International workshop Venice - March 11-12 1999 Concepts and Paradigms of Urban Management in the Context of Developing Countries
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Alain Durand-Lasserve (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

"Current concepts and paradigms of urban management in developing countries. A European contribution?"

Convergence in diagnosis and responses

1. The network: « Innovative Practices and Emerging Concepts for Sustainable Urban Management in Developing Countries - a European Contribution », formed with the support of the European Science Foundation, came into being as a result of an observation made frequently by European researchers and professionals working on urban issues in the developing countries: for over ten years, we have seen a surprising convergence both in the diagnosis of problems posed by urbanisation in the developing countries, and in the responses to these problems, whether they be intervention strategies in the urban sector, national action programmes or urban projects.

2. This convergence of approaches is evident on several levels:

• in the intervention programmes of international finance institutions and multilateral aid agencies;
• in the cooperation programmes of regional institutions, and here I am thinking in particular of the European Commission;
• in bilateral co-operation programmes in northern countries, despite considerable differences between one country and another; and hence, indirectly
• in research and training programmes in most academic institutions.

3. Indeed, conformity to such diagnosis and responses is often considered by those involved in research and other experts as the key point for gaining access to funding (budgets for training, teaching and research; acces to research and consultancy contracts). As a result, we can observe surprising similarities in the content of most university department programmes in Europe working on urban issues in developing countries. The 1999 Master's programme in many European research and teaching institutions emphasising Governance, Partnership, Poverty Alleviation, Participatory Development, Environmental Policy, etc. is a striking example of conceptual copycats. Even we in the ESF Network have not escaped the pressure of orthodoxy and fashionable vocabulary (« ...sustainable urban management »).

Focus on market oriented strategies

4. The convergence of diagnoses and responses had as its starting point a similarly converging analysis as to the role of the city in economic development and the certainty that an increase in urban productivity would result from the unfettered development of the market through privatisation, deregulation, decentralisation and improvements in the financial system. So-called corrective measures and safety nets are supposed to lessen the social and environmental effects of these policies.

5. This convergence of diagnosis and responses is illustrated, at international level, by the adoption of a standardised vocabulary combined with references to the same notions and concepts:

• Economic liberalisation and promotion of the market economy: productivity, efficiency, privatisation, competitiveness, private sector participation, bankability, cost recovery;
• Disengagement of the central State and decentralisation: governance, municipalisation, local development;
• Democratisation: transparency, accountability;
• Improvements in management capacity, especially at local level: capacity building;
• Environmental concerns: environmental policies and sustainability;
• Promoting new partnerships: participation, public/private partnership, including projects with informal stakeholders, CBOs and NGOs;
• Accompanying policies / social policies / safety nets: social justice, equity (including gender equity), poverty alleviation, livability. The normative nature of this vocabulary is highlighted by the use of subjective and ambiguous adjectives with a positive connotation. They add further confusion to the debate : good (good practices, good governance, etc.), relevant, effective, efficient, equitable.

6. This vocabulary is by no means neutral: it is part of the standard discourse on the city and urban management that we hear in international institutions providing development aid. It is for the most part inspired by liberal political economy theories; relations between urban actors are mainly seen as being organised around the supply and demand relationship, but the related political question of wealth distribution is never examined, as such. It is also very unusual to find that strategic choices and urban policies take into account - or are based on - analysis of relationships between urban stakeholders, their dynamic and their intervention strategy. It is rather as if we admitted that there is only one single « good », rational, efficient urban management model. The vocabulary of reference in this matter remains that which the World Bank has gradually formalised since the beginning of the 1980s.

7. As a political scientist recently stated, one of the main principles underlying this discourse is the « the will to curb politics, while reinforcing the choice of liberal economy standards and the search for simplicity ». In order get round the problem of politics with which they have been confronted, international institutions «have called on political economy theories which tend to depoliticise perceptions and interpretations», namely the « new political economy », the new-institutionalist analysis, and the theories of civil society. Political actors are analysed as economic actors. This predominant discourse « reflects a political and moral position which uses watered-down scientific theses to legitimise itself ».

