“Re-Stating” Theories of Urban Development: The Politics of Authority Creation and Intergovernmental Triads in Postindustrial Chicago

Abstract

State governments and special-purpose authorities, together with city governments and private-sector actors, play a crucial role in building contemporary urban development partnerships, or intergovernmental triads. Such triads significantly shape decision-making outcomes, and yet existing theories and case studies of urban development overlook these formal coalitions. Three cases from Chicago are examined in which the intergovernmental triad arrangement was utilized in attempts to reach development goals: the city's attempt to host the 1992 World's Fair, the construction of a new stadium for the Chicago White Sox, and Navy Pier's redevelopment. Using archival and interview data, the article traces events involving local and state governments that lead to the creation of special-purpose authorities to manage development projects. The study concludes that current theories cannot explain such outcomes and must be adapted to account for the critical role of authorities and states.

Comparative Approaches to Development Politics and the Quest for a More Robust Theory: New Institutions of Governance in Chicago and Berlin

“…The City’s recent mayors, in coordination with other actors—particularly governors and private-sector actors—collaborated to offload many development tasks to special-purpose governments. Prominent examples include the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which were created to finance and manage a new stadium for the Chicago White Sox major-league baseball team and the redevelopment of Navy Pier, respectively (Smith 2010). In the cases of Chicago and Berlin, therefore, institutional access—indeed, institutions themselves—has been shaped to respond to pro-development interests—sometimes on a case-by-case, short-term basis.…”

Overhauls in water supply systems in Ukraine: A hydro-economic model of socially responsible planning and cost management

“…The research methodology reveals necessary sustainable, urban development, planning and reporting (Smith, 2010) by focusing on the triple bottom line of economic, technical and social factors. The hydro-economic method introduced integrates a sustainable strategy, and significantly contributes towards a socially responsible profile of Ukrainian cities.…”

The Urban Project and Its Impact on Sense of Place: Methodological Propositions

“…But to what extent is this opposition related to the perceived threat to the meaning that people ascribe to the place targeted by the project? The contemporary scientific literature on this topic generally examines factors that could explain this controversy, such as inequalities in access to resources among the various actors involved (Smith 2010), the different roles these actors play in the governance process (Pinson 2009), and the social acceptability of the project (Chataignier and Jobert 2003). However, very few studies explore the possible changes to the “sense of place” that a project implies, either at an immediate level for the inhabitants or from a broader socio‐territorial perspective.…”