IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v38y2001i11p1953-1971.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rescuing Aunt Sally: Taking Institutional Theory Seriously in Urban Politics

Author

Listed:
  • Vivien Lowndes

    (Department of Public Policy, De Montfort University, Scraptoft Campus, Leicester, LE79SU, UK, vlowndes@dmu.ac.uk)

Abstract

The sub-discipline of 'urban politics' has been constructed in opposition to a traditional version of 'institutional theory'-an approach that collapsed the political processes affecting urban communities with the workings of elected local government. Attention has shifted towards the broader influences on local decision-making and to the growing fragmentation of urban government and the rise of 'partnerships'. The article argues that recent developments, far from signifying the last gasp of 'institutionalism', call for a reformulated theory of the (diverse) institutional constraints within which urban political processes operate. Drawing on insights from the 'new institutionalism', the article discusses processes of institutional change and differentiation ; the underlying shift from strong to weak forms of institutional constraint; and the challenges involved in redesigning local political institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Vivien Lowndes, 2001. "Rescuing Aunt Sally: Taking Institutional Theory Seriously in Urban Politics," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(11), pages 1953-1971, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:38:y:2001:i:11:p:1953-1971
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980120080871
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980120080871
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980120080871?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Colin Hay & Daniel Wincott, 1998. "Structure, Agency and Historical Institutionalism," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 46(5), pages 951-957, December.
    2. Geoffrey Dudley & Jeremy Richardson, 1998. "Arenas without Rules and the Policy Change Process: Outsider Groups and British Roads Policy," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 46(4), pages 727-747, September.
    3. King, Desmond, 1995. "Actively Seeking Work?," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226436227, October.
    4. Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R., 1996. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms," MPIfG Discussion Paper 96/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gillian Bristow & Tom Entwistle & Frances Hines & Steve Martin, 2008. "New Spaces for Inclusion? Lessons from the ‘Three‐Thirds’ Partnerships in Wales," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 903-921, December.
    2. Valeria Guarneros‐Meza, 2009. "Mexican Urban Governance: How Old and New Institutions Coexist and Interact," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 463-482, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raitio, Kaisa, 2013. "Discursive institutionalist approach to conflict management analysis — The case of old-growth forest conflicts on state-owned land in Finland," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 97-103.
    2. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    3. Sascha Zirra, 2010. "The Bounded Creativity of Domestic Appropriation Explaining Selective Flexicurity in Continental Countries," Les Cahiers européens de Sciences Po 2, Centre d'études européennes (CEE) at Sciences Po, Paris.
    4. Garcia Calvo, Angela & Coulter, Steve, 2022. "Crisis, what crisis? Industrial strategies and path dependencies in four European countries after the crash," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106497, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Amy Sanders, 2023. "Examining How Equalities Nonprofit Organizations Approach Policy Influencing to Achieve Substantive Representation in Sub-State Government Policymaking," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-27, February.
    6. Rudie Hulst & André Montfort & Arto Haveri & Jenni Airaksinen & Josephine Kelly, 2009. "Institutional Shifts In Inter-Municipal Service Delivery," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 263-285, September.
    7. Mohamad-Yusof, Nor Zalina & Wickramasinghe, Danture & Zaman, Mahbub, 2018. "Corporate governance, critical junctures and ethnic politics: Ownership and boards in Malaysia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 33-52.
    8. Klimov, Blagoy, 2010. "Challenging path dependence? Ideational mapping of nationalism and the EU’s transformative power: The case of infrastructural politics in SEE," MPRA Paper 30985, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Yefimov, Vladimir, 2009. "Comparative historical institutional analysis of German, English and American economics," MPRA Paper 48173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Maarten Hillebrandt, 2017. "Transparency as a Platform for Institutional Politics: The Case of the Council of the European Union," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(3), pages 62-74.
    11. repec:mje:mjejnl:v:12:y:2017:i:2:p:25-70 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    13. Sophie Jacquot & Cornelia Woll, 2003. "Usage of European Integration - Europeanisation from a Sociological Perspective," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-01019642, HAL.
    14. Streeck, Wolfgang, 2009. "Institutions in history: Bringing capitalism back in," MPIfG Discussion Paper 09/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    15. Kaplan Yilmaz, 2017. "China’s OBOR as a Geo-Functional Institutionalist Project," TalTech Journal of European Studies, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 7-23, June.
    16. Simon Guy & John Henneberry, 2000. "Understanding Urban Development Processes: Integrating the Economic and the Social in Property Research," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(13), pages 2399-2416, December.
    17. Füsun Kökalan Çımrın & Zafer Durdu, 2017. "Indirect welfare regime practices and transformation of social security system of Turkey after 1980," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(6), pages 2781-2792, November.
    18. Niamh Hardiman, 2007. "Governing the Economy," Working Papers 200739, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    19. Michal Ovádek, 2021. "Procedural Politics Revisited: Institutional Incentives and Jurisdictional Ambiguity in EU Competence Disputes," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(6), pages 1381-1399, November.
    20. Stroh, Alexander & Elischer, Sebastian & Erdmann, Gero, 2012. "Origins and Outcomes of Electoral Institutions in African Hybrid Regimes: A Comparative Perspective," GIGA Working Papers 197, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    21. Salla Eilola & Lalisa Duguma & Niina Käyhkö & Peter A. Minang, 2021. "Coalitions for Landscape Resilience: Institutional Dynamics behind Community-Based Rangeland Management System in North-Western Tanzania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:38:y:2001:i:11:p:1953-1971. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.