Governing Cities on the Move

Functional and Management Perspectives on Transformations of European Urban Infrastructures

Walter Schenkel, Martin Dijst

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781138725652
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351753111
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

This title was first published in 2002: The success of any investment strategy in urban infrastructures is dependent on how people as members of households, companies or institutions will use these infrastructures in their daily lives and how actors take decisions on their investment strategies. Insights into these behaviours can help public and private actors to cope with diversity, complexity and uncertainty in a dynamic urban environment. This book elaborates, both theoretically and empirically, the functional and governance/management perspective of urban infrastructures. It comprises theoretical contributions related to accessibility, land-use modelling and urban governance, while case studies from Antwerp, Geneva, Milan, Oslo, Turin and Zurich effectively analyze the problems associated with mobility, infrastructure, finance, planning, transformation and governance. It will be of considerable value to anyone with an interest in urban performance.

1 Urban Performance in Perspective

Martin Dijst and Walter Schenkel

Transformation of Cities

Competitiveness and sustainability are the keys to the long term future of the European Union’s economy, creation of wealth and employment opportunities, enhancement of the quality of life of Europe’s citizens, and preservation of the environment and the natural resource base (European Commission, 1997). These keys to Europe’s future can be found particularly in cities and their agglomerations. By the turn of the century, almost half of the world’s population will live in cities (WCED, 1987). At this moment, 80% of all Europeans have their homes in cities (Cavallier, 1998).

Urban agglomerations are focal points in the economic, social and cultural development of a region. These qualities are mainly the consequences of site and situation characteristics such as the size, density and diversity of their populations, economies of scale, synergies, valuable cultural and spatial characteristics inherited from the past, transport systems, etc. Some essential features of cities are the large concentration of specialised functions and their associated activities in a restricted area as well as the diversity of social classes (Kreukels, 1993; Krugman, 1991; Nijkamp and Perrels, 1994; Lambooy, 1998; Thisse and Van Ypersele, 1998). The post-industrial city is associated with the growth in services and, more recently, with the surge in communication technologies (Bairoch, 1985; Castells, 1991).

In the last decades, several processes have limited the growth of the cities and reduced their importance as sources of wealth (Button and Pierce, 1989; Stanners and Bourdeau, 1995). Cities are now confronted with problems such as economic restructuring, changes in the composition of the population (e.g. foreign immigration, growth of the elderly population, growing income disparities), increasing mobility and consumption, congestion, pollution, poverty, crime, and/or a decline in ecological conditions. These developments show the vulnerability of cities to processes taking place in society at large (Storper, 1997). Three issues, which are strongly related to the competitiveness and sustainability of cities, need to be addressed by local management: segregation, economic performance and ecological problems.

Between cities and urban regions, segregation processes increase. Although there are some exceptions, like the French cities, suburbanisation of the wealthier population categories left most city centres with a preponderance of lower-income groups. Furthermore, fragmentation challenged the social cohesion within cities. Fragmentation may be defined as a specific state of social differentiation, namely a reduction of social ties among social groups, extremely low mobility between groups, and a great variation (disparity) of behavioural options (Friedrichs and Vranken, 2000).

Migration processes influence not only the social performance of cities but also their economic performance. These spatial processes are powered by the globalisation of the economy, the replacement of industry by the service sector, the widespread use of information and communications technologies (ICT), and acceptance of the car as the main transport mode. During the last decades, not only households but also facilities and firms moved out of many European cities. Some of them found a new place of business in the suburbs. As a consequence, an urban field has developed in the last decades (Lambooy, 1998). This massive movement meant an expansion of the functional urban territory; the urban system has still kept or even reinforced its original function (Nijkamp and Perrels, 1994). Although the urban system has expanded, the daily life of households as well as enterprises is for a large part limited to the urban region (Lambooy, 1998). Wiewel and Persky (1994) call this ‘the growing localness of global cities’.

Because of a new spatial distribution of population and investments in new infrastructure for the private car, a new trade-off between production and transportation costs favoured locations outside the cities. As a consequence of these spatial processes, the dominant relations in the mobility patterns changed from radial into tangential. At the same time the private car became the most dominant transport mode (Gordon, et al., 1991; Schmitz, 1993). Hence, these developments increased the ecological problems of the cities. Congestion within European cities seems to hinder urban growth. However, urban transportation is a public domain in which policy has not been very effective. This often derives from a bad distribution of the responsibilities between the many parties involved. Intra-urban mobility is essential for the development of contacts that lead to the efficiency of the city. It influences the existence and the level of land rent. It models the development of the urban structure in the manner of a putty-clay technology (Thisse and van Ypersele, 1998).

