City networks for sustainability in Europe: An urban-level analysis

Abstract

Over the last three decades European cities have strengthened their cooperation at EU level to tackle common problems. The joint action of cities has been particularly concerned with the issue of sustainability, signalled by the establishment of specific municipal networks. Socio-ecological urban networks have attracted growing academic attention. However, existing research presents two main limitations: firstly, it overlooks the urban context, and secondly, it is mainly qualitative, and the few quantitative studies do not provide an exhaustive account of the urban drivers underpinning SEUN membership. This article adopts an urban approach to isolate the urban-level economic, political and institutional factors that impact on the involvement of second-and third-tier cities in European SEUNs. For this, logistic and OLS regression models are used to identify the urban-level factors affecting SEUN membership. The findings show that inter-urban networking in Europe is an economic and political strategy adopted mostly by post-industrial cities to strengthen their profile.

The Ubiquity of the Level: The Multi-Level Governance Approach to the Analysis of Transnational Municipal Networks

“…To rectify the shortcomings of the MLG approach to TMNs outlined in the previous section, an alternative analytical avenue focused on the urban level could lend a useful interpretive framework 2 . Rather than adopting a multi-scale perspective to examine TMNs, where all the levels are treated in a non-hierarchical way, this approach, named elsewhere 'urban approach' (Mocca 2017a), draws on a different analytical perspective, enabling an exhaustive analysis of one single level (i.e. the urban) to be undertaken.…”

“…the urban) to be undertaken. At the core of this approach lies the normative assumption of the pre-eminence of the urban dimension, conceived as an environment where economic, political and institutional structures shape municipal decision-making and thus cities' decision as to whether participate in TMNs (Mocca 2017a). While international phenomena, such as Europeanisation and globalisation, have favoured the establishment of supranational city networks, offering greater opportunities to create relationships and providing a space to exchange knowledge and practices, they cannot alone explain the reasons for cities to join.…”

“…Finally, in the urban dimension, a wide range of context-specific factors may concur to influence cities' involvement in TMNs. As found by previous research on the topic, these drivers may be grouped in three comprehensive analytical domains: economic, political and institutional (Mocca 2017a(Mocca , 2017b. The economic domain refers to the economic context where local administrations operate as well as to the specific economic decisions taken by the latter to improve the local economic performance.…”

“…The economic domain refers to the economic context where local administrations operate as well as to the specific economic decisions taken by the latter to improve the local economic performance. As such, it has been found that cities' engagement at the EU level may be a strategy to access an extra source of funding (additional to national transfers) to redevelop their locality (Mocca 2017a;Ewen 2008). Further, it has been argued that cities with advanced economies are more likely to participate in cooperative urban networks (Mocca 2017a).…”

“…As such, it has been found that cities' engagement at the EU level may be a strategy to access an extra source of funding (additional to national transfers) to redevelop their locality (Mocca 2017a;Ewen 2008). Further, it has been argued that cities with advanced economies are more likely to participate in cooperative urban networks (Mocca 2017a). The political domain comprises urban-level political drivers, namely the political composition of the council, the political weight of individual councillors in determining TMN membership and the political tradition and discourses characterising a given city's context (Mocca 2017b).…”