Call for Papers: IGU Commission on Geography of Governance - Annual Conference - Lisbon, Portugal, April 2012
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CALL FOR PAPERS
IGU Commission on Geography of Governance
Annual Conference 2012
NEW CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL GOVERNANCE
Lisbon, 12-14 April 2012
Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Lisbon, Portugal
The Annual Conference of the IGU Commission on Geography of
Governance, to be held in Lisbon, in April 2012, will explore some of
the current problems and future challenges and opportunities in local
governance.
We welcome submissions on any aspect of the broad area of local
governance, but would particularly encourage papers on two main
themes:
• A) The impact of the Economic and Financial Crisis on Local
Governance; • B) Citizen e-Participation in Urban Governance.
Papers may address issues related to one of these two themes, or other
issues related to other aspects of local governance, by examining
theoretical, methodological, and/or empirical issues. Please, do not
hesitate to discuss with us any ideas that you might have for a paper
on these or on other topics.
MAIN THEMES
A. The impact of the Economic and Financial Crisis on Local Governance
The conference will explore the impact of the present economic and
financial crisis on local governance, as well as the role local
governance can play in the mitigation and in the overcome of these,
geographically uneven, social and economic effects. We welcome both
country reports and cross-country perspectives on the new challenges
faced by local governance.
Among other topics, we would like to address the following issues:
• The impact of the financial and economic crisis on local governance
structures • The economic and financial crisis as a driver of local
government reforms • The influence of the present financial
constraints on the local government finance system, on revenues,
expenditures and financing capacities • Short term and long term
measures adopted by central and local governments to cope with
financial scarcity at the local level • The relation between the
public debt crisis and the ability of local government to fulfill its
social responsibilities within the welfare state • The impact of local
government cuts on urban regeneration, on the provision of social
housing, public transport, and on other municipal policies •
Sustainable financing for urban development • Local public sector:
municipal and inter-municipal enterprises • Public-private
partnerships • Privatization of local public services •
Re-municipalization of local public services • The role of
inter-municipal cooperation • Metropolitan government reforms •
Abolition of regional and local administrative tiers and merger
reforms • Changes in central-local relations • Ethics in Local
Governance • Researching the crisis and its effects: insights from
public statistics and the problem of public data gaps • Alternatives
to neo-liberal approaches to local government reform • Local
governance and Spatial Justice • Fiscal stress and urban innovation •
The crisis as an opportunity for new models of Local Governance
B. Citizen e-Participation in Urban Governance
Citizen participation in local government policy-making has been
influenced, in different ways and with different outcomes, by the
extensive use of information and communication technologies. With the
advent of Web 2.0, a whole range of new possibilities emerged in the
field of citizen participation in urban governance. This process has
been empirically described and interpreted from different
perspectives. The conference aims to enhance discussion on this
rapidly moving issue and research field and to offer an updated
account of these different perspectives, as well as of new
cutting-edge methods and tools that have been employed to advance
citizen engagement in local government policy-making.
In this Conference, we aim to explore and to discuss groundbreaking
research in citizen participation in urban governance, in particular
in the field of urban planning.
Among other issues the Conference aims to address the following topics:
• Theories and models of citizen (e-) participation in local public
policies • Methods and tools for citizen (e-) participation research •
Online and Offline citizen participation in local governance:
comparative perspectives • Digital governance • Citizens as Voluntary
Sensors in Urban Governance • Volunteered Geographic Information for
Urban Governance • Neo-Geography and Urban Governance • Urban
Governance in the Ubiquitous City (U-City) • Urban Governance 2.0 •
Crowd-sourcing in Urban Governance • e-Planning and Urban Governance •
Municipal e-Democracy
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
One of the expected outcomes of the conference is the publication of
an edited book and a selection of papers in peer-reviewed scholarly
journals. Plans have been made for a special issue in the
"International Journal of E-Planning Research" and in "Lex Localis:
Journal of Local Self-Government", and a Symposium in "The American
Review of Public Administration". The selected manuscripts will
undergo the standard peer review process of these journals.
We hope the conference will also provide the opportunity for the
creation and/or reinforcement of inter-disciplinary research networks
among members of the Commission and new participants, which might lead
to future joint research projects.
ORGANIZATION
All colleagues interested to participate in the conference are invited
to submit, by e-mail, a 200 word abstract, by no later than 15
December 2011, to:
Carlos Nunes Silva
Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning
University of Lisbon
Cidade Universitária
Av. Prof. Gama Pinto
1649‐003 Lisboa
Portugal
E-mail: cs@campus.ul.pt
Conference website: https://sites.google.com/site/nc4lglisbon2012/home
