Apologies for cross-posting

*Call for papers ***

5th International Conference of the Research Network Private Urban
Governance & Gated Communities

University of Chile, Santiago, - March 30^th to April 2^nd 2009

*Panel: Business and Neighbourhood Improvement Districts: analysing the
transnationalisation of an urban governance model*

Organisers: Georg Glasze (University of Mainz), Elisabeth Peyroux
(University of Toulouse II) and Robert Pütz (University of Frankfurt)

Business and Neighborhood Improvement Districts (BIDs, NIDs) have
developed as an international model for managing commercial and
residential areas in both Southern and Northern cities. Whilst there is
no standard definition of Improvement Districts, these organizations
have been mostly defined as self-taxing, self-help public private
partnership organizations set up by business and property owners to
maintain, promote and develop public areas within a perimeter,
specifically through the enhancement of public services. Their spreading
has been linked to the development of an “urban entrepreneurialism” and
the rise of neo-liberal forms of governance.

This panel aims at investigating the transnationalisation of the
Improvement Districts model in various geographical contexts. It is
based on the assumption that this model which originates from Northern
America has not simply been copied and transferred but has been
inscribed differently within diverse contexts: how are these models
mobilized and which actors and institutions are involved in these
processes? How are they adapted and legally institutionalized within
different economical, political and social contexts? How are Improvement
Districts legitimized or, as the case may be, criticized within
discourses on urban development?

With the establishment of Improvement Districts steering powers in
cities are being reshaped: new positions of power are established,
property rights and decision-making structures are redefined. The panel
also aims at investigating how, and the extent to which, Improvement
Districts alter stakeholders’ practices and create new patterns of
authority. The consequences of Improvement Districts in terms of
potential social exclusion and the redrawing of democratic processes
within the context of neo-liberal urbanization will be critically
assessed in the different cities.

Please submit your abstract to Nicolas Stutzin ([log in to unmask]) and
to the corresponding panel organizer Elisabeth Peyroux
([log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) by *October 30, 2008.*

Guidelines for abstracts are available on the conference website:

http://gated-communities.uchilefau.cl/

**********

Dr Elisabeth Peyroux
Senior researcher
Université de Toulouse-II Le Mirail
CNRS - LISST-CIEU (UMR 5193, EHESS)
Centre Interdisciplinaire d'Etudes Urbaines
5 allées Antonio Machado,
F 31 058 Toulouse Cedex 9
Tel.: +33 (0)5 61 50 43 64
Mobile: +33 (0)6 71 84 50 04
Fax: +33 (0)5 61 50 49 61
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>