International workshop Venice - March 11-12 1999 Concepts and Paradigms of Urban Management in the Context of Developing Countries
	[ Workshop home page] [ Index of papers]

Katharine Coit (University of Rouen, France)

"Setting up a concerted procedure of urban management- the role of researchers and practitioners"

As a prologue to this contribution concerning the role of researchers and practitioners I would suggest that there is much too big a distance, in some European countries, between the two. Researchers should become involved in practice and practitioners should be able to take time off from their activities for reflection on the consequences of their action. Different types of research -action and participant observers need to be developed. Both need to have an excellent first hand understanding of the context for their contribution to be appropriate.

What research and researchers can offer to improved urban management of course covers a wide field. One of the important contributions is to study specific cases of urban management aimed at improvements to understand their impact and the success and failure by viewing the process from a wide angle taking into consideration social, political, economic and cultural aspects rather than concentrating only on what were the resources, how was the process implemented and whether it attained the specified goals. More specifically they should also study what have been the barriers to greater achievements, what has hampered the process: the conception, faulty implementation, political interference, lack of cooperation of the local authorities and/or the population concerned or a lack of understanding of the culture or of the real problems of the population?

Each situation is unique and has its own particular dynamic. At the same time it is possible from a study of a series of cases to shed light on those elements which can be seen again and again to impede these processes. One of these elements which even a rapid survey of the literature brings to light is very clearly the resistance to change of those with the political and economic power. The power relations within a community have a major impact on how management can affect the different elements of the population. There are often informal and sometimes obscure power structures as well which either support or are rivals to the official managers.

One obvious example of resistance to change is the reluctance or refusal of government authorities to give more than token representation to grass roots groups in spite of much lip service given to participation. Exposure of manipulatory maneuvers is vital.

Another frequent situation is local authorities which are powerless in front of large land owners or major industries or usurious money lenders who evict the squatter settlements, destroy the environment or impoverish the poor. The mechanism by which a few influential individuals have decisive influence over important urban areas is often obscure and needs to be disclosed.

Other political relations which influence urban management are political patronage and "clientalism", corruption, what we call nepotism but which may be considered as essential family solidarity, tensions between different ethnic groups ,religions and classes . These elements should be taken into consideration and counteracted.

To be able to make progress in spite of these obstacles it is essential to understand their nature and the mechanism of control. Abuse of power needs to be exposed. Transparency is essential for concerted procedures in urban management to be effective and equitable.