These urban transformation processes are characterised by a growing diversity, complexity and dynamics, causing uncertainty among those who have to manage and control the urban transformation processes in order to improve the urban performance in economic, social and ecological respects. This uncertainty is increased in an era in which the type of governance/management changed. In the nineties, national governments in different European countries changed their relation with local governments. They reduced the financial flows from national to lower administrative levels. At the same time, they deconcentrated some former national tasks and gave these lower levels more freedom in performing these tasks. Besides, the relationship between the people (the governed) and the authorities (the governance) was changed (Cavallier, 1998).

Urban infrastructures are important to determine the effectiveness with which cities can compete economically and socially, all in the context of achieving sustainability (Convery, 1998). In order to improve this performance, urban managers need more insight in the effectiveness of land use, infrastructural policies and time policies. Infrastructures in the broadest sense influence the potential for urban development. Infrastructure is the basic (in Latin ‘infra’ means ‘under’) equipment which has been provided by human endeavour and which underpins the economic and social life of a community (Convery, 1998). Several types of infrastructure can be distinguished, among others:

• communication and transport infrastructure: public transport, motorways, parking places, harbours, teleports, etc.;
• cultural and recreational infrastructure: public places like squares, parks, playing fields, museums, and churches;
• environmental services: e.g. power supply, water supply and waste water treatment;
• health services: hospitals, dentists, family doctors.

This book is mainly confined to the first two types of infrastructure.

The investments in these urban infrastructures have a relatively long life. They are the concrete assets of cities; their provision and maintenance is a core preoccupation for policy-makers (Mega, 1998). Cities and their infrastructures are not made of LEGO, so the users have to cope with these ‘historical’ structures in their daily lives (Gordon and Richardson, 1989). The way in which local governments bring into action these urban infrastructures determines in great measure the social, economic and ecological performance of their cities for a long time.

A successful strategy for investment in infrastructures has to be developed from two perspectives:

• a functional perspective: We have to know in what way and to what degree the performance of individuals, companies and institutions will be influenced by the characteristics of the urban infrastructures and in what manner their behaviour will influence the performance of the cities which they use. Especially the way in which transportation systems, housing, companies and facilities are accessible is very important in this respect. Transportation and spatial policies influence accessibility, but so do time policies.
• a governance/management perspective: We have to know which type of governance/management is best suited to influence urban development, how different groups are connected to each other, and how actor networks are involved in political and administrative decision-making processes. Process-oriented management variables are very dynamic.

The main objective of this book is to elaborate, in both theoretical and empirical ways, the functional and governance/management perspective with respect to investments in urban infrastructures. Those actors who want to improve the performance of urban areas by putting in infrastructures need to pay attention to both perspectives. The success of any investment strategy is dependent on how people as members of households, companies or institutions will use urban infrastructures in their daily lives and how decisions on investments are taken by the actors. Insights in these behaviours can help public and private actors to cope with diversity, complexity and uncertainty in a dynamic urban environment.

Functional Perspective

At the turn of the millennium, some economic and socio-cultural megatrends can be observed. The world economy is highly dynamic. The Information Revolution is sweeping across the world. The processing and the distribution of information with the help of ICT have become the main strategic activity in the global economy, determining the competitiveness of the national economies. At the same time, pushed by information technology, the economy is internationalising. National economies become dependent on other economies. Furthermore, the way the production and management of companies are organised has changed. Vertically organised large corporations are being replaced by flexible, horizontal network organisations (Castells, 1991).

From a socio-cultural perspective, we see that for decades, lifestyles in Western societies have been becoming less and less uniform. The time when most people spent their days in or around their home is long gone. Rising levels of affluence, the demise of traditional values, and the increasing impact of self-actualisation have led to a wider range of choice for individuals and households. As a result, more and more households combine tasks such as paid work, housekeeping, and perhaps childcare. This is illustrated by women’s labour market participation. In 1995 in the European Community, Sweden and Finland led the way: the ratio between women’s and men’s labour participation was almost one. On the other hand, in the Netherlands this ratio was approximately 0.7. Countries like Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Portugal take a position in the middle (Dijst, 1999b).

