Governing cities: international perspectives – EURA

Governing cities: international perspectives

Brussels

18-19 September 1997

Governing Cities: International Perspectives

The first International Conference of EURA took place at the Eurovillage in Brussels. Organised by the Faculty of the Built Environment at the University of the West of England, Bristol, the seminar enjoyed financial support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the European Commission. It marked the launch of the new European Urban Research Association (EURA). The programme was organised by Professor Robin Hambleton and Professor Murray Stewart.

  • Community and power;
  • Leadership in urban governance;
  • City regions in Europe;
  • New networks in urban governance;
  • Capacity building in cities.

The conference also included dedicated discussions on the aims, organisation and future development of the European Urban Research Association. In this sense, the Brussels meeting played an important role in shaping the early institutional development of EURA.

Main themes and paper titles

Community and power

  • Room to manoeuvre: social polarisation and local politics in Rotterdam — Robert Kloosterman
  • Urban management of ethnic conflict: stabilization and reconstruction policies — Scott Bollens
  • Urban policy in the Netherlands at the end of a millennium — Bas Denters and Oscar van Heffen
  • The new urban governance and urban regeneration: managing community participation — Rob Atkinson

Leadership in urban governance

  • Leadership in urban governance — Robin Hambleton and Murray Stewart
  • Leadership in Italian cities — Paola Somma
  • Leadership, networks and governance in Britain and France — Peter John
  • The urban university as a key player — Nevin Brown

City regions in Europe

  • Metropolitan governance and institutional dynamics: a comparison — Bernard Jouve and Christine Lefevre
  • The organising capacity of metropolitan regions — Jan van der Meer
  • Vision and creativity: the future of city regions in North Rhine-Westphalia — Peter Ache

New networks in urban governance

  • Delimiting the city: is there a network paradigm in urban governance? — Chris Collinge and Alan Srbljanin
  • Accountability, urban governance and international co-operation — Andrew Church and Peter Reid
  • Partnership and urban governance in Europe — Gilles Verpraet and Peter Newman
  • The Glasgow regeneration alliance — Duncan Maclennan

Capacity building in cities

  • Comparison of urban governance and planning policy responses to global competition in three European cities — Mike Chapman and Fiona Simpson
  • Institutional variations in local government: observation of developments in Germany — Hellmut Wollmann
  • Globalization processes and urban competitiveness: a comparative analysis of European world cities — Arie Shachar
  • Meeting the global challenge through institutional capacity and social capital — Hank Savitch

The conference programme concluded with a discussion on the next steps in the organisation of EURA.

An outline of the debates at this conference was provided in EURA Newsletter 2.

Download the Programme