This book offers a welcome engagement with the complexity of governance in modern cities as a result of global and local pressures, citizen demands and new uncertainties in the role of nation states. It is theoretically sophisticated, deconstructing the concept of hybridity and showing what happens as emerging practices challenge the conventionally defined boundaries of governance. It is also strongly empirically grounded, offering comparative research on particular urban places within Europe, and on particular policy spaces within them. As such it marks the turn to 'third generation' governance research, and will be of value both to academics, students and policy actors.
Janet Newman, Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Social
Science, The Open University, UK.
'In this book, Skelcher, Sullivan and Jeffares present a critical analysis of the performance and accountability and democratic anchorage of networks and other hybrid organizations. Drawing on cross-national studies on policy networks, the authors demonstrate that hybrid organizations are not merely instruments, but also important arenas of governance. The book is an
important contribution to the third generation research on networks in
urban governance.'
- Jon Pierre, Professor in the Department of Politics, University of Gothenberg, Sweden.
Governance problems are without any doubt the most important and difficult challenges that urban governments face in modern society. Skelcher, Jeffares and Sullivan give a vivid and fascinating look at local governance practices in three large cities, Birmingham, Copenhagen and Rotterdam and the mixture of governance modes and cultures that can be found there. The comparison enables them to show us the contextual way governance solutions in cities evolve and are applied.
Erik-Hans Klijn is Professor in Public Administration, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
