Fragmented Governance Architecture of Contemporary Urban Development

Consequences of neoliberalism and entrepreneurial urban governance seem to be very clearly visible in some cities through scattered property-led spatial developments and investments. While the entrepreneurialisation of municipal governance is widely acknowledged in the scholarly literature, the extent and format of institutional and organisational structures that accompany neoliberal ideological shifts and market transitions often remain unclear. In this IRS International Lecture on Society and Space, Prof. Dr. Tuna Taşan-Kok will argue that entrepreneurial urban governance creates fragmented governance architectures in order to accommodate complex institutional and organisational arrangements in market-driven urban development. She will use Amsterdam, a city once known to have a ‘consolidated system’, to illustrate how and in what ways governance systems are fragmenting.

Discussant: Prof. Dr. phil. Laura Calbet i Elias, Universität Stuttgart

Vita
Prof. Dr. Tuna Taşan-Kok holds the position of Chair of Urban Planning and Governance at the University of Amsterdam. She has wide-ranging knowledge and experience in the fields of urban social geography and urban planning and has worked for several high-ranking international organisations with connections to extensive international research networks, with whom she actively collaborates. Her research mainly explores the dynamic landscapes of urban governance in an increasingly property-led planning environment with a view to discussing new ways of policy making, planning and urban development from a critical perspective. Currently she is co-PI in an ORA funded research project called “What is Governed in Cities: Residential Investment Landscapes and the Governance and Regulation of Housing Production” (WHIG) which studies the complex governance dynamics evident in Amsterdam, London, and Paris, especially in relation to the challenges of residential property production. She holds honorary professorship at UCL Bartlett School of Planning, and she is the founder and chair of UGoveRN network.