What is it about?
By joining together two theory streams of Social-Ecological Systems and Organizational Systems, the article proposes a framework for designing intergovernmental policymaking networks for very large and complex metropolitan areas. In such urban context, concern is about dealing with issues posed by the paradox between economic development and ecological sustainability. The framework emphasizes polycentric government over bureaucracy, and a focus on whole metropolitan areas instead of individual cities.
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Why is it important?
Most research in urban studies targets individual cities as the unit of analysis. However, most big contemporary issues of development, sustainability and equity span large agglomerations of cities referred to as major metropolitan areas (especially global cities). Hence, the consequent need is for new frameworks fitted to policymaking and governance of these larger identities. From an organizational design standpoint, it is in major metropolitan areas where the structure of multiple authorities and intergovernmental collaboration are most important to achieving coherent response to these issues and to integrated policy outcomes.
Perspectives
This article carries forward a theme of the author's 45 years of research which focuses on governance and social-ecological context. In most of his publications, concern has been with the ravages of bureaucracy in a federalist system, and on the compatibility of non-centralized overlapping government with a plural society. Since most people live in and identify with large, dense metropolitan areas, the problems of governance are especially critical to this context.
DR HERMAN L BOSCHKEN
San Jose State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Aligning a Multi-Government Network With Situational Context, The American Review of Public Administration, February 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0275074016668402.
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