Urban Problem Discourses: Understanding the distinctiveness of cities

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

  • Marlon Barbehön
  • Sybille Münch
  • Petra Gehring
  • Andreas Grossmann
  • Michael Haus
  • Hubert Heinelt
Despite the insistence in interpretive policy analysis that the discursive construction of problems must be understood in terms of their historical and spatial context, it remains an open question how cities provide such a context. We argue that cities as a distinct form of sociation enable certain (discursive) actions, while restricting others. Taking both the interest of interpretive policy analysis in the social construction of political reality and holistic concepts of approaching the distinctiveness of cities as starting points, we scrutinize how the cities of Frankfurt/Main, Dortmund, Birmingham, and Glasgow provide distinct contexts for the construction of local policy problems. Based on an inquiry into urban discourses we ask, first, how problematizations involve locally specific attributions of problem causes and responsibilities for problem solving and, second, how this is related to a locally distinct understanding of the city's past, present, and future.
OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftJournal of Urban Affairs
Jahrgang38
Ausgabenummer2
Seiten (von - bis)236–251
Anzahl der Seiten16
ISSN0735-2166
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.05.2016

DOI