert largely defies the logic of sustainability. In this article, I consider how and with what effect these narratives have been deployed by various actors in Doha, Qatar. Eschewing a simple economistic reading, I highlight political geographic context and analyze how actors mobilize and rework these discourses. Drawing on mixed-methods fieldwork in Fall 2013, I illustrate how sustainability narratives are mobilized together with nationalist tropes about modernizing Qatar and building up the country’s international prestige, while preserving local traditions and culture through the built environment. With a focus on recent efforts to green Doha, this analysis sheds light on the disciplining function of nationalist discourses in the production and constitution of what it means to label development practices “green” in contemporary Qatar.     

Reimagining e-waste circuits: calculation,mobile policies,and the move to urban mining in Global South cities

In this article, I describe how calculative practices of enumeration and visualization mobilized by policy actors to govern the multiple mobilities of e-waste and its re-materialization as value in the informal-recycling economies of Global South cities have resulted in e-waste being recalibrated as an “urban mine.” To properly govern and fully exploit e-waste qua urban mines, policy actors have developed the Best-of-2-Worlds (Bo2W) model. I show that the antecedent of the Bo2W model is the Clean e-Waste Channel implemented in Bangalore, India’s “Cyber City,” which has retroactively been recast as the first successful implementation of the Bo2W model. While policy actors mobilize Bangalore’s success to boost this model and facilitate its mobility to other Global South cities, I conclude by offering a critical assessment of the Bo2W model for the prospects of informal recyclers in Global South cities and the creation of uneven geographies of e-waste toxicity.     

The Transnational Assembling of Marina Bay,Singapore

From Shanghai's Pudong to Dubai's Marina, waterfront developments are increasingly popular urban forms worldwide. Drawing on the literature on urban assemblages, I explore how urban waterfronts are produced out of the transnational assembling of models, knowledge and expertise. My case study here is Marina Bay, Singapore, a landscape that like much of the rest of Singapore is a product of talent and ideas from elsewhere. In this paper, two strategies employed by Singapore's urban authorities to court global expertise for Marina Bay's development are examined – their formation of an international panel of experts in the fields of urban planning, policy and design, and their launching of international competitions to attract top design firms. Like transfer agents that enable policies to travel, I argue that these individuals and firms are situated within wider knowledge circuits that straddle the globe, and are thus well placed to filter and channel ideas from elsewhere to Singapore. Drawing on selected developments within Marina Bay, I trace the routes taken by these ideas, the changes they underwent as they travelled, as well as their relationships with the actors that facilitated their journeys. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate the usefulness of understanding the urban as more‐than‐territorial in both theory and practice.     

Beyond “Guggenheiming”: From flagship buildings to flagship space in Sweden

Flagship buildings are promoted as a good strategy to stimulate economic development. Pushed by a range of actors, “best practice” examples are being copied from place to place around the globe. Flagship buildings are accompanied by a discourse of place branding that stresses a need for cities to improve their attractiveness. Drawing on this discourse and ongoing discussions on deterritorialization and reterritorialization in urban and economic geography, the author argues that there is an overly deterritorialized approach to flagship buildings in the place-branding literature. Using a conceptual framework inspired by the reterritorialization debate, she introduces the concept of “flagship space,” emphasizing a dualism in place branding encompassing both deterritorialized and territorial processes that in interplay create best-practice examples. The empirical analysis examines the development of five flagship hotels in Sweden. The author concludes that the five hotels have both created and are constantly reproducing their statuses as flagship developments. However, the creation and reproduction of status is not only upheld by the operators of the hotels but is also a joint effort of actors in the local community. Through these processes and practices the understanding of the hotels is broadened from merely being flagship buildings to creators of flagship space.     

Financial market actors as urban policy-makers: the case of real estate investment trusts in Brazil

Focusing on the growth of Real Estate Investment Trusts in Brazil, the paper explores how financializing policy instruments intertwine financial markets and the urban built environment. It studies the career of REITs and questions the role of financial market capital and actors in urban dynamics. The paper uncovers three processes usually considered separately: i) how a network of public and private financial market actors coaxes state bodies into using their regulatory powers and financial resources to transform real estate into an asset class; ii) how the government-run financial market authority and banks lure urban households into liquid real estate through marketing and education campaigns; and iii) how asset managers are “applied economic geographers” insofar as they channel households’ capital into a selected cities and properties. The active role played by financial actors in the design, enhancement and implementation of such a policy instrument leads us to conclude on their role as urban policy-makers.     

