In the last thirty years, European local authorities have played a pro-active role in the realm of sustainable development, taking part in several European initiatives and projects and setting up municipal networks. The latter, which connect cities scattered across Member States, may focus on specific environmental issues, such as sustainable mobility or energy, or include sustainable development in a wide range of policy priorities. These socio-ecological urban networks (hereafter SEUNs) have attracted growing academic attention. However, the bulk of the literature is located within Geography and Urban Studies, and it is more focused on the structure of the networks, the process of decision-making, and the policy outcomes than on the drivers of cities’ membership of SEUNs. Within this debate, the contribution of Political Science has been scant, and the political and economic drivers of cities’ engagement in European socio-ecological municipal networks have been overlooked. Understanding why local governments decide to participate in these networks is important for two main reasons: firstly, it contributes to shedding light on how contemporary local political elites govern cities within the European context; secondly, it allows us to understand why European cooperation for sustainable development has become a dominant discourse in urban politics. Conversely, this thesis adopts an urban approach to isolate the urban-level economic, political and institutional factors that impact on local authorities’ participations in European socio-ecological urban networks. Using a nested research design that combines a quantitative and qualitative analysis, the thesis seeks to shed light on the factors and motivations underlying the choice of cities to participate in European networks for sustainability. The results show that cities’ European commitment to sustainable development is part of a broad strategy to achieve urban regeneration. Therefore, participation in SEUNs is not necessarily motivated by environmental preoccupations but is functional to achieve economic and political objectives.

<p>My dissertation investigates twin financial interventions—urban development and emergency management—in a single small town. Once a thriving city drawing blacks as blue-collar workers during the Great Migration, Benton Harbor, Michigan has suffered from waves of out-migration, debt, and alleged poor management. Benton Harbor’s emphasis on high-end economic development to attract white-collar workers and tourism, amidst the poverty, unemployment, and disenfranchisement of black residents, highlights an extreme case of American urban inequality. At the same time, many bystanders and representative observers argue that this urban redevelopment scheme and the city’s takeover by the state represent Benton Harbor residents’ only hope for a better life. I interviewed 44 key players and observers in local politics and development, attended 20 public meetings, conducted three months of observations, and collected extensive archival data. Examining Benton Harbor’s time under emergency management and its luxury golf course development as two exemplars of a larger relationship, I find that the top-down processes allegedly intended to alleviate Benton Harbor’s inequality actually reproduce and deepen the city’s problems. I propose that the beneficiaries of both plans constitute a white urban regime active in Benton Harbor. I show how the white urban regime serves its interests by operating an extraction machine in the city, which serves to reproduce local poverty and wealth by directing resources toward the white urban regime and away from the city.</p> / Dissertation

