Contracting with Citizens: how morals, politics and laws shape cities
Michiel Stapper
Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam
Urban development has increasingly become a site of negotiation between government agencies, commercial parties and residents. Public meetings have been replaced by co-creation sessions, were residents negotiate with government agencies and developers. Contracts are increasingly replacing public law as the main legal tool to steer urban development; contracts are flexible and will reflect the needs of negotiators. Community intermediaries – such as planning consultants and neighborhood organizations – have gained traction as the representatives of residents, often at the cost of democratically elected officials. In the book: Contracting with Citizens, how morals, politics, and laws shape cities I describe how these processes transform urban politics.
I argue, that justified through the notion that these negotiation processes enhance democratic practices, it has become an integral part of most urban development processes. Yet, these processes are not merely democratic but they are deeply embedded in broader, moral, political and legal processes that structure how urban change unfolds. Bringing together insights from urban sociology, spatial planning and socio-legal studies, the book argues that contracts, community, intermediaries, and participatory processes are coordination mechanisms that mediate collection action and urban governance.
Through a comparative study of Amsterdam, Hamburg, and New York, I examine how these mechanisms shape and are shaped by a wider processes of capital accumulation. At the core of the book lays the argument that contracts are not neutral administrative tools, but are deeply political and moral. Those residents that can negotiate agreements are seen as ‘good residents’. This privileges entrepreneurial citizens, citizens that can negotiate, set up projects and be creative. This has the risk of reproducing social inequalities – through processes that are designed to be democratic.
I illustrate this through cases in Amsterdam, Hamburg, and New York. Three cities with long histories of participatory action. Using examples from Hamburg, I show how social movements create opportunities for novel participatory processes. In Amsterdam, I describe the story of a participation strike, revealing how deeply political the legal tools such as zoning plans and contracts are. Furthermore, the case of New York is used to show how community intermediaries can bring divide and bring together divided neighborhoods.
The book offers a novel approach to studying urban politics. The book argues that processes of capital accumulation and social privileges often structure development processes. However, it also highlights which planning practices and legal tools can help to make cities more democratic.
