Constructing Narratives for City Governance

Edited by Alistair Cole, Professor of Political Science, Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, Aisling Healy, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Triangle (UMR CNRS 5206) and Christelle Morel Journel, Assistant Professor of Geography, EVS-Isthme (UMR CNRS 5600), Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France

Contents:

1 Introduction to the role of urban narratives: governing the
(re)making of cities 1
Alistair Cole, Aisling Healy and Christelle Morel Journel
2 Confronting the Pittsburgh narrative: renaissance, renewal
and the tension of authenticity 17
Sabina Deitrick and Michael R. Glass
3 Saint-Étienne: from the modest to the creative city or the
ongoing search for a convincing urban narrative 31
Christelle Morel Journel and Georges Gay
4 Rescaling urban entrepreneurialism: England’s Northern
Powerhouse as a multi-city economic narrative 48
Danny MacKinnon
5 ‘Braddock America’: building a narrative on a mayor’s charisma 64
Christelle Morel Journel and Aisling Healy
6 Socio-genesis of a private government: Greater Lyon’s
narrative of the ‘metropolitan governance’ of economic
development policies 82
Aisling Healy
7 The ‘Smart City’ between urban narrative and empty
signifier: the case of Hong Kong 100
Alistair Cole, Calvin Lai Ming Tsun, Dionysios Stivas and Emilie Tran
8 “Witness to history”: narratives of resistance and
resilience in Lyon and Pittsburgh 123
Dan Holland

References 137
Index