IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i24p10307-d459643.html

Theorizing Public Participation and Local Governance in Urban Resilience: Reflections on the “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology” Thesis

Author

Listed:
  • Chihsin Chiu

    (Department of Real Estate and Built Environment, National Taipei University, New Taipei City 237303, Taiwan)

Abstract

Urban political ecology (UPE) infuses Marxism with poststructuralism and constructivism to explore the dialectic relationship between nature and society in urban environments as well as the economic aspect of an urban socioecological system. Nevertheless, the literature on southern urbanism has urged UPE to become more “provincialized” to reflect the diffuse forms of power and everyday governance influencing the planning of cities in the Global South. This article reviews and reflects on this wave of debates raised by critics who have positioned postcolonial thinking as an alternative to Marxist political economy, in which UPE is rooted. It also identifies those works that might help provincialize UPE differently. Without rejecting the Marxism, another set of approaches draws influence from the strategic-relational approach (SRA) to examine environmental issues in ways that destabilize conventionally economic determinist UPE. In addition to involving corporate elites and city officials, a UPE framework incorporating the SRA is capable of bringing the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community leaders, and environmentalists in everyday governance to the front. The article contends that the latter framework adds weight on public participation and local governance in different geopolitical contexts without losing sight of the social inequalities caused by state-led or privatized programs in the quest for urban resilience.

Suggested Citation

  • Chihsin Chiu, 2020. "Theorizing Public Participation and Local Governance in Urban Resilience: Reflections on the “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology” Thesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10307-:d:459643
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10307/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10307/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Gandy, 2005. "Cyborg Urbanization: Complexity and Monstrosity in the Contemporary City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 26-49, March.
    2. Sarah Dooling, 2009. "Ecological Gentrification: A Research Agenda Exploring Justice in the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 621-639, September.
    3. Laura J. Shillington & Ann Marie F. Murnaghan, 2016. "Urban Political Ecologies and Children's Geographies: Queering Urban Ecologies of Childhood," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(5), pages 1017-1035, September.
    4. Colin McFarlane, 2011. "Assemblage and critical urbanism," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 204-224, April.
    5. Hillary Angelo & David Wachsmuth, 2015. "Urbanizing Urban Political Ecology: A Critique of Methodological Cityism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 16-27, January.
    6. Kathryn Furlong & Michelle Kooy, 2017. "Worlding Water Supply: Thinking Beyond the Network in Jakarta," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 888-903, November.
    7. Michael Storper & Allen J Scott, 2016. "Current debates in urban theory: A critical assessment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(6), pages 1114-1136, May.
    8. Matthew Gandy, 2004. "Rethinking urban metabolism: water, space and the modern city," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 363-379, December.
    9. Neil Brenner & David J. Madden & David Wachsmuth, 2011. "Assemblage urbanism and the challenges of critical urban theory," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 225-240, April.
    10. Isabelle Anguelovski & James Connolly & Anna Livia Brand, 2018. "From landscapes of utopia to the margins of the green urban life," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 417-436, May.
    11. Noah Quastel, 2016. "Ecological Political Economy: Towards a Strategic-Relational Approach," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(3), pages 336-353, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kevin Ward & Timothy Bunnell, 2021. "Reflections on five years of the Summer Institute in Urban Studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(4), pages 863-878, March.
    2. Trostle, James A. & Robbins, Charlotte & Corozo Angulo, Betty & Acevedo, Andrés & Coloma, Josefina & Eisenberg, Joseph N.S., 2024. "“Dengue fever is not just urban or rural: Reframing its spatial categorization.”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 362(C).
    3. Jonathan Silver, 2015. "Disrupted Infrastructures: An Urban Political Ecology of Interrupted Electricity in Accra," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 984-1003, September.
    4. Lauren Rickards & Brendan Gleeson & Mark Boyle & Cian O’Callaghan, 2016. "Urban studies after the age of the city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(8), pages 1523-1541, June.
    5. Neil Brenner & Swarnabh Ghosh, 2022. "Between the colossal and the catastrophic: Planetary urbanization and the political ecologies of emergent infectious disease," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(5), pages 867-910, August.
    6. Franciszek Chwałczyk, 2020. "Around the Anthropocene in Eighty Names—Considering the Urbanocene Proposition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-33, May.
    7. Julie Gamble, 2017. "Experimental Infrastructure: Experiences in Bicycling in Quito, Ecuador," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 162-180, January.
    8. Hillary Angelo, 2017. "From the city lens toward urbanisation as a way of seeing: Country/city binaries on an urbanising planet," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 158-178, January.
    9. Catherine Durose & Mark van Ostaijen & Merlijn van Hulst & Oliver Escobar & Annika Agger, 2022. "Working the urban assemblage: A transnational study of transforming practices," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(10), pages 2129-2146, August.
    10. A. Haven Kiers & Billy Krimmel & Caroline Larsen-Bircher & Kate Hayes & Ash Zemenick & Julia Michaels, 2022. "Different Jargon, Same Goals: Collaborations between Landscape Architects and Ecologists to Maximize Biodiversity in Urban Lawn Conversions," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, September.
    11. Sebastian Ureta, 2014. "The Shelter that Wasn’t There: On the Politics of Co-ordinating Multiple Urban Assemblages in Santiago, Chile," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(2), pages 231-246, February.
    12. Canoy, Nico A. & Robles, Augil Marie Q. & Roxas, Gilana Kim T., 2022. "Bodies-in-waiting as infrastructure: Assembling the Philippine Government's disciplinary quarantine response to COVID-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    13. Isnu Putra Pratama & Delik Hudalah & Haryo Winarso & Tim Bunnell, 2026. "RELATIONAL POLITICS OF URBAN METABOLISM: The Solidarity of City and Non‐City Inhabitants in Java, Indonesia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 588-607, May.
    14. Lejla H Pihljak & Maria Rusca & Cecilia Alda-Vidal & Klaas Schwartz, 2021. "Everyday practices in the production of uneven water pricing regimes in Lilongwe, Malawi," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(2), pages 300-317, March.
    15. Scott Rodgers & Clive Barnett & Allan Cochrane, 2014. "Where is Urban Politics?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1551-1560, September.
    16. COLIN McFARLANE, 2008. "Governing the Contaminated City: Infrastructure and Sanitation in Colonial and Post‐Colonial Bombay," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 415-435, June.
    17. Tatiana Acevedo-Guerrero, 2023. "Fifty public-standpipes: Politicians, local elections, and struggles for water in Barranquilla," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(1), pages 165-181, February.
    18. Lucrecia Bertelli, 2021. "What kind of global city? Circulating policies for ‘slum’ upgrading in the making of world-class Buenos Aires," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1293-1313, September.
    19. Arnoud Lagendijk & Rianne Melik & Freek Haan & Huib Ernste & Huub Ploegmakers & Serap Kayasu, 2014. "Comparative Approaches to Gentrification: A Research Framework," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(3), pages 358-365, July.
    20. Ian R. Cook & Erik Swyngedouw, 2012. "Cities, Social Cohesion and the Environment: Towards a Future Research Agenda," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(9), pages 1959-1979, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:24:p:10307-:d:459643. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.