ABSTRACT

This chapter aims to develop an understanding of the political processes through which urban regeneration is delivered, developing some ideas covered in Chapter 6 surrounding competitiveness. The chapter first relates governance with general approaches to urban regeneration. It then situates urban governance within the wider shift towards a postFordist economy. It then illustrates the decline of the state and its implications for urban policy. The related moves from local government to local governance, and from urban managerialism to urban entrepreneurialism, are then analysed. The role of inter-city collaborative networks in dealing with urban economic and social problems is then explored. Further, the relative importance of different levels of government and their relationship with contemporary urban regeneration in the UK are looked at, particularly the regional dimension and the increasing profile of the city-region. Knowledge of new forms of urban governance is requisite to an understanding of how contemporary central government urban policy and city-level initiatives are formulated and delivered. These ideas underpin the content of many of the other chapters in the textbook in Section II and in the later chapters of Section III.