Joyeeta Gupta

Hebe Verrest

Karin Pfeffer

Mirjam Ros-Tonen

With a current population inflow into cities of 200,000 people per day, UN Habitat expects that up to 75% of the global population will live in cities by 2050. Influenced by forces of globalization and global change, cities and urban life are transforming rapidly, impacting human welfare, economic development and urban-regional landscapes. This poses new challenges to urban governance, while emerging city networks, advancing geo-technologies and increasing production of continuous data streams require governance actors to re-think and re-work conventional work processes and practices. This book has been written to enhance our understanding of how governance can contribute to the development of just and resilient cities in a context of rapid urban transformations. It examines current governance patterns from a geographical and inclusive development perspective, emphasizing the importance of place, space, scale and human-environment interactions, and paying attention to contemporary processes of participation, networking, and spatialized digitization. The challenge we are facing is to turn future cities into inclusive cities that are diverse but just and within their ecological limits. We believe that the state-of-the-art overview of topical discussions on governance theories, instruments, methods and practices presented in this book provides a basis for understanding and analyzing these challenges.

Advanced Theories, Methods and Practices

Geographies of Urban Governance

Poor urban households in the economic 'south' deploy various livelihood activities. One of these is a Home-Based Economic Activity (HBEA), e.g. sales of home-made snacks or car maintenance. This study examines the prevalence, organisation and relevance of HBEAs in four neighbourhoods in the Caribbean cities Paramaribo (Suriname) and Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago). Recent economic developments in these countries diverge; Suriname recovers slowly from a crisis while Trinidad and Tobago's economy is buoyant. These economic features together with local political developments have produced distinct institutional contexts. This gives ground for a comparison between the two cities. In addition, the study discusses the relevance of currently popular policies on entrepreneurship and micro-finance. The above issues have been assessed through use of multiple quantitative and qualitative methods. The study shows that forty percent of households in the examined neighbourhoods earn money through operating HBEAs. These are mainly operated by women and assist households in improving their livelihoods from a level of survival to a level of security. Most HBEA-operators aim at earning additional incomes and reducing vulnerability. Only a small group meets the image of the classic operator who innovates, takes risk and aims at growth and profit. The two groups organize their HBEA in very distinct ways. Differences between Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago are small. First of all economic growth has limited impact on assets and vulnerability of low-income groups. Moreover, policies aiming at stimulation of entrepreneurship such as micro-credit are relevant to classic entrepreneurs and not to the largegroup of security-seeking HBEA-operators.

Hebe Verrest

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