Debates realizados nas últimas décadas acerca do conceito de Diplomacia permitiram a consideração das práticas de negociação e mediação de conflitos do período medieval como práticas diplomáticas, antes restritas somente às realidades do Estado Moderno. Nesse cenário de discussões teóricas, o Período Comunal Italiano (séculos XII a XIV) despertou o interesse dos historiadores como um campo privilegiado de estudo da Diplomacia, principalmente devido às experiências de conflito entre as comunas italianas e o Sacro Império Romano-Germânico, que marcaram o período. Tal fascínio historiográfico em relação às comunas italianas expressou-se, sobretudo, na realização de um intenso processo de revisão e exploração dos corpora documentais peninsulares sob a chave de leitura da Diplomacia. Entretanto, a legislação estatutária comunal italiana não usufruiu da mesma sorte que outros textos no estudo das relações diplomáticas peninsulares na Baixa Idade Média por serem, principalmente, documentos considerados muito rígidos para a abordagem dessa questão. Fora os trabalhos de Angelini e Gilli, que acenaram para as possibilidades de estudo dos estatutos sob a ótica da Diplomacia, esses documentos continuam em grande parte ainda não explorados, principalmente a relação das rubricas estatutárias dedicadas aos embaixadores com os movimentos políticos da época. Desta forma, essa pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar as diferentes redações dos estatutos comunais de Bolonha, Ferrara, Modena e Verona produzidos entre os séculos XIII e XV, buscando compreender como esses textos regulamentavam a organização de embaixadas e a escolha de embaixadores para representar os interesses da comuna no exterior, e qual era a relação que as rubricas destinadas a esse personagem estabeleciam com as disputas políticas no interior de cada uma dessas comunas e em seu conjunto. / Debates developed in the last decades about the concept of Diplomacy allowed practices of conflict mediation and resolution developed during the medieval period to be considered as diplomatic practices, a title once reserved only to realities related to the Modern State. In this scenario of theoretical discussions, the Italian Communal Period (XIIth to XIVth centuries) has arisen the interest of historians as a privileged field to study Diplomacy, especially due to the conflict experiences between the communes and the Holy Roman German Empire, which marked the period. Such historiographic fascination essentially resulted in the execution of an intense revision and exploration process of documents produced in the peninula in a Diplomatic point of view. However, the Statutory Communal Legislation did not cherished of the same luck as other texts in this sort of inquire, mainly because they were considered too rigid to be used in the exploration of such matter. Apart from the works of Angelini and Gilli, who signaled the possibilities of studying the statutes in a Diplomatic point of view, these documents continue to be mostly unedited and unexplored, especially the relationship between their rubricae dedicated to ambassadors and the political movements of the period. Therefore, this research aims to analyse different redactions of the communal statutes of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena and Verona written between the 13th and the 15th century, in order to try to understand how these texts regulated the organization of embassies and the choice of ambassadors to represent communal interests abroad, and what was the relationship established between the rubricae dedicated to this figure and the political disputes in the interior of each one of these communes and in them as a group.

Debates realizados nas últimas décadas acerca do conceito de Diplomacia permitiram a consideração das práticas de negociação e mediação de conflitos do período medieval como práticas diplomáticas, antes restritas somente às realidades do Estado Moderno. Nesse cenário de discussões teóricas, o Período Comunal Italiano (séculos XII a XIV) despertou o interesse dos historiadores como um campo privilegiado de estudo da Diplomacia, principalmente devido às experiências de conflito entre as comunas italianas e o Sacro Império Romano-Germânico, que marcaram o período. Tal fascínio historiográfico em relação às comunas italianas expressou-se, sobretudo, na realização de um intenso processo de revisão e exploração dos corpora documentais peninsulares sob a chave de leitura da Diplomacia. Entretanto, a legislação estatutária comunal italiana não usufruiu da mesma sorte que outros textos no estudo das relações diplomáticas peninsulares na Baixa Idade Média por serem, principalmente, documentos considerados muito rígidos para a abordagem dessa questão. Fora os trabalhos de Angelini e Gilli, que acenaram para as possibilidades de estudo dos estatutos sob a ótica da Diplomacia, esses documentos continuam em grande parte ainda não explorados, principalmente a relação das rubricas estatutárias dedicadas aos embaixadores com os movimentos políticos da época. Desta forma, essa pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar as diferentes redações dos estatutos comunais de Bolonha, Ferrara, Modena e Verona produzidos entre os séculos XIII e XV, buscando compreender como esses textos regulamentavam a organização de embaixadas e a escolha de embaixadores para representar os interesses da comuna no exterior, e qual era a relação que as rubricas destinadas a esse personagem estabeleciam com as disputas políticas no interior de cada uma dessas comunas e em seu conjunto. / Debates developed in the last decades about the concept of Diplomacy allowed practices of conflict mediation and resolution developed during the medieval period to be considered as diplomatic practices, a title once reserved only to realities related to the Modern State. In this scenario of theoretical discussions, the Italian Communal Period (XIIth to XIVth centuries) has arisen the interest of historians as a privileged field to study Diplomacy, especially due to the conflict experiences between the communes and the Holy Roman German Empire, which marked the period. Such historiographic fascination essentially resulted in the execution of an intense revision and exploration process of documents produced in the peninula in a Diplomatic point of view. However, the Statutory Communal Legislation did not cherished of the same luck as other texts in this sort of inquire, mainly because they were considered too rigid to be used in the exploration of such matter. Apart from the works of Angelini and Gilli, who signaled the possibilities of studying the statutes in a Diplomatic point of view, these documents continue to be mostly unedited and unexplored, especially the relationship between their rubricae dedicated to ambassadors and the political movements of the period. Therefore, this research aims to analyse different redactions of the communal statutes of Bologna, Ferrara, Modena and Verona written between the 13th and the 15th century, in order to try to understand how these texts regulated the organization of embassies and the choice of ambassadors to represent communal interests abroad, and what was the relationship established between the rubricae dedicated to this figure and the political disputes in the interior of each one of these communes and in them as a group.

