Multilevel Governance and Strategic Adaptation of Mid-Sized Cities: Canada and the US

The proposed paper is part of a larger project to investigate the economic resilience and adaptability of mid-sized cities in the face of structural changes in the global economy. The focus of the discussion will be on... [ view full abstract ]

The proposed paper is part of a larger project to investigate the economic resilience and adaptability of mid-sized cities in the face of structural changes in the global economy. The focus of the discussion will be on exploring a sub-set of cases in Canada and the United States. Cities are experiencing realignments of power relations across levels of government as globalization creates new opportunities and imposes new challenges for industrialized nations. These power realignments are rooted in frameworks of policy governance that give a central importance to “local spaces,” not only as a geographic but also as an institutional construct. A closely related implication of this realignment is the building strategic alliances among a wide range of public and non-governmental actors in implementing policies in highly politicized environments.

The paper will draw from and advance the literature on multilevel governance and the new public governance. Multilevel governance seeks to synthesize top-down and bottom-up approaches to policy making and implementation in multitiered jurisdictions such as Canada’s and the United States’ federal system (Conteh 2015; Young 2012b; Simeon 2006; Hill and Hupe 2003). The new public governance literature directs our focus to the emergent phenomenon of third-sector engagement in co-production whereby policy implementation can be understood as transitioning from simply delivering and directing to facilitating, coordinating, and empowering (Morgan and Cook 2014; Osborne 2010; Frederickson 2007; Kooiman 2006; Peters and Pierre 2005).

The central concern shared by these research traditions is about how government organizations interact with their external environments in the development and implementation of policies. A critical ingredient of this integrated approach is its emphasis on locally embedded and integrated processes of strategic visioning, planning, and implementation aimed at local economic resilience and adaptation. This integrated framework provides a rich conceptual toolkit for addressing the challenges of strategic leadership at a time of turbulent change in industrialized cities. Therefore, the implications of the discussion in the paper extend far beyond North America as cities around the world confront the challenges and exploit the opportunities of global economic restructuring.