Between dreams and reality : urban governance in the process of Dutch urban restructuring

Abstract

Between Dreams and Reality, Urban governance in the process of Dutch urban restructuring Abstract The ambition to redevelop post-World-War Two [post-WWII] neighbourhoods (built between 1950-1975) is derived from the slow degradation process that often affected them during the last decades. The urban-restructuring processes mostly take place through the renewal of the housing stock by the demolition, upgrading, and selling of social housing, the building of more expensive dwellings, and the renewal of the public space and all kinds of facilities. We might expect that the neoliberal reforms of the Dutch welfare state since the 1980s have triggered intensive cooperation in urban restructuring policies between government layers, between the local authority and the housing associations, and with residents’ committees: urban governance (the processes of steering and coordinating urban policies between the public, private, and voluntary sectors to achieve collectively-agreed goals). Network-theory approaches stress this self-steering dimension of networks. In contrast, however, the political-economy approach of multi-scalar meta-governance emphasises the strong steering of the central state in local governance arrangements. Therefore, more insight in the usefulness of various theoretical governance approaches is important in the construction of a more appropriate explanation. Furthermore, the differences in perceptions among stakeholders might impair the cooperation processes and have not as yet been systematically researched. Therefore, the research focus is on local stakeholders’ perceptions with respect to intergovernmental relationships in urban policies, the problems and policies for urban restructuring neighbourhoods, and their roles and tasks in the collaboration process. How do local stakeholders enact the management of networks, and the sustaining of the relationships in the area-based partnerships? Moreover, urban restructuring processes require very high investments in social and financial terms. Identifying the factors that contribute to effective urban policies and well-functioning cooperation processes and those factors that hinder this is thus extremely important. We used a qualitative case study approach to investigate local stakeholders’ perceptions. During 2004-2008 79 semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out in eight post-WWII urban restructuring neighbourhoods. These case studies are located in both medium-sized and large cities on several geographical locations in the Netherlands. The main conclusion is that institutional changes in Dutch urban restructuring shape the perceptions of the key actors about effective urban restructuring policy and effective urban governance in the area-based urban restructuring partnerships. They perceive a strong role for the market and closed governance arrangements that in turn restrict effective network management and a broad long-term joint-working capacity. This is in strong contrast with what we might expect from network theory. It highlights the serious limitations of normative network theory with respect to their explaining power, owing to the lack of attention paid to the actual underlying processes in urban governance practices and the neglect of the complexity of these processes. Our conclusions are in line with the multi-scalar meta-governance approach, in which the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state in conjunction with a robust regulation of the cities is emphasised. This strongly influences urban governance practices at the local level. The research outcomes thus clearly illustrate the governance failure derived from the neoliberal practices in Dutch urban restructuring.