非国家行为体的地缘政治空间影响及实现路径

全球治理背景下,国家仍是国际社会最重要行为体,但非国家行为体作为重要的国际活动参与者也逐渐成为不可忽视的力量。在地理学框架中深入探讨非国家行为体的地缘政治角色,可以更加系统地理解“一带一路”建设中的多元地缘关系。论文依据地理学尺度思想梳理了非国家行为体的概念和分类,并归纳其地缘政治空间影响及实现途径,以期在理论上完善对地缘政治主体的研究,搭建非国家行为体的地缘政治认识框架,实践上指导中国“一带一路”等对外合作的开展。主要结论包括：① 非国家行为体没有动摇国家主权的决定性地位,但在世界政治中仍发挥着不可替代的独特作用,一是作为国家力量的拓展,二是对传统的国家边界、主权有空间上的突破;② 在国际事务上,非国家行为体与国家的互动及相关行为对国际安全、制度、认知和权力空间既产生了积极作用,也造成了一定损害和威胁;③ 非国家行为体通过参与和维护全球治理,塑造地缘政治想象与认同,以及调节和重塑地缘政治空间边界三种方式实现地缘政治影响。因此,为更好地服务“一带一路”建设,需要从不同角度分析非国家行为体的影响,通过与之加强对话、开展合作,合理管理、警惕部分非国家行为体的威胁以及培育鼓励中国的非国家行为体等多种方式应对其潜在影响。     

乌鲁木齐公共交通基础设施对低收入群体就业的影响研究

中国西部城市在大规模、快速度和高投资的交通基础设施推进的同时,审视其建设的社会经济效益就显得尤为重要。尤其对于城市低收入群体来说,公共交通基础设施投入是否能对提升就业水平、提升整体生活品质产生积极作用,值得规划者和决策者关注。论文基于乌鲁木齐2014年居民交通出行调查数据,采用带有交叉变量的多元线性回归和多元Logit回归方法,考察快速公交(Bus Rapid Transit, BRT)对于提升低收入群体就业可达性和通勤满意度的影响。分析结果显示：在就业可达性方面,低收入、男性和拥有住房产权者的通勤时间更长,距离BRT车站越近则通勤时间更短,私家车出行的通勤时间更长;在通勤满意度方面,低收入群体的通勤满意度水平更低,距离BRT车站近、选择私家车出行的通勤满意度水平更高。分析也表明,通勤时间短,通勤满意度水平不一定就高。这些研究结果表明,整体上公共交通基础设施建设对于提升就业可达性和满意度有着积极的带动作用,但个体经济社会属性的差异影响也不可忽视。研究乌鲁木齐公共交通基础设施对就业可达性和满意度的影响,有助于帮助西部城市制定提升低收入群体整体就业水平的公共政策,尤其对于促进地方就业稳定和带动区域经济发展有重要意义。     

Making in the City: disjunctures between public discourse and urban policy

Creative cities contribute much to the cultural economies and identities of a nation, shaping imagination and talent, and contributing to the sense of livability and place. Artists, designers, crafters, tinkerers, and even small-scale manufacturers are at the heart of urban rejuvenation in cities such as Brooklyn in New York, and Newcastle and Melbourne in Australia. Increasingly this activity is referred to in the public realm via the media, including social media, through the all-encompassing term ‘making’. Yet in much public policy, this activity is framed through previously held notions: artists, culture, and the precincts associated with this life. I explore this disjuncture by focusing on a case study of Australia’s largest city, Sydney, to interrogate the current schism between public and policy discourse. I share findings about the role of discourse, community consultation, and timing in policy development to argue that valuing making in cities requires commitment to continual community consultation to ensure policy currency, with makers as key stakeholders in this dialogue. Furthermore, the intersection of policy domains is required to prevent isolating making into one policy area. I highlight implications for the imagining of creative cities.     

