Governing Ourselves: Citizen Participation and Governance in Barcelona and Manchester

Barcelona and Manchester have become paradigmatic examples of 'governance-beyond-the-state', 'new localism' or 'local state entrepreneurialism'. Whatever the label, citizen participation has become a key feature of governance in each city. This article argues that a useful way of understanding the developing relationship between governance and citizen participation is through the analytical perspective of governmentality. This perspective illuminates two paradoxes that characterize the new governance arrangements in these two European cities. The first paradox is that the power of the state is not necessarily diminished despite the emerging plurality of actors involved in governance. The second paradox lies in the fact that the spread of participatory practices as an integral element of new modes of governance does not necessarily lead to citizen empowerment. Copyright (c) 2010 The Author. Journal Compilation (c) 2010 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The politics of partnership: urban regeneration in east Manchester

The prevailing discourse on local governance is that local authorities are subordinate both to central government and to a plethora of local partners. While Manchester City Council (MCC) remains subordinate to central government, its status enables it to exert influence over the urban domain within its boundaries and to act as an intermediate organization between its local partners and the core executive in Whitehall. This reflects the influence that MCC has been able to maintain over the process of urban regeneration within its territory despite the other structures involved, and the creation of the Urban Regeneration Company (URC) of New East Manchester (NEM). MCC may possess singular characteristics but its political style of `community leadership' need not be unique. While the local state has ceded some of its activities to other agencies in this time of multi-level governance it still enjoys a powerful overarching control that can be characterized as metagovernance