Global Urban Policy
A Framework for Analyzing State and Society
Published on 31. March 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
326 pages
978-0-472-05802-0 (ISBN)
Description
Cities are active policy innovators of global importance, whether responding to climate change, migration, poverty, or health disparities, or aiming to generate growth. Since cities adapt to the needs and interests of global capital, they may implement policies that slight the well-being of everyday residents and the most vulnerable. How cities choose to contribute to a democratic and sustainable future reveals dimensions of political life playing out in society at large.
Global Urban Policy suggests that to understand contemporary societal transformation-and political and policy processes more generally-we need to study the policies that cities create and implement. Going beyond thinking of "urban" as a physical site, the authors show that an urban mode of life is one marked by diversity, complexity, chaos, flexibility, and ongoing change. With eleven empirical case studies, the authors examine issues including housing and urban development, migration, climate change, and crime in cities as varied as Berlin, Medellin, Chicago, Accra, Guangzhou, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, and Saint Etienne. The studies show how contemporary confrontations between public and private property, power and justice, participation and exclusion, wealth and poverty, and emerging technology and existing economic, social, and political structures take physical form in cities. Global Urban Policy engages with theoretical developments in public policy, urban politics, and urban studies to develop and demonstrate a framework for urban policy analysis.
Global Urban Policy suggests that to understand contemporary societal transformation-and political and policy processes more generally-we need to study the policies that cities create and implement. Going beyond thinking of "urban" as a physical site, the authors show that an urban mode of life is one marked by diversity, complexity, chaos, flexibility, and ongoing change. With eleven empirical case studies, the authors examine issues including housing and urban development, migration, climate change, and crime in cities as varied as Berlin, Medellin, Chicago, Accra, Guangzhou, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, and Saint Etienne. The studies show how contemporary confrontations between public and private property, power and justice, participation and exclusion, wealth and poverty, and emerging technology and existing economic, social, and political structures take physical form in cities. Global Urban Policy engages with theoretical developments in public policy, urban politics, and urban studies to develop and demonstrate a framework for urban policy analysis.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
4 illustrations, 3 tables
Dimensions
Height: 151 mm
Width: 229 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
472 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-472-05802-0 (9780472058020)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
David Kaufmann is Assistant Professor of Spatial Development and Urban Policy at ETH Zuerich.
Mara Sidney is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark and Director of the Global Urban Studies PhD program.
Mara Sidney is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University-Newark and Director of the Global Urban Studies PhD program.
Content
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: A New Framework for the Analysis of Urban Policy
David Kaufmann, Mara Sidney
Part I: What state(s)? The Role and Scale of State Actions in Urban Policy
Chapter 2: Contentious Governance and the City: How Urban Alliances Contest National Authority over Climate and Migration Policy
Raffaele Bazurli, Imrat Verhoeven
Chapter 3: The Politics of Implementation in Sao Paulo: Why Low-Income Housing Policies and Programs So Often Remain Promises Rather than Reality
Maureen Donaghy
Chapter 4: The Redevelopment of Informal Settlements in China and India: Two Models of Urban Governance Compared
Yue Zhang
Chapter 5: Digital Underdogs: Postindustrial Policymaking and the 'Ordinary' City
Allison Bramwell
Chapter 6: Risk, Capital Accumulation, and Racial Inequality in Detroit: Exploring the Calculus of Emergency Managers during Times of Crisis
Meghan Wilson
Chapter 7: Policies In and of the Urban Everyday
Ross Beveridge, Philippe Koch
Part II: Who Participates? Diverse and Shifting Actors in Urban Policy
Chapter 8: City-Making in Africa's Urban Estuaries: Rescaling African Urban Policy Analysis in Era of Mobility
Loren Landau, Kabiri Bule
Chapter 9: We Have Always Been Here: Urban Resistance Testimonios and Immigrant Women in the Housing Justice Movement
Diane Wong
Chapter 10: Private Interests, Public Institutions: Large-Scale Urban Development in Berlin and Chicago
Annika Hinze, James Smith
Chapter 11: Urban Security Politics and Everyday Resistance to Criminal Victimization: Evidence from Medellin
Eduardo Moncada
Chapter 12: Housing policies, Claim-Making, and Resistance in African Cities
Jeff Paller
Conclusion
Chapter 13: Constituting Elements of an Urban Policy Analysis
David Kaufmann, Mara Sidney
Contributors
Index
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: A New Framework for the Analysis of Urban Policy
David Kaufmann, Mara Sidney
Part I: What state(s)? The Role and Scale of State Actions in Urban Policy
Chapter 2: Contentious Governance and the City: How Urban Alliances Contest National Authority over Climate and Migration Policy
Raffaele Bazurli, Imrat Verhoeven
Chapter 3: The Politics of Implementation in Sao Paulo: Why Low-Income Housing Policies and Programs So Often Remain Promises Rather than Reality
Maureen Donaghy
Chapter 4: The Redevelopment of Informal Settlements in China and India: Two Models of Urban Governance Compared
Yue Zhang
Chapter 5: Digital Underdogs: Postindustrial Policymaking and the 'Ordinary' City
Allison Bramwell
Chapter 6: Risk, Capital Accumulation, and Racial Inequality in Detroit: Exploring the Calculus of Emergency Managers during Times of Crisis
Meghan Wilson
Chapter 7: Policies In and of the Urban Everyday
Ross Beveridge, Philippe Koch
Part II: Who Participates? Diverse and Shifting Actors in Urban Policy
Chapter 8: City-Making in Africa's Urban Estuaries: Rescaling African Urban Policy Analysis in Era of Mobility
Loren Landau, Kabiri Bule
Chapter 9: We Have Always Been Here: Urban Resistance Testimonios and Immigrant Women in the Housing Justice Movement
Diane Wong
Chapter 10: Private Interests, Public Institutions: Large-Scale Urban Development in Berlin and Chicago
Annika Hinze, James Smith
Chapter 11: Urban Security Politics and Everyday Resistance to Criminal Victimization: Evidence from Medellin
Eduardo Moncada
Chapter 12: Housing policies, Claim-Making, and Resistance in African Cities
Jeff Paller
Conclusion
Chapter 13: Constituting Elements of an Urban Policy Analysis
David Kaufmann, Mara Sidney
Contributors
Index