Rethinking Urban Problems

Abstract

Students of urban history are quite familiar with the transformations that occurred in regard to planning and government in American cities between 1900 and 1930. By the first decade of the twentieth century, the city commission government and the city beautiful movement emerged as important tools in the search for order in American cities. That changed by the 1920s as those two earlier "solutions" became increasingly problematic to those looking for a more efficient government and an ordered environment.1 In planning, the city beautiful movement-associated with grand boulevards and city centers, but also an effort to coordinate a variety of public works-was the rage in the first decade of the twentieth century but gave way to the city practical or city efficient planning movement by the end of World War I. Commission government followed a similar path. Although once securing the endorsement of Progressives such as Brand Whitlock, Seth Low, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson, councilmanager government replaced commission government as the darling of reformers after World War I due to perceived structural weakness in the latter.

Urban governance systems in autonomous territories of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: The cases of Croatia-Slavonia and Austrian Galicia (1867-1918)

“…The majority of research findings related to this theory stem from the case studies of North American and British cities (Pierre, 2005;Dear & Dahmann, 2008;Macleod, 2011). Case studies beyond these regions are sporadic, particularly those exploring urban governance through a historical lens (Some examples: Marcus, 1980;Fairbanks, 1999;Hanley, 2012). Critiques extend to the scientific methods employed in studies addressing the transformation thesis: the absence of comparative studies -encompassing a wide range of research subjects across different countries -hampers the ability to observe the phenomenon's processes on a broader geographical scale (DiGaetano & Klemanski, 1999;Sellers, 2002;Pierre, 2005;DiGaetano, 2009;Slack & Côté, 2014;Lucas, 2017).…”