Comparative Urban Governance

Abstract

Unlike most other areas of the social sciences, the study of urban politics has been slow in developing a comparative research agenda. This article explores the potential in comparative urban governance research. Urban regime theory does not travel very well, partly because it is an under theorized framework and partly because it is in many ways an abstraction of U.S. urban political economy. To escape these obstacles to comparative research, this article argues that regimes should be conceived of as a culturally and historically specific model of urban governance. Comparative urban governance holds tremendous potential in assisting scholars in uncovering causal mechanisms and drivers of political, economic, and social change at the urban level.