Functions of Transnational City Networks in Europe and Asia

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Niederhafner
Keyword(s):  
Transnational City

Competition through Interurban Policy Making: Bidding to Host Megaevents as Entrepreneurial Networking

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 2638-2653 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Lauermann
Keyword(s):  
Urban Planning ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Competitive Strategies ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Entrepreneurial Strategies ◽  
Transnational City ◽  
City Policy

Recent scholarship on policy mobility, globally active municipal governments, and transnational city-to-city policy making suggest a new dynamic in entrepreneurial cities: entrepreneurialism based not only on place competition, but also based on practices of interurban networking. This paper argues that cross-city initiatives to share planning expertise can function both as policy-making networks and as markets for policy knowledge, as urban governance stakeholders strategically leverage intercity initiatives for sharing urban planning knowledge. Bidding to host sporting ‘megaevents’ highlights these networked entrepreneurial strategies. A comparative study of bids to host the Olympic Games over a twenty-year period shows that policy-making knowledge (templates, models, and best practices) shared between cities is both necessary for competing to host events, and represents ‘policy commodities’ that planning coalitions can use as part of their entrepreneurial portfolios. While much commentary on interurban policy making focuses on how policy practices are received by cities or mobilized by international businesses or policy makers, this paper signals to a multidirectional entrepreneurial strategy: although megaevents federations and sponsors developed megaevents knowledge networks to leverage urban planning for profit, many local development coalitions have incorporated these same networks into their competitive strategies.

scholarly journals Aligning Climate Governance with Urban Water Management: Insights from Transnational City Networks

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jale Tosun ◽  
Lucas Leopold
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Urban Water ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Climate Governance ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Transnational City

A growing number of cities in different world regions are forming transnational networks in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change. In this study, we are interested in the nexus between climate change and urban water management. How do transnational city networks for climate action perceive urban water management? What kind of activities do they adopt for improving urban water management? How effective are these in practice? This study maps 17 transnational city networks that primarily work on climate governance, assesses whether they formally embrace urban water management as a field of activity, and analyzes the extent to which they influence local climate action regarding water-related issues. Our descriptive analysis reveals that the great majority of transnational city networks has embraced goals related to urban water management, mostly framed from the perspective of adaptation to climate change. However, our in-depth analysis of two frontrunner cities in Germany shows that membership in ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability) has only limited influence on the initiation and implementation of water-related policy measures.

scholarly journals The Embeddedness of Urban Climate Politics in Multilevel Governance: A Case Study of South Africa’s Major Cities

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Hickmann ◽  
Fee Stehle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Urban Climate ◽  
Multilevel Governance ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
Transnational City ◽  
Political Economic

Numerous scholars have lately highlighted the importance of cities in the global response to climate change. However, we still have little systematic knowledge on the evolution of urban climate politics in the Global South. In particular, we lack empirical studies that examine how local climate actions arise in political-administrative systems of developing and emerging economies. Therefore, this article adopts a multilevel governance perspective to explore the climate mitigation responses of three major cities in South Africa by looking at their vertical and horizontal integration in the wider governance framework. In the absence of a coherent national climate policy, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban have developed distinct climate actions within their jurisdictions. In their effort to address climate change, transnational city networks have provided considerable technical support to these cities. Yet, substantial domestic political-economic obstacles hinder the three cities to develop a more ambitious stance on climate change.

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