A City of One's Own: Blurring the Boundaries Between Private and Public

Abstract

It is often overlooked that the initiatives of private individuals and bodies have always been a major feature of urban governance in English and American cities, before, during and after the heyday of 20th-century Welfare States. This book emphasizes the citizens' continuous participation in a wide range of urban affairs, especially outside institutional frameworks. It brings together an interdisciplinary team of French, British and American academics who examine the long and rich history of participation or partnership in British and American urban life (with occasional reference to France), showing that both private interests and community groups have long been involved in local policies. Taking the concept of governance as the main theoretical framework, the book argues that Western governments and local authorities have always had difficulty defining the borders between the territories of private and public actors and also in defining the boundaries of state intervention and public interest. Focusing on the blurring of these boundaries, this book presents a re-examination of how city's were developed, both past and present.

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