This session considers the question: how are regions are governed? As such it will promote and provide a critical forum for innovative regional scholarship. It will also provide additional empirical and theoretical material related to UAA panels that consider the state of regional scholarship more broadly (such as Michael Glass’s proposed panel “Current Debates and Practices in Regional Research”). Regions as the subject of scholarly inquiry are important. We know that there are all sorts of mechanisms, formal and informal, through which regional affairs are negotiated and arranged. In the United States, these go by the names of Councils of Governments, Regional Planning Commissions, Mayor’s Caucuses, Regional Coalitions, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Economic Development Districts, and many others. Outside of the U.S. there are a similar range of solutions to the persistent problem of governing across local government boundaries in what is often loosely defined subnational space. Yet, there is only a limited understanding of the ways in which interests and policies are coordinated in the regional ‘spaces’ by these various entities. This session unites contributions that explore theoretical or empirical questions related to how regions are governed. These investigate, and critically assess, emerging or durable structures of regional governance. Other contributions plumb questions about who is represented, how competing interests are mediated, or of the complexities that can undermine (or empower) regional partnerships.
Moderator: Jen Nelles, Hunter College
Determinants or Detriments of Cooperation? Toward an Understanding Regional Council Organizations Suzanne Leland, UNC Charlotte
The Unvarnished Truth about Large Cities' Representation in American Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) Jay Rickabaugh, University of Pittsburgh
Urban Universities as Regionalizing Actors?: University-Led Development and City-Regionalism from the Periphery in Newark, New Jersey Jean-Paul Addie, Georgia State University
