Business Improvement Districts (BIDs): the internationalization and contextualization of a ‘travelling concept’

Abstract

In many countries across the world, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are seen as a new model of sub-municipal governance to secure private capital for improving the attractiveness of a city’s central spaces. Originating from North America (Canada and the United States), this model of self-taxing districts, often based on public–private partnerships, has spread to other continents, including Europe, Australia and Africa. This theme issue explores the internationalization and the contextualization of the BID model in both Northern countries (the United States, Canada, Germany and Sweden) and Southern countries (South Africa). The collection of articles focuses on key debates surrounding BIDs and presents different theoretical perspectives as well as lines of argument in relation to these debates. Relying on approaches based on political economy and local governance regimes, Foucault-inspired sociology of governance and governmentality studies or critical discourse analysis, the authors discuss the nature and significance of BIDs in relation to state restructuring and the neoliberalization of urban policies and to emergent rationalities and practices of security governance and policing arrangements. Using the recent discussions of policy transfer and ‘urban policy mobilities’, they look at the international circulation of the BID model and its local embeddedness, exploring the role of the global circuits of knowledge and the ways in which the model has been adopted and reshaped in different cities. Drawing a complex and differentiated picture of BIDs across continents and cities, this collection of articles emphasizes both the need for more comparative research across diverse urban experiences and contexts and the relevance of a relational perspective in urban studies that blurs the traditional lines of separation between studies of Northern and Southern cities.

Resource orchestration as a source of competitive advantage for cities

“…McCann, 2011;E. McCann & Ward, 2011;Peyroux, 2006;Peyroux, Pütz & Glasze, 2012;Ward, 2006Ward, , 2007. In their literature review, Peyroux et al (2012) There are also complementary perspectives to the internationalization of the BID model.…”

“…McCann & Ward, 2011;Peyroux, 2006;Peyroux, Pütz & Glasze, 2012;Ward, 2006Ward, , 2007. In their literature review, Peyroux et al (2012) There are also complementary perspectives to the internationalization of the BID model. 1 The International Downtown Association is a network of more than 650 members, including public agencies, practionners, non-profit-organizations, and for-profit corporations and businesses producing expert knowledge and strategies for creating healthy and dynamic downtowns worldwide (International Downtown Association, 2017 (Schendel & Hofer, 1979), although more recently there are also many contributions which focus on more broadly defined entities, such as strategic alliances (Das & Teng, 2000) or industries (McGahan, 2004).…”

(Im-)Mobile policies: Why sustainability went wrong in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi

“…Healey and Upton, 2010;Larner and Laurie, 2010;McCann and Ward, 2011;Peck and Theodore, 2010;Peyroux et al, 2012). Theoretical inspirations frequently originate in scholarship on neoliberalism and governmentality.…”

Agglomeration economies in the neighbourhood? Evidence from German cities

“…It is true, these organisations adopted characteristics of the concept of "Business Improvement Districts" (Peyroux et al, 2012). Yet, it was an essential distinction to the common notion of this policy concept that "BID" membership was voluntary.…”

“…For many firms, particularly those with a very local customer base, such everyday matters may be highly important. Not surprisingly, in city or neighbourhood centres, Business Improvement Districts (BID), which concentrate mainly on improving the outer appearance and "place marketing" of retail locations, have become a well-known example of a business-oriented policy intervention at the urban neighbourhood level (Peyroux et al, 2012). With respect to other kinds of urban areas with a more heterogeneous spectrum of business activity, the goals and organisational arrangements of neighbourhood-oriented economic policy are far less obvious.…”