From Ideas to Policies in Urban Politics

Session Submission Type: Wednesday Full Day Short Course

Session Description

This is a day-long short course broken into two parts, and held off-site at Drexel University's DC Center in Lafayette Tower (801 17th Street NW), easy walking distance from the conference hotels. Lunch and an end-of-the-day reception will be provided. Part 1 of the day (before lunch) explores the relationship between urban policy and politics, and is based on a journal symposium. Part 2 (after lunch) is based on an edited book currently in press. Draft copies of both the symposium and the book will be provided to participants ahead of the short course.

During Part 1 we will probe the distinctiveness of urban policy analysis by placing urban politics and public policy in dialogue with one another. By drawing on insights from urban politics and urban studies literature applied to original empirical work, participants explore several key dimensions of urban policymaking and the urban context, such as the relationship between participation and policy outcomes; multi-level governance and the simultaneous autonomy and constraints in urban policymaking; and the role of comparison in studies of urban policy. Contributions span policy areas of immigration, economic development, participatory governance and the digital economy. They examine processes and policies in North America, Europe, and Latin America, most often in comparative perspective.

In part 2 we will explore the role of ideas in urban political development. Ideas, interests, and institutions are the “holy trinity” of the study of politics. Of the three, ideas are arguably the hardest with which to grapple and thus, despite generally broad agreement of their fundamental importance, the most often neglected or treated in an ad hoc manner. This is nowhere more true than in the study of urban politics and urban political development. Our presenters discuss the existing major theoretical approaches to the study of urban politics and how those approaches have neglected the role of ideas; define what they mean by urban political development and explain how their case studies contribute to that definition; and discuss how urban political development is shaped by ideas.

Sub Unit

• APSA Panels and All Meetings and Receptions

Chair

• Richardson Dilworth Drexel University

Presenters

• David Kaufmann ETH Zürich

• Mara Sidney Rutgers University, Newark

• Jeffrey W. Paller University of San Francisco

• Timothy Weaver SUNY, University at Albany

• Maureen M. Donaghy Rutgers University, Camden

• James M. Smith Indiana University South Bend

• Annika M. Hinze Fordham University

• Loren B. Landau University of the Witwatersrand

• Allison Bramwell University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• Abigail Fisher Williamson Trinity College

• Sally F. Lawton Johns Hopkins University

• Douglas S. Reed Georgetown University

• Thomas K. Ogorzalek Northwestern University

• Zack Taylor Western University

• William Hurst Northwestern University

• Robert Henry Cox University of South Carolina

• Fritz Sager University of Bern

• David Imbroscio University of Louisville

• Diane Wong Cornell University