Innovation and the “Ordinary” City? Urban Policy Making in a Digital Age

Toward an Urban Policy Analysis: Incorporating Participation, Multilevel Governance, and “Seeing Like a City”

“…The role of business is well established in theories of urban politics (Molotch 1976; Stone 1989), and these articles address how and to what effect business takes part in urban policy processes. They also reveal—in line with research on the postindustrial city—that stable business–government coalitions are no longer found (Stone 2015) because business is either involved in the short term only (Hinze and Smith 2020) or is, in fact, not involved at all (Bramwell 2020). For example, Bramwell (2020) compares local coalitions formed to address adaptation to the digital economy.…”

“…They also reveal—in line with research on the postindustrial city—that stable business–government coalitions are no longer found (Stone 2015) because business is either involved in the short term only (Hinze and Smith 2020) or is, in fact, not involved at all (Bramwell 2020). For example, Bramwell (2020) compares local coalitions formed to address adaptation to the digital economy. Ironically for an economic development policy area, she finds that the private sector is least involved in coalitions compared to government and foundations, universities, and other nonprofit organizations.…”

“…The authors in this symposium explore these three proposed key dimensions of urban policy making. The contributions include cases in which cities actively make policies in the absence of, complementary to, or opposed against policies at other governmental levels, such as migration (Bazurli 2020; Williamson 2020) and digitization (Bramwell 2020). They analyze more conventional urban policy fields such as housing (Donaghy 2020) and large-scale infrastructure development (Hinze and Smith 2020), with fresh insights about the contemporary moment.…”

“…She isolates which federal immigration policies are most present in cities and shows that local officials craft different types of local immigration policies if they experience welcoming or punitive national policy. Bramwell (2020) explores both the opportunities for multilevel politics and the constraints of hierarchy. She examines whether sector-specific policy silos, levels of government, and state and societal divides can be bridged in the case of “ordinary cities” trying to cope with the disruptive potential of digital economic transformations.…”

Higher education, international student mobility, and regional innovation in non‐core regions: International student start‐ups on “the rock”

“…Such relationships are of particular importance to the broader question of how non-core regions and cities can stimulate innovation through public policy (Bramwell 2020). Research on the geographies of immigrant entrepreneurship in Canada has begun to document the diverging opportunity structures of primary and secondary cities for newcomers.…”