Abstract
Usually turning a PhD thesis into a monograph does not present a worthy stand-alone contribution to the literature as it reflects the requirements of that degree. However, this volume, based on a dissertation, is different. Thibert has published a well-rounded book which, although transparently derived from his doctoral research, is readable, accessible, and extends our understanding of how metropolitan regions in North America are created, operate, and deliver when its constituent parts work together. The structure of the thesis is transferred to the book, with the literature review producing research questions and hypotheses before the methodology is introduced and the analysis undertaken. However, again, by using a mixed methods approach that covers both sophisticated quantitative regression and detailed case studies, interest is maintained and the narrative holds attention throughout.
From a grounded perspective, literally being inspired to traverse the territory of one of his case studies on foot, Thibert argues that former regionalist projects based on “good regional governance through amalgamation” (i) have been abandoned. In their place, he traces the evolution of voluntary collaborations and cooperations between authorities and agencies of many North American metropolitan regions. He identifies and analyzes the outcomes in regional collaborations and what and who might be the major drivers of apparent successes. He challenges the notion that regional social, economic, and environmental issues can be addressed without formal government structures at the metropolitan regional—a core principle of the New Regionalism. This multigovernance solution parallels many of the initiatives in the European Union, where “Operational Programs” to deliver regional structural funds are coordinated by regional managing authorities of appointed members who are responsible to directly elected local and governmental administrations, though. He identifies the leading players in many initiatives and collaborative projects, but avoids ascribing success or failure to one leading player. Process is stressed as core to the evolution of partnerships and networking. Thus, this book is not about evaluation of any particular scheme or era but rather about the evolution of relationships among places, and between core and hinterland authorities especially. Interest in and promotion of city-regions in parts of Europe, therefore, could have been compared and contrasted with the dynamic experiences explored here, especially apposite given the migration of such academic concepts and policy practices across the ocean.
Consistent with the recent regionalist agenda, Thibert investigates whether collaboration in a metropolitan region promotes regional resilience, enhancing policy outcomes. His in-depth examination of others’ and his own interviews with key players and of key documents over quite extended periods offers important insights into the different modes of cooperation. These focus on the San Francisco Bay Area (where he titles the specific chapter “Regional Collaboration from Cradle to Cradle,” confirming the successive generations of regional governance models), the Greater Montreal (titled “Region-hood without Regionalism,” capturing the transient nature of many collaborations), and transnational Niagara–Buffalo regions (“Regionalism, Governance and Resilience across Borders,” giving an entry into different issues where two national, federal, and local systems meet). Having assessed and supervised a number of PhD theses that have followed a similar course in the United Kingdom and Europe, though usually on single study areas, to me there are obvious echoes of other research landscapes beyond these North American cases. However, by managing to pack several examples into this research efficiently but without sacrificing detail, Thibert allows analyses to be made through time and space most effectively. He explores direct and indirect impacts of interventions, partnerships, and analogous forms of formalized networking at the regional and state/provincial levels, albeit with quite extensive use of long footnotes that might have been incorporated into the main body of the text in some places. As with the comparable studies from other contexts, there is coverage of bottom-up, state-mandated, and functional collaboration and cooperation within the regions selected for examination. This analysis is informed by literature from planning, policy, and other fields—indeed the author’s inclusion of disciplines, indicators, and actors is broad and encourages confidence in the methods adopted. However, it is noteworthy that the literature on partnerships, networks and social capital are neglected in this book, while they would be expected in, for example, the European sphere of research. Similarly, some of our own work has discussed the threat of isomorphism in closer ties between agents, with consensus building undermining progress through competition (Cameron and Danson 2000). The creation of shadow effects has also been observed where core cities apply strong centripetal effects and so dominate their peripheries to the detriment of smaller cities and towns. Some examples are revealed in this volume where the looser collaborations offer greater powers to the participating authorities to withdraw when costs of continuing membership seem to be excessive, whereas top–down imposed cooperation can lead to continuing uneven development.
Therefore, the book considers the significance of different histories, legacies, cultures, and norms by carefully examining the extent to which regional awareness is a determinant of different development paths and how higher levels of government and civic capital influence outcomes. A major aim is to assess forensically how all these factors in multilevel governance impact on environmental preservation, socioeconomic integration and economic competitiveness, and so whether and how degrees of collaboration and cooperation promote positive achievements.
What stands out from Thibert’s volume are the differences between regions in their successes with their efforts at building models of collaboration and cooperation locally. These are analyzed by careful application of a range of techniques to metropolitan regions in Canada and the United States, with detailed and comprehensive dissection of the particular cases of the San Francisco Bay area, Montreal, and two smaller urban regions straddling the border between the two countries around Niagara and Buffalo. For someone undertaking a parallel exercise in Europe, a different perspective to the analysis could be envisaged, with a need to acknowledge that the European Union and national governance frameworks and constitutions present a wide range, but also suggested or required, models of regionalism. Thus, the literature and discussions Thibert uses are drawn overwhelmingly from North America, which is not a problem, but it does bring out the nature and form of the differences on the two sides of the Atlantic. It would be interesting, therefore, if the concept of “virtual regions,” introduced and applied by Herrschel (2012), had been recognised in the study of cross-border Niagara–Buffalo. Similarly, the lessons from Greater Montreal could have been contrasted with the plans for Greater Manchester in England where the concept of a powerful mayor for a city region is being proposed by the national government.
After his dissection of the formation, development, and success of collaborations in these three regions, Thibert summarizes the lessons in two concluding chapters. In comparing the documentary and interview evidence, he argues that the central state has a critical role to play in initiating, enabling, financing, and lending credibility to regional collaborations; and each of these are particularly significant given the natural inherent reluctance for lower levels to lose powers to others at the same or higher levels in the hierarchy. Nevertheless, there are often opportunities and essential roles for policy entrepreneurs to assume active roles in these collaborations, though the state is usually essential in ensuring that policies are enacted. Counter to this, it is demonstrated that there are often negative impacts of top–down strategic interventions, with limited or nonsustained partnerships on the one hand, and ineffective but planned collaborations on the other, fooling local elected officials that by acting together they are “tackling the region’s metropolitan problems and making a difference,” even when nothing is actually being achieved (229).
In his final comments, Thibert returns to a key argument he has followed throughout: the process of collaboration may be more important as an outcome in the long run than any movement toward regionalism itself. By extension, he then suggests that crisis is required to promote effective regional collaboration by policy makers and other interested groups, recognizing the common problem and so being able to take advantage of shared knowledge and practice across the region. As an urban planner, with a key interest in environmental issues and protection, he identifies natural disasters and catastrophes through climate change as being potential drivers for regional collaboration. In concluding that “trust and good will” are essential in successful collaboration and cooperation, and that these cannot be imposed, his findings are consistent with those in other studies of industrial clusters, partnership working, and coherent economies and societies.
This book is engaging, deepens the literature from a position informed by being an active urban planner, and provides a contribution that enlightens the reader on the three specific examples while also offering wider insights and opportunities for further research and understanding. The potential to research contrasts and similarities between models and practices of governance within and between North America and Europe are also enhanced by this study. This book should be of interest, and a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf, of urban and regional analysts in academia and in policy-making circles. It should be consulted at least by early career researchers, master’s, and doctoral students in planning, economic geography, and urban and regional studies as a model of how to transform their dissertation into a book with impact.