Using qualitative interviews, this thesis examines bicycle and car politics in Toronto, Canada to understand: i) how automobility affects those engaged in contesting and supporting cycling initiatives; ii) why the installation of cycling infrastructure has been politicized; and iii) whether strategies used by cycling activists are effective. The paper concludes that contemporary cultural and economic values surrounding automobility are visible in those engaged in bicycle and car politics. Findings suggest that the politicization of efforts to install cycling infrastructure arise due to how these values manifest themselves in the political realm, and the interrelationship between a lack of coherent transportation policy, the institutionalization of automobiles in planning and a ward-based decision-making system that entrenches suburban and urban biases. Activist strategies could be more effective by moving away from a focus on cycling lanes to address cultural norms associated with automobiles and bicycles and by focusing on a ‘complete streets’ approach.

Using qualitative interviews, this thesis examines bicycle and car politics in Toronto, Canada to understand: i) how automobility affects those engaged in contesting and supporting cycling initiatives; ii) why the installation of cycling infrastructure has been politicized; and iii) whether strategies used by cycling activists are effective. The paper concludes that contemporary cultural and economic values surrounding automobility are visible in those engaged in bicycle and car politics. Findings suggest that the politicization of efforts to install cycling infrastructure arise due to how these values manifest themselves in the political realm, and the interrelationship between a lack of coherent transportation policy, the institutionalization of automobiles in planning and a ward-based decision-making system that entrenches suburban and urban biases. Activist strategies could be more effective by moving away from a focus on cycling lanes to address cultural norms associated with automobiles and bicycles and by focusing on a ‘complete streets’ approach.

Contemporary postcolonial critique poses questions about the impact of colonization on the construction of the political. Beginning with David Scott’s account of the limits and even hopeless condition of anticolonial resistance and postcolonial theory, this thesis explores one way in which the political might be reconstructed under postcolonial conditions. The analysis is primarily theoretical in character. I work through texts by Immanuel Kant, Mary Douglas and Partha Chatterjee to recount the narrative of modern politics and its affect upon postcolonial societies. On this basis, I recognize the sovereign state as the key point of contention in accounts of the continuing reproduction of social exclusions. I then identify the imposition of colonial Enlightenment to have refigured authentic modes of self-representation for the colonized; colonial Enlightenment I suggest, conflated cultural difference with the value of right, and has thereby largely depoliticized practices of exclusion. Shifting to consider how postcolonial political space might be reconstructed, I draw on Warren Magnusson’s understanding of urban politics. By challenging the ontological positioning of the sovereign state, the city may be understood as a dynamic political actor that does not erase cultural difference. Then by examining practices of scavenging in Brazil and Argentina, I compare one case in which the sovereign state has effectively perpetuated conditions of social exclusion with a case in which a municipality has been able to address these conditions. I conclude that the contemporary condition of postcolonial critique can indeed be taken in more optimistic directions through challenges to the ontological primacy of the sovereign state so that the value of difference can be recognized and emancipation rethought. / Graduate / 0615 / kerstin@uvic.ca

No description available.

