Varieties of Urbanism: A Comparative View of Inequality and the Dual Dimensions of Metropolitan Fragmentation

A large literature on urban politics documents the connection between metropolitan fragmentation and inequality. This article situates the United States comparatively to explore the structural features of local governance that underpin this connection. Examining five metropolitan areas in North America and Europe, the article identifies two distinct dimensions of fragmentation: (a) fragmentation through jurisdictional proliferation (dividing regions into increasing numbers of governments) and (b) fragmentation through resource hoarding (via exclusion, municipal parochialism, and fiscal competition). This research reveals how distinctive the United States is in the ways it combines institutional arrangements that facilitate metropolitan fragmentation (through jurisdictional proliferation) and those that reward such fragmentation (through resource-hoarding opportunities). Non-US cases furnish examples of policies that reduce jurisdictional proliferation or remove resource-hoarding opportunities. Mitigating the inequality-inducing effects of fragmentation is possible, but policies must be designed with an identification of the specific aspects of local governance structures that fuel inequality in the first place.

The influence of suburban development and metropolitan fragmentation on language variation and change: Evidence from Greater St. Louis

The distances between urban and suburban spaces, while small in Euclidean terms, have a rather large social reality. This paper calls attention to two reasons for this—suburban development and metropolitan fragmentation—and situates these phenomena within the context of sociological and historical thought about metropolitan areas. I test their role in linguistic variation through a case study of three Northern Cities Shift features (raised trap, fronted lot, and lowered thought) in English of the St. Louis metropolitan area. I show that these features diffused throughout the region in three different ways. Additionally, phonological conditioning of lot-fronting differs between urban and suburban speakers, and retreat from urban dialect features is led in the suburbs. These findings highlight the need to consider the geography of metropolitan areas more deeply in studies of language variation and change in metropolitan areas, as similarity across a metropolitan area should not be assumed a priori.

Fragmented Regionalism

This article addresses the extent to which metropolitan regions have continued to fragment and grown more disparate. We ask, why have comprehensive institutions not taken root to mitigate metropolitan fragmentation and how can we better understand its persistence? We call attention to the insufficiently understood and integrative role of public authorities as functional for fragmented metropolises and their continued splintering. That functionality is explained by a “regional paradox,” which states that centrifugal forces from autonomous, competitive local governments push against metropolitan integration while centripetal pressures for regional policy coherence pull toward it. The result is the embodiment of both tendencies in what we call fragmented regionalism—a condition where local autonomy is largely left intact while public authorities are able to manage selective regional pressures. We find that metropolitan regions have become more fragmented and more unequal. This pattern is concomitant with public authority spending, which has favored the most advantaged metropolises.