Explaining the Emergence of Indigenous-Local Intergovernmental Relations in Settler Societies: A Theoretical Framework

There has been growing interest among practitioners and academics in the emergence of intergovernmental relations between local and Aboriginal governments in Canada. Initial research has focused on describing the nature of these relations but has yet to develop any theoretical expectations regarding why some communities are more likely to cooperate than others. We addresses this lacuna by developing a theoretical framework for explaining the emergence of cooperation between Aboriginal and local governments. After identifying a set of variables and specifying how they are likely to affect the propensity of communities to cooperate, we conclude with a discussion of how future researchers might use this framework to investigate cooperation and noncooperation between Aboriginal and local governments in Canada and in other settler societies

Claiming the City: Co-operation and Making the Deal in Urban Comprehensive Land Claims Negotiations in Canada

Since their introduction in 1973, comprehensive land claims (CLC) agreements have become important mechanisms for Aboriginal peoples to achieve their political, social, cultural, and economic goals. Although the literature on CLC negotiations is a rich and varied one, it has tended to ignore the role that municipal governments have on influencing negotiation outcomes. This lacuna is surprising since a number of treaty negotiations in the Yukon Territory and BC involve lands located in major municipalities. This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding the influence that municipal governments can have on treaty negotiation outcomes. Using a case study of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation treaty negotiations in the Yukon Territory, we find that institutional and milieu factors are important. However, leadership was the most important and decisive factor

Regionalizing the Infrastructure Turn: A Research Agenda

An interdisciplinary ‘infrastructure turn’ has emerged over the past 20 years that disputes the concept of urban infrastructure as a staid or neutral set of physical artefacts. Responding to the increased conceptual, geographical and political importance of infrastructure – and endemic issues of access, expertise and governance that the varied provision of infrastructures can cause – this intervention asserts the significance of applying a regional perspective to the infrastructure turn. This paper forwards a critical research agenda for the study of ‘infrastructural regionalisms’ to interrogate: (1) how we study and produce knowledge about infrastructure; (2) how infrastructure is governed across or constrained by jurisdictional boundaries; (3) who drives the construction of regional infrastructural imaginaries; and (4) how individuals and communities differentially experience regional space through infrastructure. Analysing regions through infrastructure provides a novel perspective on the regional question and consequently offers a framework to understand better the implications of the current infrastructure moment for regional spaces worldwide

Innovation in regional graphics (and academic communication)

This editorial explores the importance and power of regional graphics for communication in both academia and practice. This journal regularly publishes regional graphics, which feature one or a series of visualizations accompanied by short text that frames the value of the research and includes methodological points. In the relatively short life of the journal, regional graphics have generated a significant amount of engagement and regularly appear on the list of most viewed and trending articles. This collection assembles a diverse range of regional graphics to showcase the variety of ways that visualizations can be used to convey regional arguments, to raise the profile of this type of contribution to Regional Studies, Regional Science and to highlight innovations in visualizations that can also be used to enhance standard length articles and academic engagement beyond this medium

Navigating the heavy seas of online publishing:Reflections on ten years editorship

Articulo – Journal of Urban Research celebrates its 10th anniversary! To celebrate this milestone, the current editors discuss the numerous changes and challenges related to publishing a peer-reviewed online journal. Since 2005, Articulo has progressively become more international, more professional, and more specialized than its initiators ever dreamed it could be. In ten years, the rather confidential publication has progressively become a journal read by 9,000 people every month. Our editors, who used to work side by side, now live 6,000 km apart. In the midst of often tumultuous change, what hasn't changed is our commitment to the highest quality of publication and our conviction that knowledge – especially if funded by public money – should be universally and freely accessible. Rigorous peer-review and open access are the two principles on which the journal will navigate the often rough seas of online publishing in the future

Geographies, geometries, and economies of spatial productivity in the UK

While there has always been a strong urban bias in narratives about productivity and spatial inequalities, our analysis based on micro data (LSOAs) shows a much more complex picture. High productivity does not seem to be as restricted to urban areas, and nor is the performance of a city region entirely determined by the strength of its central business district alone. The link between density and productivity is less directly deterministic than often characterised – effective density matters more than physical density, and the possibility of synergy implied by economic density does not guarantee the realisation of that synergy – other factors must also fall into place

Cooperation in Crisis? An Analysis of Cross-Border Intermunicipal Relations in the Detroit-Windsor Region

The Detroit-Windsor region is linked by the automotive industry, significant cross-border labor and recreation flows, cultural similarities, and social problems stemming from the economic downturn. According to theories of cross-border cooperation this case should be one characterized by a degree of institutional integration and intermunicipal coordination. In reality, very few cross-border political relationships exist between local authorities in the region, even in this time of mutual crisis. This paper investigates the reasons for weak cross-border integration by testing theory against practice and argues that existing theoretical frameworks do not satisfactorily account for observed patterns of cooperation in the region. It also explores the different effects that crisis can have on cross-border partnerships at the metropolitan scale

Civic Capital and the Dynamics of Intermunicipal Cooperation for Regional Economic Development

This thesis concentrates on the interplay of structural and societal factors in the development of regional governance though a comparative study of two Canadian (Toronto and Waterloo) and two German (Frankfurt and the Rhein-Neckar) city regions. It was inspired by the tendency, in both scholarship and practice, to turn to formal institutional reform to solve problems of regional coordination. Debates of new regionalism advocate a role for governance solutions, which encourage a broader spectrum of actors to engage in the policy process. However, the emphasis in most jurisdictions has remained on formal, institutionalized structures, imposed by senior levels of government. As a result, the construction and potential for bottom-up and collectively negotiated regional solutions are typically under-explored. This thesis builds a case for intermunicipal cooperation as an alternative approach to regional coordination, uniting the participatory concept of regional governance with functional flexibility of cooperative networks. It analyses what factors affect the emergence of these networks for governance in three areas of regional economic development: regional marketing, cultural policy and regional transportation. It argues that while regional structural, institutional and contextual variables are useful in understanding the emergence of development partnerships, they tend to have different effects in different cases. The thesis formulates and applies an innovative concept – civic capital – to capture the dynamics of building and sustaining regional governance networks. It is both a critique and extension of social capital approaches to regional development. Using the four cases the thesis argues that, where civic capital is high intermunicipal cooperation is more likely regardless of institutional and structural contexts. Consequently, the thesis makes a theoretical contribution to both literature on intermunicipal cooperation and broader debates on the dynamics of regional governance, development and social networks.Ph

Changing European borders: from separation to interface? An introduction

The aim of this special issue is to address the evolution of European borders from a comparative perspective. This collection of papers spans a wide variety of topics in the realm of borderland studies. Although each engages with a single empirical or theoretical case collectively they identify nuances relevant to the theoretical elaboration of borders, and particularly contribute to the field of sub-national cross-border cooperation. In the course of its analysis each paper contributes to a broader understanding of the definition of cross-border regions; identifies a set of barriers to cooperation in these contexts; explores the role of identities on cooperation and of the role of borders in constructing those identities; and reflects on the socio-political meanings and uses of these international boundaries. This introduction discusses theoretical significance of these contributions to major debates in the study of borders and border regions