8. However, this situation is neither static nor homogenous.

• - Without calling into question the dogma of the market which culminated in the mid 1990's, the World Bank's urban strategy shift of last two decades can be characterised by: (i) the abandoning of sectorial approaches; (ii) increased attention paid to the question of urban poverty, social cohesion and the environment, (iii) the search for new partnerships.
• Although the majority of the terms and concepts used by international experts (and by most researchers) refer to urban management models based on market dynamics, to the detriment of political and social dynamics, we also need to stress the very marked differences in the use of these terms (and in particular in the place they are given in theses institutions discourses and statements) according to the institutions employing them. In particular, there are differences between the World Bank, UN institutions and programmes (UNCHS-Habitat, UNEP, UNRISD, UNESCO's MOST Programme) and the European Commission, whose intervention strategy for urban development is still being defined.

The need for a critical debate

9. Similarities in the vocabulary do not simply reflect the search for a common language. They reflect an institutional leadership. Almost everywhere, they are pushed on and relayed by professional interests, those of researchers and experts. Rather than engage in a critical debate on the relevance of these concepts and notions, the debate revolves more often around their definition (almost 60 different definitions of the notion of sustainable development have been counted). Exegesis is tending to replace critical reflection.

10. Measures promoted by the World Bank to reconcile profitability objectives and objectives of sustainability and social justice today make up the framework of debate and action of the United Nations organisations system dealing with aid and cooperation programmes for urban development. An implicit division of labour has been established, with organisations within the UN system overseeing the social and environmental parts of these measures, and the World Bank holding the undisputed leadership in relation to strategic orientation and economic choices.

11. We nevertheless observe that reflection and debate about the cooperation policies of international institutions in the urban sector is not static. It evolves in 10-year cycles: formalization of an intervention strategy in the urban sector (often based on the formalization of experiences and empirical practices); implementation; critical evaluation of the limitations of these strategies; reformulation of a strategy in order to correct negative social effects of policies; etc.

12. Clearly the predominant model is in a state of crisis. The main international institutions involved in cooperation programmes for urban development have become critical of their own actions, in particular of the perverse social effects of their aid and lending policies, and aware of the limitations of an urban development strategy predominatly - if not exclusively - based on market mechanisms. They are all now attempting to reassess their strategy and redefine priorities (World Bank, UNCHS-Habitat). The same debate is going on in several European countries, in Government institutions in charge of cooperation with the developing countries: in France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands and others. At regional level, the countries of the European Union have come together to define a common strategy. All this is indicative both of the current limits of urban development strategies and policies and the need to renew them.

The role and input of the European research

13. What interpretation can we put on the striking convergence of analyses and responses? There are two hypotheses that can be proposed:

• If these analyses and responses tend to be widely adopted, it is because they have shown that they are and that they remain the best (in terms of matching means to objectives). It is therefore logical that the various professional categories dealing with urban issues - including researchers - will acknowledge their relevance and efficiency.
• A second hypothesis is that the international institutions which define development aid strategies and policies occupy a sufficiently strong position to impose on the various professional groups concerned (decision-makers, politicians, experts, researchers, etc.) their reference models, their analyses, their diagnoses and their responses. The correct response probably lies somewhere between the two, or to be more precise in the interaction between them. This is one of the questions that this workshop must try and clarify.

14. It is in this context that a growing number of European researchers, experts, professionals and decision-makers feel the need to renew reflection on appropriate urban development strategies, policies and practices and thus to question their underlying models and concepts. The seminar also aims to accompany this reflection: Is the European research community able to bring something other than an improved replication of models and concepts conveyed by international expertise? On what basis? With what legitimacy?

15. Even if the « Urban Development Policy » paper of the European Commission finds it difficult to step back from the predominant orthodoxy, it reveals a new will to bring responses which are not strictly utilitarist and functionalist to the problems of urban development; new preoccupations are emerging, especially in the comments formulated on the draft paper by representatives of the member states. They stress the need for a more forceful debate on the role of the State, on the question of relations between the public sector and private actors.

16. The definition of a European cooperation policy for urban development in the developing countries is likely to open up a new field of investigation in which European research can play a major role. European countries have a rich and diversified urban experience to share regarding urban management, the management of interaction between market logics and society's needs, and cooperation for urban development. As researchers and experts, we must move from a passive attitude, to a critical and constructive attitude. We must restore and promote a political economy of the city.

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