LIST OF PANELS

This panel will explore theoretical and empirical developments of urban policy analysis. We suggest that to understand contemporary societal transformation, and political and policy processes more generally, the policies that cities create and implement are essential objects of study. That is, an urban policy analysis is not relevant simply because of the high rate of policy activity happening in cities, but also because it highlights dimensions of political life that are more visible within cities but that also operate at other scales. Contemporary confrontations between public and private property, between power and justice, between participation and exclusion, wealth and poverty, and emerging technology and existing economic, social, and political structures take physical form in cities (Kaufmann and Sidney 2020). Such confrontations occur in the midst of the pandemic: “Essential workers” risk their lives to provide services to other workers who are able to stay at home; multiracial protests, led by Black and other racialized community members, rally against police brutality in U.S. cities and also around the world.

Clarence Stone (2015, 117) reminds us that “cities are not the nation state writ small”. Thus, urban political processes and the policies that emerge are likely to differ from processes and policies at other scales – international, national or subnational. Yet, the dominant policy theories and concepts mostly stem from analyses of national political processes (e.g. Advocacy Coalition Framework or Multiple Streams) and may not be automatically applicable to cities. We wonder whether and how these theories can be adapted to explicitly consider scale and dimensions of urban politics, including cross-level perspectives. And we wonder, in contrast, what ground-up urban policy analysis can take shape from empirical studies of urban policy processes.

Finally, and perhaps most pressing and speaking directly to our current moment: What can urban policy analysis reveal about strategies for resisting oppressive structures and institutions, and rebuilding or transforming urban life to reduce marginalization and increase justice. What are justice-producing urban policies?

We would therefore like to explore dimensions and frameworks for urban policy analysis, and empirical applications that contribute to theory development. We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives the build on theoretical developments in public policy, urban politics, urban studies, and social sciences.

- Kaufmann, David and Mara Sidney. 2020. Toward an Urban Policy Analysis: Incorporating Participation, Multilevel Governance, and ‘Seeing like a City, PS: Political Science & Politics 53(1): 1-5.

- Stone, Clarence. 2015. Reflections on Regime Politics: From Governing Coalition to Urban Political Order. Urban Affairs Review 51 (1): 101–137. Page 117.

We welcome papers that explore and seek to build urban policy analysis, empirically and theoretically. We are specifically interested in papers that address current issues of health and racial justice, and calls for institutional transformation. In general, we seek papers that share a common purpose in deliberately building urban policy analysis and thus will set the stage for productive dialogue and perhaps result in collaborative work. In particular, we would like to explore the following dimensions of an urban policy analysis:

How does urban policy analysis theorize the urban? The city may be thought as a geographic material site and therefore an analysis should be attentive to how the context might exert influence on policy processes and outcomes. Yet, the city also is a political arena that transcends geography, speaking rather to a mode of politics and of daily life that is characterized by diversity, complexity, flexibility, and ongoing change.

Who are the diverse, shifting, or stable actors in urban policy? How do race, class, gender, LGBTQ-subjugated identity groups resist oppressive policies, and forge change? The density of the urban political arena and the immediacy of policy problems can give rise to a diverse set of actors. The urban site allows – or demands – that urban policy research be attentive to the grassroots level and to everyday actions, as much as the business and elite actors.

What is the role and the scale of the state? Urban policy analysis should investigate the degree to which state actors and institutions are central, rather than assuming a state-centric situation. As well, analysis must investigate at which scales state and non-state actors interact, make decisions, implement policies, etc. Such an investigation also acknowledges that there are multiple state actors with varying and sometimes conflicting perspectives.