Economic Governance and urban development interrelation is the fifteenth article of a series1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17. It assess the dialectic of architecture and urban design in the urbanism field. I will go through this relationship from the top scale of in the city to the smallest scale of its parts of urban space.
Table of content
how does urban development occur?
What architects and urban designers need to do
In this article, I will discuss and analyze what is economic governance and relation to urban development. what type of public policy it relates to. what topic in it recent papers in the academic, research, and practice study. how global bodies deal with, and how they produce its principals. Also, how urban change occurs in reality and their direct relation. Moreover, what architects and urban designers need to consider in practice about their direct relation.
Economic governance is formed by the government for many related matters within its work in the country. It relates to social matters like social network support. Also, it accounts for environmental matters and directly impacts way of life. It’s the main focus of any political party, or body. Surely, because it relates to moving a country’s economic and political system forward for the welfare and well-being of the society.
what is economic governance?
Through direct and continuous review, study, with multiple related people a government builds an economic governance. Also, it refers to the process that supports two major works in the country. These include economic activity and transaction. Moreover, it covers the enforcing contracts of all related business in the country. In addition to by shared action to provide suitable physical and Regulatory systems. That makes the country and all businesses stable and flourish through the years.
What are the two broad areas or categories of the economy that economic governance deals with?
Microeconomics studies how people make decisions when running their businesses. That includes how they assign resources and set prices for goods and services. It looks at taxes, rules, and country laws. In addition to supply and demand in the market. Key topics include supply, demand, market equilibrium. Moreover, production theory, production costs, and labor economics. It’s the smaller scale of economy that bonds people’s business and activity in the country to keep then stable.
Macroeconomics studies the country’s economy as a whole, rather than focusing on people’s businesses. It looks at entire industries and tries to answer questions like, “What should the rate of inflation be?” and “What stimulates economic growth?” Governments and their agencies use it to create fiscal policy. One key indicator economist uses to assess a country’s economic health is the fiscal balance. So, based on the status of the people business and its stability the related body will have a detailed info to build on. See the following video for more insights and ideas.
I have explained how economic governance — in both its forms — relates to urban development. It’s about managing money and fiscal policy to support economic growth. That’s whether through business support or funding for that growth. This shows the strong relation between moving money and related policy in urban affairs.
Now, what recent published papers in research, and practice study on economic governance? how global bodies deal with it? and how they produce principals that control work in practice?
Many research papers rotate the same research question or topic, the jargon of research, in areas of economy and politics. Google Scholar alone revealed 3.8 million research papers on the topic of economic growth. Google search engine revealed 200 more results than Google Scholar for the same topic.
The research topic that is cycled in the research, academic, and even in practice is about the answer to the research question: what are the five principles of good urban governance?
The five principles1 Include
- Effectiveness for economic facilities.
- Equity for social opportunities.
- Participation for political freedom.
- Accountability for transparency guarantees.
- Security for protective security.
The papers keep coming back to the same topic: social inclusion. They talk about reducing poverty, making economic growth fairer, and letting local communities own their development projects. Readers can clearly see the strong, direct link between people’s social standing and their wealth.
On the other hand, organizations2 in the world are concerned about one matter. That’s urban economic development strategies that are based on good economic governance. The new urban agenda vision is concerned with the four guiding principles:
- Inclusive urban economic growth,
- Economic growth must be in a strong rights framework,
- The national and local contribution of economic growth to sustainable development,
- And economic growth must enable informal livelihoods.
Adding to that there are several enabling conditions such as well-governed local and national institutions, businesses that support formal and informal sector activities, policy dialogue with all private and public entities, improvement of quality of life through the improvement of physical and social infrastructure, and support for innovation and entrepreneurship.
There are also several conditions that make this possible:
- Well-run local and national institutions,
- Businesses that support both formal and informal work,
- Policy talks with both private and public groups,
- Better quality of life through improved physical and social infrastructure,
- Support for new ideas and starting businesses.
In the two examples of papers and organization publication the rotation of the same principles and supporting and enabling conditions. Organizations hold international conferences worldwide and a country in the Middle East appears active participants and shows willingness to develop and achieve but the reality is different. Issuing a permanent residency when buying a property worth 330,000 $ 330,000 leads to nothing. Providing golden visas for people having the same rules as EU, and USA countries but with no legal rights. Giving foreigners the Passport but not specifying what are the roots, paths, and methods to achieve that is not logical.