While cities across the world are adopting urban sustainability plans and pursuing ‘sustainable development,’ the question of how these urban sustainability plans have made our cities indeed sustainable is a subject of debate. Some scholars are skeptical about whether urban sustainability planning challenges or reproduces existing power imbalance in the growth politics in cities. Given the current trend that the concept of sustainability has become embedded in our culture, little is known about the urban politics around urban sustainability plans and their effectiveness in promoting balanced sustainability in Asian cities. Using a case study of Seoul through in-depth interviews, this study examines the urban politics around the decision-making process and the implementation of sustainability plans in Seoul. As a rare case of recent rapid socio-economic transformations with the legacy of a developmental state, Korea serves as an example of how these transformations are likely to have for the urban politics of sustainability policies in other Asian countries. As conclusions, developmental states like Korea with a centralized governance system tend to use a “sustainability fix” that is heavily focused on ‘pro-growth’ development. With globalization, privatization, and democratization, the growth machine politics around urban sustainability planning in Korea is similar to that observed in the Western context. However, in Seoul, the growth machine is heavily influenced by the federal government and Mayoral leadership. This is because of the embedded legacy of the developmental state. In addition, with increased democratization and a growing role of civic groups in urban politics, we see a move towards “just sustainability” in urban sustainability planning in Korea. / Geography

Esta pesquisa aborda a organização do abastecimento de gêneros alimentícios no bojo da transformação da cidade de São Paulo em metrópole industrial e da modernização do seu espaço urbano central, nas últimas décadas do Império e iniciais da República. Com esse objetivo, investigamos a criação da primeira Praça do Mercado na Rua 25 de Março e a transferência do Matadouro do bairro do Bexiga para a Vila Mariana. O estabelecimento de espaços institucionais para a produção e comércio de gêneros de primeira necessidade visava concentrar os segmentos comerciais do abastecimento com o propósito de retirá-los do triângulo central, bem como de aprimorar a fiscalização tributária e sanitária sobre esse setor. Por meio da utilização dos informes dos memorialistas, das atas da câmara e da imprensa diária da cidade, analisamos os conflitos suscitados pela organização do comércio de abastecimento, vinculado ao mercado e ao matadouro. E reconstituímos os movimentos coletivos e suas formas de protesto para viabilizar interesses econômicos e políticos dos vários segmentos comerciais dos armazéns de secos e molhados na cidade, dos locatários dos quartos do mercado, dos marchantes e açougueiros em conflito entre si e com os administradores públicos. O alinhamento político desses segmentos com os grupos em disputa na Câmara se mostrou relevante para a viabilização de demandas no setor. Os conflitos deflagrados pela intervenção e organização do comércio de abastecimento em São Paulo indicaram a existência de um campo de disputas entre interesses econômicos que envolviam diretamente os responsáveis por administrar a cidade. A pesquisa demonstra, também, o quanto a análise sobre o processo de modernização da cidade de São Paulo e de sua modernidade não pode passar ao largo das questões relativas à alimentação e ao abastecimento de gêneros de primeira necessidade. / This research discusses the food supply organization due to the transformation of São Paulo in an industrial metropolis and the modernization of its central urban area, in the last decades of the Brazilian Empire and the initials of the Republic. In order to fulfill this objective, we investigated the creation of the first public market square on the Vinte e Cinco de Março Street and the Slaughterhouse transfer from Bexiga`s neighborhood to Vila Mariana. The settlement of institutional spaces for both production and trade of the essential foodstuffs aimed to concentrate the traditional food supply merchants with the purpose of withdrawing them from the urban central area. In addition, this attempt to control the foodstuff supply was designed to improve sanitary conditions and tax collecting. The documentation survey includes memorialists reports, minutes of municipal chamber and the city press release. We analyze the conflicts raised from the food supply trade organization due to the changes established with the market creation and the slaughterhouse transfer. We reconstitute the collective movements of traditional merchants (grocery stores, the market square renters, cattle and meat dealers and butchers) and their rivalries among themselves and forms of protest against the changes in the food supply organization. The political alignment of the food trade traditional merchants with the groups in dispute at municipal chamber was relevant to promote their demands. In São Paulo, we found the existence of a field of contention among the economic interests that directly involved those responsible to manage the city. The research also demonstrate how much the analysis of São Paulo\'s urban modernization e and its modernity should not pass off questions concerned to the essential food supply chain.