scientific diffusion Seminars and Agenda Governance in large metropolis: Paris, London, Ciudad de México, Milan and São Paulo
Governance in large metropolis: Paris, London, Ciudad de México, Milan and São Paulo
Center for Metropolitan Studies Internacional Seminar - Fourth International Seminar
The event represents the fourth seminar of the comparative project “Governance in large metropolis: Paris, London, Ciudad de México, Milan and São Paulo”. The research aims at analyzing government and governance patterns in São Paulo, Paris, London, Milan and Ciudad de Mexico, searching for regularities and differences. The investigation is developed by the Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM) in collaboration with colleagues from Science Po/Paris, Bartlett School/UCL, Milan Biccoca and Colegio de Mexico.
We do not expect to find unique and coherent patterns in each of the cities (nor between them), but different patterns by policy area operated by different combinations of state agencies of the several governmental levels of power, as well as by (legal and illegal) groups within civil society. The issue involves a long tradition within political science, but our goal is to go beyond the classical question of “who governs?” and investigate “who governs what?”(and “how?”), as well as “who governs what the State does not govern?”. The comparison follows case study design, investigating the presence of processes and their order and combination, in order to specify, which are the conditions for the formation and the operation of the various governance patterns. The existing differences are the product of the stories, sets of actors, existing processes and institutions in every city and in every country.
The existence of regularities, however, allow us to move toward a theoretical contribution on the power and the government in the city applicable to both cities in the South and the Global North. This task, however, depends on the establishment of a broad enough concept to encompass the full variability of the phenomenon, and does not depart from normative assumptions about the workings of government and politics, as does a substantial part of the existing literature. The project developed previously Seminars in Paris, Mexico City and London, as well as sessions in meetings of the International Sociological Association.
More about the event in this short presentation by the seminar coordinator, professor Eduardo Marques and other panelists here.