Smart Growth and State Territoriality

This paper draws on neo-Weberian traditions of social theory to consider smart growth as a territorial programme of the multiscaled state. Responding to recent efforts by scholars within interdisciplinary urban studies to re-engage with neo- Weberian concepts around urban growth and institutional politics, the discussion interprets the implementation of the smart growth doctrine in US metropolitan areas --for example Seattle-Tacoma, the city-region specifically explored here--as the \u27intercurrence\u27 of various state-ordering arrangements. A conceptual focus on intercurrence, a term derived directly from the work of Orren and Skowronek forges stronger links between planning studies and state theory and thus offers a new way to map political geographies of smart growth

Moving from agenda to action: evaluating local climate change action plans

Climate change is conventionally recognised as a large-scale issue resolved through regional or national policy initiatives. However, little research has been done to directly evaluate local climate change action plans. This study examines 40 recently adopted local climate change action plans in the US and analyses how well they recognise the concepts of climate change and prepare for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The results indicate that local climate change action plans have a high level of 'awareness', moderate 'analysis capabilities' for climate change, and relatively limited 'action approaches' for climate change mitigation. The study also identifies specific factors influencing the quality of these local jurisdictional plans. Finally, it provides policy recommendations to improve planning for climate change at the local level.climate change, local jurisdiction, action plan, quality,