Contingent governance and the enabling city

Abstract

Focusing on the past two decades, Gerard Wigmans charts a fundamental change of approach in urban politics. The new model of urban policy, based on an "entrepreneurial" or "network" system of governance - as opposed to the previous hierarchical model - concentrates efforts on the city's economic re-branding and revitalisation, and has been instrumental in achieving positive social change. It is interesting to set this work in relation to Paul Stouten's analysis of the experience of large post-industrial cities in the Netherlands ( City , Vol. 4, No. 3, 2000). Wigmans argues that, in adopting practices of "contingent governance", the city's authorities have reacted appropriately to post-modern conditions. Pre-empting criticisms of an "anything goes" approach to city management, he concludes that "If there could be a supreme objective, then it has to be the agreement that plurality is always better than uniformity and consensus."

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