TY - JOUR

T1 - Urban Problem Discourses

T2 - Understanding the distinctiveness of cities

AU - Barbehön, Marlon

AU - Münch, Sybille

AU - Gehring, Petra

AU - Grossmann, Andreas

AU - Haus, Michael

AU - Heinelt, Hubert

PY - 2016/5/1

Y1 - 2016/5/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Politics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927934026&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/juaf.12206

DO - 10.1111/juaf.12206

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 38

SP - 236

EP - 251

JO - Journal of Urban Affairs

JF - Journal of Urban Affairs

SN - 0735-2166

IS - 2

ER -