In search of social equity in entrepreneurialism: The case of Israel’s municipal regeneration agencies

Abstract

This article examines the roles of municipalities in Israel’s national, state-led urban regeneration program, contributing to the scholarship on the varied agendas of municipal entrepreneurialism. The Israeli urban regeneration program promotes the densification of private residential properties by incentivizing property deals between homeowners and developers. It has been criticized for attracting predatory practices and spurring conflicts between state, market, and community stakeholders. New intermediary bodies—Municipal Regeneration Agencies—were established as an effective policy response to both criticisms. We rely on 36 interviews and extensive document analysis to examine the roles and agendas of Municipal Regeneration Agencies, vis-à-vis the equity concerns associated with state-led urban regeneration. Municipal Regeneration Agencies support homeowners, increase regulation over private deal-making, and in two cases, direct entrepreneurial development of urban regeneration projects. We argue that these roles represent a model of equitable entrepreneurialism that attempts to reconcile the neoliberal logic of urban regeneration with a municipal commitment to social equity. This model allows municipalities to reassert their position in Israel’s centralized housing and planning policy but faces limitations due to municipalities’ varying capacities and continued reliance on market relations.

Introduction to special issue on the governance of residential investment

“…For Stirling et al (2022), a more discursive analysis of the policy narratives on consumer subjectivities provides insight into the link between national macroeconomic organisation and investment in the United Kingdom. The concept of legacies or path dependency emerges as key across all the cases (see also Geva and Rosen, 2022; Stirling et al, 2022), especially in the interaction between private and public actors – discussed further in the next section.…”

“…Yet, this all builds on the history of mayors that precede him – and relies on relationships with national government. The variegated abilities of (local) states heavily shape the capacities of state actors to directly shape investment patterns (Geva and Rosen, 2022). For Stirling et al (2022), national government – and specifically its macroeconomic strategies – is at the heart of understanding housing governance (see also Ryan-Collins et al, 2017).…”

“…As the role of arms-length organisations operating in spaces that straddle within, between and outside the state grow in their involvement in housing delivery globally (see for example, Penny, 2021), these cases demonstrate tensions in state capacities and strategies, especially those that emerge when confronting a long history of working in particular ways. More progressive or socially attendant ways of operating are therefore circumvented by existing structures and systems (Brill et al, 2022; Geva and Rosen, 2022), yet there remains spaces of hope and a clear sense of regulatory (political) duty.…”

The divergent logics of urban regeneration in Israel: A neoliberal toolkit and national rationales

“…In its first decades, the state focused on the construction of new areas rather than regeneration of existing ones. Early regeneration efforts in the 1950s and 1960s concentrated on slum clearance of areas that were considered hazardous or underserved (Geva and Rosen, 2016), in what was termed the ‘bulldozer era’ (Carmon, 1999). The eviction and relocation of existing residents were limited to three projects.…”

“…However, following the election of the Likud government in 1977, a national programme for the renewal of disadvantaged neighbourhoods was adopted, focusing on physical and social interventions at the local level, without housing demolition or the eviction of residents (Carmon, 1999). The budget derived from the government as well as donations of Jewish communities in the diaspora, who ‘adopted’ communities in Israel (Geva and Rosen, 2016). The neighbourhood renewal programme was a dominant feature of Israel’s urban and social policy until the mid-1980s, when the programme’s budget was gradually reduced and its influence diminished.…”