In the wake of these developments, social, economic and cultural structures are increasingly being determined by persons, companies and organisations that maintain relations with activity places located elsewhere. In a network society such as this, the significance of physical distance declines and the importance of available time increases. Accessibility outweighs proximity. Drewe (1996) posits that for households in a network society, the spatial planning perspective on the accessibility of a particular activity place shifts to the accessibility of multiple activity places.

The time dimension of activity patterns is especially important. Time is not only a limited resource for participating in activities, but also a medium: ‘It may be treated as a path which orders events as a sequence which separates cause from effect, which synchronises and integrates’ (Cullen, 1978). As a consequence of the growing complexity of society, there is a tendency for people and companies to differentiate with respect to the way they are using time (see also the contribution by Boffi and Nuvolati in this book). This leads to an increasingly rich diversity of mobility patterns among individuals, households and companies.

Of course, it is not only the functioning of people and companies in their urban environment that determines the performance of the city or urban region. Also the performance of districts within cities and their region is relevant in this respect. These places are increasingly affected by the growing complexity of activity and mobility patterns of individuals and their households as well as by the mobility patterns generated by companies. The activities in which people as member of a household or company participate bring them at certain locations to certain times. It is impossible to be in two places at once. These locations can be some activity places like shops, services or offices. These locations can also be some public places in the ‘open air’, like parks, streets, squares, stations, airports and other public spaces. As inhabitants and visitors of cities differ in their ability to reach locations and urban areas, these places can be characterised by different populations at different times of the day. Bonfiglioli (1997; 1998) calls these areas ‘chronotypes’; Goodchild and Janelle (1984) use the concept of ‘temporal specialisation’. As a consequence, the performance of activity places or public spaces located in these areas is very strongly dependent on the activity and mobility patterns of the visitors.

Public authorities are losing their grip on these technological, economic, social, cultural and spatial developments. Processes are no longer limited to administrative territories and can no longer be directed by national governments alone. Different types of policy networks, which consist of public and private actors, have to be developed (see section ‘Governance and management perspective’). Furthermore, the planning concepts have to be changed. Considering the direction in which society has developed, generic spatial concepts like growth centres, urban nodes, compact cities and compact city regions no longer suffice. But many planners apparently do not get the message. Time and time again, they come up with policy goals such as compact urban development and the containment of suburban expansion which give too little credence to the big differences between persons, households and companies with regard to how they can and want to use space. Also cities and regions are showing more and more differences in the composition of their population and the range of businesses and services.

In a network society, in which besides a ‘space of places’ a ‘space of flows’ develops (Castells, 1991), the concept of accessibility is central to the functioning of individuals and their households, facilities, firms and urban spaces. This concept refers to the ability to visit activity places - like shops, work places, services, companies, public spaces, etc. - by using a particular transport system at an acceptable time or financial cost. It is known that accessibility summarises information on the location of households and firms in relation to the distribution of activity places and the transport system that connects them. Hence, accessibility is an important criterion used to measure spatial structure and urban performance (see Morris et al., 1979, or Bruinsma and Rietveld, 1998 for a review).

In order to increase the effectiveness of policies at the local and regional level, thereby to improve...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Urban Performance in Perspective
• 2 Transportation and Urban Performance: Accessibility, Daily Mobility and Location of Households and Facilities
• 3 Integrated Urban Transportation and Land-use Models for Policy Analysis
• 4 Understanding the Political and Administrative Framework of Urban Performance
• 5 Urban Governance by Network Management
• 6 Time, Mobility and Urban Governance: the Case of the Metropolitan Area of Milan
• 7 Transport and Urban Development: the Potential Impact of Milan and Turin’s Crossrail System on the Land-use Structure
• 8 Transport Infrastructure and Planning Policies: the Importance of Financial Analysis in the Crossrail Projects Milan and Turin
• 9 Congested Evening Rush Hour Traffic in Antwerp: a Sustainable and Integrated Policy Approach
• 10 Development of Central Public Spaces in Geneva: Changing Uses and Images
• 11 The Zurich West Development Project
• 12 Akerselva Environmental Park: Urban Transformation by Chance or by Governance?
• 13 Urban Governance and Infrastructure: Coping with Diversity, Complexity and Uncertainty