Cities of Europe. Changing Contexts, Local Arrangements and the Challenge to Urban Cohesion

This chapter addresses how the contexts of Cities are changing and how local arrangements try to face the challenge to social cohesion at urban level. In particular the chapter focuses on the distinctiveness of cities in Europe. In order to understand this distinctiveness and the intra-European differences the chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, starting from a relatively abstract level of analysis of how regulatory frames work and from the need to understand how they translate into institutional arrangements, I propose a specific explanatory path. This implies bringing in also not specifically urban issues (e.g. the role of the national State) which are relevant to understand how the distinctive elements of European cities get structured. In the second part I present a typology of institutional arrangements characterizing the different European contexts, focusing in particular on how they structure social responsibilities and redistribute resources. This discussion intersects with the ongoing debates on globalization, governance and the increasing relevance and autonomy of cities in the processes of change. In the third part the proposed explanatory path and the typology of institutional arrangements are connected to some of the changes that are taking place. The attempt is to understand their interaction with the existing regulatory frames and how this influences the directions of change in European cities. In particular, I considered the changing scales of policy intervention, the role of local governments and the way they address the challenges to social cohesion. The conclusions highlight how the increasing relevance of European cities is embedded in comparatively strong national states that provide them with important resources to face these challenges. It is thanks to these resources (institutional, economic, social, cultural,…) that their increased autonomy is able to creatively addresses the challenges even in times of crisis.