Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance
Most Canadians now live in cities and large metropolitan areas. Social, economic, and environmental policymaking by all levels of government is increasingly urban in its focus.
Western’s Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance was created in 2017 to respond to the many new challenges facing local governments and urban policymakers. Bringing together academic researchers and students from across Western and beyond, our goals are to facilitate new interdisciplinary collaborations on pressing questions, contribute to graduate training and professional development, and foster dialogue between academics, policy practitioners and the broader public.
As Western’s hub for urban research, the Centre builds on the university’s established strengths including the graduate Local Government Program, the undergraduate Urban Development Program, and the work of dozens of faculty members and graduate students in academic units in Social Science and across campus. The Centre is a proud member of Western’s Network for Economic and Social Trends (NEST) which brings together the research centres in the Faculty of Social Science.
WesternUrban participates in the LoGov-RISE Project
The Centre is Canada’s participant in developing a multi-national project on Local Government and the Changing Urban-Rural Interplay. Each country’s research team will study the responsibilities of different levels of government, financial arrangements, and public participation in relation to the growing gap between urban and rural settlements, and to identify innovative practices to respond to these challenges. Prof. Martin Horak is leading this project. Housed at the Institute for Comparative Federalism at Eurac Research, Bolzano, Italy, the LoGov project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (MSCA-RISE) programme. → For more information on LoGov-RISE
Summer 2024 LoGov-RISE Visiting Scholar: Moneyba González-Medina
Lecturer and researcher of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She holds a PhD in Political Science and Administration (2009, University of Santiago de Compostela). She has a Master Degree in Law (2000) and in Political Science and Administration (2002). She has carried out research stays at the Universität Konstanz in Germany (2004-2006), the Politecnico di Milano in Italy (2012-2014), the University of the West of England in United Kingdom (2020) and the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Argentina (2023). During her stay at Western as part of the LoGov-RISE project, her primary focus will be to investigate the metropolitan dynamics and institutional arrangements in Canada. Among other aspects, she will analyze the metropolitan governance framework, the incentives for promoting collaboration between municipalities and the coordination of policies at metropolitan scale.
News
Prof. Taylor appointed editor-in-chief of journal
On July 1, 2024, Prof. Zack Taylor, Dept. of Political Science, was appointed to a five-year term (2024–29) as editor-in-chief of Territory, Politics, Governance, an international, interdisciplinary journal published by the Regional Studies Association. The journal is committed to the development of theory and research on territorial politics and the governance of space and the publication of original, high-quality international scholarship that advances this growing field of research. Prof. Taylor will serve on the board of the Regional Studies Association during his tenure as the journal's editor-in-chief.
Canadian Municipal Attributes Portal (CMAP)
On July 4, 2024, WesternUrban updated the Canadian Municipal Attributes Portal (CMAP), an interactive app that presents information no how governance is structured in almost 200 municipalities across Canada in which 73% of the country's population lives. The database includes data on dozens of key institutional attributes, ranging from electoral systems and council structure to the governance of service provision. Users can compare municipalities and visualize patterns across provinces and municipal population size. You can access CMAP at https://westernurban.shinyapps.io/CMAP/.
Events
May 24, 2024 – Local/In Theory: Symposium on the Political Theory of Place Governance
On May 24, 2024, the Centre and the Department of Political Science hosted an interdisciplinary symposium on the political theory of place governance. For more information, visit the event website.
Apr. 12, 2024, 10:30AM – Talk by Caroline Schulte Oestrich on the Impact of Local Governments on Sustainable Transportation in Germany
As transportation continues to be reponsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, the switch to alternative means of transport is an important issue in the German debate on climate protection. The talk will focus on the role of local governments in implementing new transportation models and existing approaches in Germany.
Caroline is a doctoral candidate and reseach assistant at Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität München.
Mar. 1, 2024, 2:00PM – NEST Distinguished Speaker Series – Jason Hackworth on The Myth of the North American City Revisited: Explorign the Role of Race and Racism in Canadian Cities
Goldberg and Mercer's The Myth of the North American City has become a classic in Canadian geography, planning, and sociology circles since it's publication over 40 years ago. In it, the authors provide compelling evidence for contrast between American and Canadian cities. Race and racism are among the many dimensions they explore. In their narrative, they argue that American cities are deeply affected by racism and Canadian cities much less so (or not at all) more recently other scholars in geography, sociology, and area studies have used the American experience of racism to highlight patterns in other non-American Global North locations – France, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, among others. This lecture focusses on the opportunities and challenges of applying, rather than juxtaposing as the myth and other similar writings do, the lessons of American racism to the urban context.
Jason Hackworth is a professor of planning and geography at the University of Toronto. He has written three books and numerous articles on the roll of economics, race, and policy at shaping North American cities.
Dec. 15, 2023, 10:30AM – Talk by Ester Marco Penãs and Félix Alberto Vega Borrego on the Financing of Municipal Services in Spain Through User Fees
This talk will address some of the problems posed by the financing of municipal services in Spain through user fees. Many of these problems are not unique to the Spanish context. Subjects include debates concerning the power of municipalities to set user fee rates; whether user fee should be linked to an individuals ability to pay; appropriateness of fees for financing of services and urban development; and the relationship between the legal framework for user fees, and the processes through which services are managed at the local level.
Ester Marco Penãs and Félix Alberto Vega Borrego are Professors of Tax Law at the Universidad Autonomá de Madrid.
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Are you interested in joining the Centre as a Faculty Associate, Graduate Fellow, or Visiting Scholar? Contact us for more information!
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Dr. Michael Buzzelli
Director
Dr. Godwin Arku
Associate Director
Dr. Martin Horak
Associate Director