Green Watershed in Yunnan: a multi-scalar analysis of environmental non-governmental organisation (eNGO) relationships in China

Responding to China's major environmental challenges, researchers are increasingly exploring dynamics between international non-governmental organisations, the nation-state, and local communities. Much less understood are domestic environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) and their interactions with actors across scales. This paper responds by exploring domestic eNGOs and interactions with institutional actors, including international donors, and with levels of Chinese government. The practices of eNGOs in China are influenced by interactions at various scales. Rather than being directly influenced by international partners and simply constrained by state regulations, Chinese eNGOs are embedded in more complex power relations. These interrelationships are exemplified in the operations of Green Watershed, a domestic eNGO working in Yunnan Province. Green Watershed has extensive interactions with international donors and various levels of government as a result of its national campaign and long-term local projects. Relationships between eNGOs’ international donors and the Chinese government are significant in influencing eNGO practice. NGO–government relations in China are inconsistent and constantly changing owing to the diverse interests and priorities of the various levels of government. The impacts of the local practice of Chinese eNGOs are deeply informed by their relationships both at and beyond the local level. Complex interrelationships make it difficult to achieve bottom-up, participatory resource management in China.     

Down to Earth: Local government and greenhouse policy in Australia

Global environmental politics and policy are conventionally seen as the province of nation-states and international negotiations. However, there has been increasing attention devoted to the part that local places can play in the pursuit of (global) sustainable development. In this paper, I explore the role of local government in Australian greenhouse policy. A brief outline of the role of local government in environmental management is followed by a short history of greenhouse policy in Australia. From its initial marginal position, local government has begun to occupy a more prominent role in greenhouse policy development and implementation. The paper examines the processes that have led to this change, the development of local greenhouse and energy policies in Newcastle, New South Wales, and the initiation of the 'Cities for Climate Protection' program by the federal government. In conclusion, some thoughts on the problems and prospects of a local approach to the greenhouse issue are offered.     

The Sochi 2014 olympics: nationalism,globalized place-making and multiscalar legitimacy

The Olympics literature typically makes cities the predominant unit of analysis and investigates how and why certain cities host the Games. This article examines how the international and national self-seeking bureaucratic elites instrumentalize the Games across several spatial scales, with a host city functioning as a stage on which the multi-scalar actors use the Olympics to increase their legitimacy and to coopt large groups of populations and elites. The article offers the concept of multiscalar Olympics legitimacy necessary for the analysis of the organization of mega-events and their consequences for cities. It asks, how the actors at various geographical scales managed and exploited the Games? Drawing on the theories of legitimacy and mega-events, and data from interviews conducted in Russia between 2009 and 2015, I demonstrate that organizers used cooptation of professionals and nationalist legitimization as the instruments facilitating host city involvement in the Olympics.     

Chinese overseas industrial parks in Southeast Asia: An examination of policy mobility from the perspective of embeddedness

The development of overseas industrial parks is a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative and an expected experimental way of promoting inclusive globalization by inventing new forms of cooperation between China and local host countries. Policy mobility, a classic theory within international political geography addressing the connection between local and global policies, has implications for overseas industrial parks development. In this paper, we argue that policies are not easily moved directly from one place to another; instead, policies are embedded due to the role of local actors in policy mobility. This article first provides an overview of seven China-Southeast Asia economic and trade cooperation zones identified by the Ministry of Commerce, and analyzes their key participants. It then discusses policy mobility by looking into the roles of revenue, land, and talent in developing these industrial parks. The paper finds that these parks face challenges, such as the complicated geographical environments of host countries, huge pressure from enterprise investment capital, the lack of overseas service platforms, and underdeveloped agglomeration economies. In the light of the current situation, policy suggestions for the future sustainable development of overseas industrial parks are put forward.     

中国在东南亚的海外经贸合作园区——以嵌入性视角检验政策移动性（英文）

The development of overseas industrial parks is a key component of the Belt and Road Initiative and an expected experimental way of promoting inclusive globalization by inventing new forms of cooperation between China and local host countries. Policy mobility, a classic theory within international political geography addressing the connection between local and global policies, has implications for overseas industrial parks development. In this paper, we argue that policies are not easily moved directly from one place to another; instead, policies are embedded due to the role of local actors in policy mobility. This article first provides an overview of seven China-Southeast Asia economic and trade cooperation zones identified by the Ministry of Commerce, and analyzes their key participants. It then discusses policy mobility by looking into the roles of revenue, land, and talent in developing these industrial parks. The paper finds that these parks face challenges, such as the complicated geographical environments of host countries, huge pressure from enterprise investment capital, the lack of overseas service platforms, and underdeveloped agglomeration economies. In the light of the current situation, policy suggestions for the future sustainable development of overseas industrial parks are put forward.     

