20/20 Vision? Interurban competition, crisis and the politics of downtown development in Cincinnati, Ohio

Abstract

Abstract This paper traces the emergence of a growth coalition in Cincinnati, Ohio, which since the early 1990s has been able to define the agenda for the city's downtown redevelopment efforts. We argue that this process is embodied in the contingencies of local political cultures and that an emphasis on the discursive strategy of elite coalitions allows for a clearer understanding of transitions in urban governance. The conceptual approach of this paper is predicated upon a refined understanding of the concept of ‘hegemony’, building initially on Gramsci's contribution and following on from this to conceptualise the city as a ‘terrain of struggle’ for conflicts between hegemonic and counter‐hegemonic powers. Particular emphasis is placed in the conceptual discussion and its subsequent empirical deployment on both the material and discursive aspects of the struggle to reproduce space according to a particular ideological ‘vision’.