Strategic adaptation of city-regions in federal systems: comparing Canada and the United States

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the institutional resilience and adaptability of industrialized mid-sized city-regions nested within multitiered federal systems. The wider context of the discussion is the complex and shifting boundaries of subnational territorial politics as spaces of governance, and the attendant dynamic political organization of space amidst ongoing economic shifts and perturbations. The empirical focus is an in-depth comparative case study of two city-regions in Canada and the United States to explore the mechanics of institutional adaptation in the face of economic changes over the past few decades. Revisiting the concept of path dependency as a framework for understanding regional economic development governance, the discussion shifts the analytical focus from explaining stability to accounting for change. It also expands the analytical scope of urban policy governance platforms to shed a greater light on the complex multitiered institutional infrastructure of city-regions nested within federal systems as they seek to navigate through the challenges and opportunities of socioeconomic change.

KEYWORDS:

• resilience
• path dependence
• city-regions
• local governance
• regional governance
• local and regional economic development
• multilevel governance
• federalism

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Interview with a local economic development officer in Niagara’s 12 municipalities.

2 Interview with a Niagara regional official, March 2017.

3 Interview with an official at the Finger Lakes regional council.

4 Interview with a senior official at GRE.

5 Interview with a senior GRE official, January 2016.

6 Interview with an ESDC official, January 2016.