Contracting with Citizens: How Morals, Politics, and Laws Shape Cities

by E.W. (Michiel) Stapper

Overview

This book demonstrates that contracts, community intermediaries, and participatory processes are closely interlinked, and they can change urban politics.

In participatory processes, residents negotiate with policymakers about the future of their neighborhood. In the last few decades, this happened increasingly in co-creation sessions where citizens are deemed to have an equal position vis-a-vis developers and civil servants. The goal of this book is to understand and theorize how these negotiations affect collective action. The book will scrutinize the role of contracts, community intermediaries, and participatory processes in development projects and planning policies. Using a comparative case study of Amsterdam, Hamburg, and New York, this book reveals how seemingly fresh and novel planning practices are used to justify processes of capital accumulation and reveals how morals, politics, and law can create institutional change.

The book presents a novel theoretical approach to studying urban politics, putting emphasis on (private) law and the material arrangements of participatory processes. It will be of interest to researchers and students of planning, geography, sociology, public administration, and law and will provide valuable lessons for practitioners interested in understanding the effects of contractual governance on neighborhoods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040366677
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/17/2025
Series:	Routledge Research in Planning and Urban Design
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	174
File size:	588 KB

About the Author

E.W. (Michiel) Stapper has a position as an assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Planning, and International Development Studies at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His research interests lie in the intersection of cities, society, and the law. In 2020, he was awarded a Horizon Europe project as PI, investigating how the European Green Deal affects and involves marginalized communities. In 2023, he was awarded a Dutch Starter Grant for a project that conducts a socio-legal study of large-scale climate plans in the United States, European Union, Japan, and Korea.

Table of Contents

List of tables

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Urban Ordering

1.1 Participation, Community Intermediaries, and Contracts

1.2 Institutional Change in Amsterdam, Hamburg And New York

1.3 Overview of The Book

Chapter 2: Research Strategy

2.1 Qualitative Strategy

2.2 Selection of Cities

2.3 Selection of Development Projects

2.4 Data Collection

2.5 Notes on Studying Contracts

Chapter 3: The Shifting of Orders

3.1 Planning Orders in Amsterdam

3.2 Planning Orders in Hamburg

3.2 Planning Orders in New York

3.4 Comparing Municipal Orders

3.5 Resistance from Below

Chapter 4: Institutional Contradictions and Change in Urban Politics

4.1 Institutional Contradictions

4.2 Moral Categories and Artifacts

4.3 Somewhere in Between the Private and the Public

4.4 From Rules to Enforcements

4.5 The Mechanics of Urban Politics

Chapter 5: Morals in the City: True Spokespersons and Principles

5.1 The City Planners Plan

5.2 Educating the Residents

5.3 The Residents Take Charge

5.4 The Moral Thread in Urban Politics

Chapter 6: Politics in the City: The Forming of Publics

6.1 Co-Option and Displacement

6.2 A Time for Compromise

6.3 The Political Thread in Urban Politics

Chapter 7: Law in the City: The Many Faces of Contracts

7.1 Neue Mitte Altona

7.2 Oostenburg-Noord

7.3 Kingsbridge Armory

7.4 Codifying Residents’ Principles

7.5 The Legal Thread In Urban Politics

Chapter 8: Conclusion

8.1 How Morals, Politics, And Law Shape Urban Politics

8.2 A New Register Gaining Traction

8.3 A Research Agenda

8.4 A Policy Agenda

Index