Dear Colleagues,

Ursula Peres and I are convening the session "Production of urban space and contemporary finance: public policies and social spending" at the RC21 annual conference (July 6-8, Antwerp). This session debates the role of the State in the regulation and funding of urban development in scenario of austerity policies. We are interested in discussing what are the similarities and differences in the governance of the cities regarding the formulation and implementation of urban policies, and how the distributive conflict around public funding has been treated, for example. Abstract submission at this link: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/rc21-sensing-the-city/call-for-papers/submit-your-abstract/. Please select session 86.

Best regards,

Luciana O. Royer (FAU-USP) and Ursula Dias Peres (EACH-USP)

University of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Profª. Drª. Luciana de Oliveira Royer

*RC21 2020 - Sensing the City Antwerp, 6-8 July 2020 (https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/rc21-sensing-the-city/conference-call/)

Session 86 - PRODUCTION OF URBAN SPACE AND CONTEMPORARY FINANCE: PUBLIC POLICIES AND SOCIAL SPENDING·

The main question of this session is the debate about the role of the State in the regulation and funding of urban development and what are its limits and constraints in a scenario of austerity policies. This perspective contributes to unveiling limits and possibilities for the formulation of public policies for urban development directed by the State and with access to public funds aimed at reducing poverty in cities, ensuring adequate urban infrastructure in a systematic and non-segregated manner. The format aimed is a paper presentation session.

Urban and housing precariousness is still a feature in cities in the global south. Therefore, considering housing and urban infrastructure as elements of urban development, government action aimed at this development is a fundamental requirement. Public investment is a condition for reducing the precariousness of urban development. However, public policies and social spending depend on multiple circumstances in addition to public funding. Debating urban development from the perspective of public funding contributes to unveiling the limitations and possibilities related to poverty reduction in cities. In this way, research on financing and public policies for urban development is relevant for the community, for urban and regional planning and for public administration. Public policies and social spending are fundamentals to guarantee access to urban services. But fiscal resources are subject to legal rules and limitations defined in political and institutional arenas that are often far removed from the urban issue. In order to guarantee adequate public funding for urban development, it is necessary to work on solutions that integrate elements of urban and regional planning, economic sciences, political science, and public administration. The arrival of the 21st century brought a scenario that on the one hand projected a horizon of progress in terms of living conditions in cities, but on the other hand put in doubt convictions and utopias in view of the impasses that these proposals represented. This is confirmed in the observation of urban political actors, experiencing a period of equilibrium with numerous events and publications, carrying out analyses, discussions, criticisms and evaluations of the effects produced by and from these normative and institutional landmarks of urban policy. Despite the recognition of advances in regulatory frameworks and institutional structures, there is an impasse on how to proceed with urban reform in the current historical moment. This stalemate is partly caused by the adoption of fiscal austerity policies, in the last decade, that have restricted investments and, in general, reduced the autonomy of local governments, directly responsible for urban development. To debate the possibility of advancing urban development thus implies discussing the limits of fiscal austerity, but also to understand what the role of the State is and what level of autonomy city governments should have to deal with the dilemmas of this agenda. Given this scenario, we are interested in discussing what are the similarities and differences in the governance of the cities regarding the formulation and implementation of urban policies, and how the distributive conflict around public funding has been treated.