Apologies for cross posting ...

American Association of Geographers Conference, Washington DC, 3-7 April 2019

Organizers: David Imbroscio (Department of Urban and Public Affairs, University of Louisville) and Kevin Ward (Department of Geography and Manchester Urban Institute, University of Manchester)

When Clarence didn’t meet David: thirty years after “Regime Politics”, “Urban Entrepreneurialism” and future debates in the urban and regional political economy of the US

It is late. It has been another long day at the 1990 annual conference of the Association of American Geographers. And this year is a little different. It is the first time the conference has been held outside the US since the mid-1960s. Then and now, it is taking place in downtown Toronto, which is undergoing the beginnings of what will become a full-scale revitalization. Yet, much of it still bears the hallmarks of the last few decades of decline. Post-conference university parties are beginning to wind down. Geographers are heading out into the night air, on the look-out for a bar that is open and in which they can have that final drink. One in particular seems to be popular. It’s not the décor that is drawing in delegates. The bar is slightly shabby, a long way from the refurbished craft ale houses that will emerge only a couple of decades later. No, its popularity stems its proximity to the main conference hotel. 

At the bar geographers of all intellectual persuasions dominate. The counter staff are struggling to deal with the demands of thirsty delegates. Amongst those waiting to be served is David Harvey. He has been nursing his beer for a while and decides to have one more before heading back to his room. Recently moved to John Hopkins from Oxford and well-established as one of the leading lights of Marxist geography, his most recent research has been on the changing urban condition under capitalism, with a particular interest in urban political formations. He is interested in the generalized changes in the ways in which the urban is governed. Just as his beer is being served he is joined at the bar by another white male academic of about the same age. They do not know each other. And why should they. Sitting next to Harvey is Clarence Stone. Not a geographer but a political scientist. Not a Marxist but an institutionalist. He also has a long-standing interest in urban political formations. His most recent work is on Atlanta’s urban regime but he uses the single case to make wider points about the nature of US urban governance. There is much that divides their recent work but there is also much that it shares. For a moment they are sat side by side, drinking their beers. Stone is about to introduce himself to Harvey when the latter spots one of his former graduate students – Neil Smith – across the room. He heads over, leaving Stone to nurse his drink. He does this for half an hour or so before turning in for the evening, left to wonder who was that grey-haired Brit with whom everyone wanted to stop and chat …                    

Of course David Harvey and Clarence Stone did not spend time next to one another at the bar at the AAG in 1990! If they had spoken to each other maybe the subsequent history of the studying of the urban and regional political economy of the US might have been different. They would have had the chance to share their differing views on capitalism, politics, and the state. In particular, they could have discussed their most recent publications each of which would go onto play leading roles in shaping the debates in their respective fields. A missed opportunity, perhaps, but one that forms the point of departure for this set of sessions, where the focus is both to look forwards, to take stock of the intellectual legacy of two foundational texts while also considering what they – and many other contributions – have to say about how best to understand the future of governance of cities around the world, and of the urban systems of which they are part. 

So, 2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Harvey’s (1989) From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: the transformation in urban governance in late capitalism and Stone’s (1989) Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta 1946-1988. Together both have almost eight thousand citations, and been the subject of critical scrutiny and review, both at the time of their publication and subsequently (Clark 1990; Smith 1990; Waste 1990; Browning 1991; Wood 1998; Abrahamsson and Elk 2014; Clark 2014; Merrifield 2014; Peck 2014; Burns 2015; Hankins 2015; Jones-Correa and Wong 2015; Rast 2015 ). For sure there are significant conceptual and methodological differences between the two seminal contributions. This should not be underestimated, as the debates in the late 1990s around bringing regime theory into conversation with Marxist regulation and state theory were quick to highlight (Lauria 1997). However, there are also some general similarities between the two in terms of each one’s focus on the changing role of government in the governance of US cities under capitalism, the role of other community, corporate and not-for-profit actors in governing regimes, the increasing dominance of more speculative forms of redevelopment strategies and what all of this might mean for residents of cities. Indeed, Hankin (2015:151) has argued that “Stone’s Regime Politics joined the theoretical ferment of scholars engaged in explaining newly changing city politics (e.g., Harvey 1989)”, while it is not uncommon to find both authors being cited in contemporary reviews on the changing nature of US entrepreneurial governance (Lauermann 2017). At the same time, the intellectual limits of both in explaining urban and regional political economy transformations beyond the US has been highlighted, as part of the wider challenging of the disciplining power of Northern theories.    

This purpose of these sessions is to consider the continuing importance -- or otherwise -- of Harvey’s and Stone’s interventions in the context of contemporary work on urban politics and political economy. Potential areas of interest might include – but are not limited to – the following:

-	Adaptation, climate change and resilience 
-	Austerity and crisis
-	Comparative urbanism  
-	Debt, finance and speculation
-	Electoral politics
-	Everyday lives
-	Gender
-	Infrastructure
-	Racialization 
-	Sexuality
-	Smart and sustainable cities 
-	Social movements
-	Surveillance and technology  
-	Urban policy mobilities  

Authors are invited to submit a brief abstract (not more than 250 words) to the session organizers David ([log in to unmask]) and Kevin ([log in to unmask]) by 5 pm (EDT), Friday 12 October. We will be in touch the following week to let you know whether or not you have secured a place in the sessions, and abstracts then have to be uploaded onto the AAG website by 25 October. 

References

Abrahamsson C and Elk R (2014): ‘Rereading David Harvey’s “From managerialism to entrepreneurialism” 25 years later’, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 
387–388
Clark E (2014) Good Urban Governance: Making Rent Gap Theory Not True, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 392–395
Hankins K (2015) Regime Politics in Geography, Urban Affairs Review 151 150-160
Harvey D (1989) From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation Of Urban Governance In Late Capitalism, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 71 3–17
Jones-Correa M and Wong D (2015) Whose Politics? Reflections on Clarence Stone’s Regime Politics, Urban Affairs Review 150 161-170
Lauermann J (2018) Municipal statecraft: Revisiting the geographies of the entrepreneurial city, Progress in Human Geography 42 205-224
Lauria M (editor) (1997) Reconstructing Urban Regime Theory: Regulating Urban Politics In A Global Economy, London: Sage
Merrifield Aa (2014) The Entrepreneur’s New Clothes, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 389–391
Peck J (2014) Entrepreneurial Urbanism: Between Uncommon Sense And Dull Compulsion, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 396–401
Rast J (2015) Urban Regime Theory And The Problem of Change, Urban Affairs Review 151 138-149 
Stone C (1989) Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946-1988, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Stone C (2015) Reflections on Regime Politics: From Governing Coalition to Urban Political Order, Urban Affairs Review 151 101-137
Smith D (1990) Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta 1946-1988.By Clarence N. Stone, Urban Geography 11 622-624
Waste R J (1990) Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946–1988.By Clarence N. Stone. American Political Science Review 84 1411-1412
Wood A (1998) Making sense of urban entrepreneurialism, Scottish Geographical Magazine, 114 120-123

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