Articles

Faced with supersized economic, social and environmental challenges over which the US federal government and several states have long abdicated responsibility, new models of local governance are now crucial. This is the core contention addressed in our recent book, The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the New Age of Populism.

With major distractions in national governments both in the US and UK, it is up to cities to deal with real and practical challenges.

Three necessary steps for Brexit to spark true societal reform that empowers cities and regions.

As Brexit negotiations enter a delicate phase, it is urgent to think about innovative ways in which Britain can strengthen its economic position while staying true to the political imperative to “take back control” from the European Union. The answer lies in more radical and far-reaching efforts to realise the market and civic potential and leverage the distinctive competitive advantages of U.K. cities and regions.

In February 2017, I visited London for an Inclusive Growth Forum sponsored by the Rowntree Foundation and the Royal Society for the Arts. I had just started writing a book, The New Localism, with Jeremy Nowak to chronicle the structural shift in the way we solve problems in the 21st century: bottom-up rather than top down (led by cities), multi-sectoral rather than exclusively government (driven by networks) and interdisciplinary rather than specialized (drawing from diverse expertise and experiences).

Author and academic Bruce J. Katz, who also served in the first Obama administration as a senior adviser in Housing and Urban Development, explains the concept of New Localism, and how cities and towns must work collaboratively with innovators to deliver products and services that users really want.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, Copenhagen was experiencing a 17.5 percent unemployment rate, a loss of taxing capacity, and an annual budget deficit of $750 million. For decades, government policies had subsidized the outmigration of families to the outskirts of Copenhagen, leaving a city overrepresented by pensioners and college students, neither of whom contributed greatly to the city’s tax revenue. With a stagnant economy and the traditional manufacturing industry moving out, the city government had to do something radical to spur economic growth and attract a strong tax base.

Thirty years ago, the city of Copenhagen was experiencing 17.5 percent unemployment, an outmigration of population, the loss of manufacturing, the decline of taxing capacity, and an annual budget deficit of $750 million. Today, the city has been transformed into one of the wealthiest (and happiest) in the world.