Policy narratives, landholder engagement, and oil palm expansion on the Malaysian and Indonesian frontiers

Over recent decades a structural transformation has affected agriculture in the frontier areas of Malaysian Borneo and Outer Island Indonesia with the rapid conversion of agricultural lands, fallows, and formerly forested areas into oil palm. These frontiers have similar positions in the international political economy of oil palm and have complementary resource endowments. In both cases, state planners face the common challenges of finding a disciplined labour force, delivering land for estate development, maintaining local legitimacy, and dealing with local contestation. Yet there are significant differences in systems of governance and policy frameworks regarding land, shifting capacity of state actors to facilitate the transformation of these agrarian frontiers, and changing degrees of local, national and international contestation. Considering the generic and the specific elements at play in each case, this paper argues that analogous policy narratives have shaped the ways in which landholders have been engaged in the process of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. In both cases, with the shift from state-led to neoliberal governance approaches to agricultural development, the 'frontier' has been created and transformed through policy narratives that facilitate the conversion of whole landscapes into oil palm. This has been achieved by obscuring indigenous forms of agriculture and land tenure, while creating reserves of available 'state' or 'idle' customary land, and counterpoising smallholder 'marginality' and 'backwardness' to the modernity of contemporary estate agriculture.     

Policy Boosterism,Policy Mobilities,and the Extrospective City

Abstract

This study develops the notion of “policy boosterism,” a subset of traditional branding and marketing activities that involves the active promotion of locally developed and/or locally successful policies, programs, or practices across wider geographical fields as well as to broader communities of interested peers. It is argued that policy boosterism is (1) an important element of how urban policy actors engage with global communities of professional peers and with local residents, and (2) a useful concept with which to interrogate and understand how policies and policy knowledge are mobilized among cities. A conceptualization of policy boosterism and its role in global-urban policymaking is developed by combining insights from the burgeoning “policy mobilities” literature with those of the longstanding literature on entrepreneurial city marketing. It is supported by illustrative examples of policy boosterism in Vancouver: the city's Greenest City and Green Capital initiatives, the use of the term “Vancouverism” among the city's urban design community, and demonstrations of new urban technologies during the 2010 Winter Olympics that were used to market a particular vision of the city's governance to people from elsewhere, but also—crucially—to local audiences. The article concludes by highlighting four foci that might frame future work at the intersections of policy boosterism and policy mobilities.     

Cooperation at different scales: challenges for local and international water resource governance in South Africa

Theory on environmental governance and water governance emphasises decentralised, devolved forms of interaction between stakeholders. As previously excluded actors are empowered to take part in governance, new forms of cooperation are created. This paper examines how the cooperative principle has influenced stakeholder interaction at the local and international scales of water governance in South Africa. Water policies and initiatives have been set up to promote multi-level governance that emphasises cooperation between various stakeholders. The emphasis on cooperation and inclusiveness is particularly pertinent to the South African context because of its apartheid past. The paper asks whether there have been new forms of cooperation between a wider array of actors, as the theory proposes. By using the case studies of the Sabie catchment and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project to examine local and international level governance, the paper finds challenges related to power disparity and interdependence of actors, and risk perceptions of inclusive decision-making. It is found that at both the local and international level, the state, which is a 'traditional' actor, still plays an influential role in decision-making. 'New' actors such as businesses, civil society, and regional institutions are more visible but have limited decision-making power. Non-linear, time-consuming forms of cooperation occur in water governance.     

Settlement and resettlement on marginal land: a case study from Thailand

Spontaneous land settlement has received less attention than planned schemes, and state policy on spontaneously cleared land is likewise neglected. A case study of a Thai resettlement scheme on land settled spontaneously illustrates the wider concern of heightened competition for marginal land. State policy and practice as revealed in the Tab Salao case shows the state as one of a number of actors in the local political economy of resource competition. The main resource in question is marginal land. Ambiguous tenure underlies the immediate problem of resettlement, but it also reflects the problematic role of the state as arbiter and manager of resources hitherto under vernacular forms of tenure.