Partnerships for Demolition: The Governance of Urban Renewal in East Germany's Shrinking Cities

Recent discussions of urban governance have emphasized a trend towards the ‘entrepreneurialization’ of local politics. This model has been intensively discussed and well documented. However, although this concept has been well tested in economically prosperous locations, less attention has been paid to the situation in marginalized regions characterized by a weak economy and a declining population. Taking eastern Germany as an example of a socio-economic context marked by deindustrialization and population decline, the article discusses three main aspects of local governance arrangements under such conditions. First ‘coping with decline’ has become a more important issue in local politics than ‘entrepreneurial’ growth-strategies. Second, successful public–private coalition-building is severely complicated. Third, local politics are more dependent on resources from the national government than on private investment, lending greater significance to the national level and resulting in ‘grant coalitions’ rather than ‘growth coalitions’. The article focuses on these different experiences and discusses their implications for the analysis of urban governance. Resume De recentes discussions sur la gouvernance urbaine ont mis en evidence une tendance ‘entrepreneuriale’ de la politique locale. Ce modele a ete largement analyse et documente. Toutefois, meme si ce concept a ete mis a l'epreuve sur des sites d'economie prospere, on s'est moins interessea la situation dans des regions marginalisees caracterisees par une economie faible et une population en declin. Prenant l'Allemagne de l'Est comme exemple de contexte socio-economique marque par la desindustrialisation et le declin demographique, l'article y examine trois grands aspects des dispositifs de gouvernance locale. Premierement, ‘gerer le declin’ est devenu une priorite de la politique locale plus pregnante que les strategies de croissance ‘entrepreneuriales’. Deuxiemement, les coalitions public-prive performantes sont extremement difficiles a constituer. Troisiemement, la politique locale depend davantage des ressources gouvernementales nationales que de l'investissement prive, ce qui confere une predominance au niveau national et genere des ‘coalitions de subventionnement’ au lieu de ‘coalitions de croissance’. En s'interessant a ces differentes experiences, l'article examine leurs implications dans l'analyse de la gouvernance urbaine.