Now, why I should come to this country to get a permanent residency or golden visa or passport if the country is suffering from economic decline, economic activities and construction are declining, and the country is relying on foreign workers? Why I should stay in the country if there is nothing to do? These economic and policy changes in a country that does not have a constitution will not boost urban development. There is no relation to the strategies and methods to move the real estate or economic cycle in a country.
how does urban development occur?
In my previous article about the alternative approach to building a local development plan, I introduced the three steps which include defining needs. A need could be an urban problem like city deprivation coming from unemployment. Also, reduction of population in the city, vanishing businesses, and migration to other locations. The resolution could be direct action through the government. Moreover by joined private sector by pumping funds or the workforce. An indirect approach is to change policy to attract foreign investment to solve the problem.
Another form of the need is to respond to the demand such as the shift of working professionals to healthier workplaces. this may require for instance, an increase in public transport movement and quantity. Furthermore, an increase in the construction activity to supply housing demand. Also, a development of traffic network due to increase in car flow and demand for parking lots. due to increase in shifting people an increase in foods and goods required leading to opening retail projects. certainly the tax generated from this shift to be used in government priority development projects.
Going back to the article concerns , The article looks at how architecture and urban design help shape a city’s economy. This includes things like supporting businesses, funding new projects. Also, investing in city development, and figuring out which industries are growing or declining.
Architects should keep up with new government policies, so they can target the right projects for their business. They should also watch which parts of the economy are growing, so they can guide clients toward smart investments. Even a declining or deprived area can be an opportunity — for example, if certain types of development are doing well there, or if the government plans to revive the area through its economic policy.
What architects and urban designers need to do
Urban designers manage and coordinate a city’s development, and part of their job is spotting new opportunities for growth. So, these opportunities can come from many sources:
- Booming sectors — when activities like housing or industry flourish, construction follows, especially if the government encourages them through open foreign-investment policies or tax breaks.
- Public-sector plans — government economic policies can lead to projects like landscaping, public transit (stations, transit nodes, road networks), rail links to neighboring countries, and trade facilities such as ports and border crossings. Rising tourism can also signal demand for hotels and hospitality projects.
- Local consumption gaps — what a city imports reveals what it could produce itself. A city that imports most of its food (like eggs or milk) is a candidate for agricultural projects; one that brings in construction materials like concrete could support a local mixing plant.
- Environmental problems — pollution or damaged natural areas like marshes, lakes, and rivers can open the door to environmental restoration projects.
The list goes on — the key is to read the city’s needs and policies and turn them into development opportunities.
Where this fits in practice: I show how economic policy and market demand become project types in Urbanism Role in Professional Practice: How Research Became Hidden Rules.
References:
- Esko Lange , F. (2010) ‘Urban governance and the Entrepreneurial City’, World Vision Institute [Preprint]. doi:https://www.eldis.org/document/A65960.
- nations, U. (2016) ‘urban economic development strategies ’, habitat III papers [Preprint]. doi:https://www.un.org/en/conferences/habitat/quito2016.
- Fuller, C. (2018) ‘Entrepreneurial urbanism, austerity and economic governance’, Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 11(3), pp. 565–585. doi:10.1093/cjres/rsy023.
- Jones, R. et al. (2005) ‘Filling in’ the state: Economic governance and the evolution of devolution in Wales’, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 23(3), pp. 337–360. doi:10.1068/c39m.
- McCann, E. (2016). Governing urbanism: Urban governance studies 1.0, 2.0 and beyond. Urban Studies, 54(2), 312–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098016670046
- Theodore, N., Peck, J. and Brenner, N. (2011) ‘Neoliberal urbanism: Cities and the rule of Markets’, The New Blackwell Companion to the City, pp. 15–25. doi:10.1002/9781444395105.ch2.
- Peck, J. (2014) ‘Entrepreneurial urbanism: Between uncommon sense and dull compulsion’, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 96(4), pp. 396–401. doi:10.1111/geob.12061.
- Ward, K. (2010) ‘Entrepreneurial Urbanism and Business Improvement Districts in the State of Wisconsin: A cosmopolitan critique’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 100(5), pp. 1177–1196. doi:10.1080/00045608.2010.520211.
- King, A.D. (1989) ‘Colonialism, urbanism and the Capitalist World Economy’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 13(1), pp. 1–18. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.1989.tb00105.x.
- Scott, A.J. (2014) ‘Beyond the creative city: Cognitive–cultural capitalism and the new urbanism’, Regional Studies, 48(4), pp. 565–578. doi:10.1080/00343404.2014.891010.