New governance institutions in the entrepreneurial urban region

The ability of the entrepreneurial urban region to function and thrive in the contemporary economy depends on the acquisition and maintenance of new political and economic capacities and new institutions and practices, which will enable that urban region to be structurally competitive in the global economy. This urban dynamic competitiveness is socially produced by the joint entrepreneurial activities of economic, political and social actors, while each sector, having different motivations, resources, networks and activities, exploits their complementarities to create a competitive urban milieu. The central argument of this article is that this joint creation of urban competitiveness is made possible by new governance models, which build workable consensus or obtain consent in a context where many interests are in play and strategic change is critical. These ideas are illustrated from the recent experiences of American cities.