Knowledge management in urban governance; building adaptive capacity through ICT-GIS-based systems in the global South

Isa Baud, Karin Pfeffer, John Sydenstricker-Neto, Eric DEnis, Dianne Scott, Luz Consuelo Muguruza Minaya

Abstract


Knowledge management (KM) in local governance processes is being transformed through digitization (ICT), spatialization (GIS), and participatory processes; the question is whether this increases the potential for building adaptive capacity and inclusivity. The question is linked to discussions on how knowledge construction and circulation can improve competences in local government, make urban planning more knowledge-based, and provide greater recognition of citizens’ knowledge (accountability). Local governance networks need such instruments in building adaptive capacity, and in dealing with in-creasing complexity and uncertainty. By utilizing the results from extended case studies in six medium-sized cities in India, South Africa, Brazil, and Peru, all participating in the Chance2Sustain research network, we examine how uneven technological and organisa-tional changes are transforming the ways in which local government works. Knowledge management in urban governance is configured through several issues: 1) discourses for digitizing KM in local urban development; 2) actor networks producing socio-spatial knowledge; 3) embedding KM in decision-making processes (power struggles, exclusion); and 4) influences of KM on work practices, interfaces with citizens, and organisational outcomes.
The results show that 1) KM discourses concerned four issues: strategic urban planning and integrated land use planning; geographic boundaries in urban development discours-es; streamlining work processes, and mapping needs assessments; 2) initiatives mainly link government with the private sector; 3) codified and technical knowledge remain dominant in discussions on urban development; and 4) although efficiency is improved, transparency and accountability to citizens remain limited. Generally, KM is not used strategically for dealing with future complexity and uncertainty.


Keywords


knowledge management; urban governance; digital systems; cities

Full Text:

PDF

References


Baud, I. S. A., & De Wit, J. (2008). New forms of urban governance in India: shifts, models, networks and contestations. Sage.

Baud, I.S.A., Nainan, N. (2008). Negotiated spaces for representation in Mumbai: ward committees, advanced locality management, and the politics of middle-class activism, Environment and urba-nization, 20(2), 483-499.

Baud, I.S.A, K. Pfeffer, J. Sydenstricker & Scott, D. (2011). Developing Participatory 'Spatial' Know-ledge models in metropolitan governance networks for sustainable development. Literature Re-view, March, Working Paper EU programme Chance2Sustain, EADI.

I.S.A. Baud, N. Sridharan and K. Pfeffer (2008). Mapping urban poverty for local governance in an Indian mega-city; the case of Delhi: in Urban Studies, June: 45: 1385-1412.

Brenner, Neil. 2004. New State Spaces: Urban Governance and the Rescaling of Statehood. Oxford University Press.

Campbell, T. (2012). Beyond Smart Cities; how cities network, learn and innovate, Earthscan, Lon-don.

City of Cape Town. 2012. City of Cape Town coastal set-back delineation: method and process. 2012.

Cornwall, A. & Gaventa, J. (2001). From users to choosers to makers and shapers: repositioning participation in social policy, IDS Working Paper 127, Brighton, Sussex.

Davis, M. (2006). Planet of Slums, Verso.

Gaventa, J. (2006). Triumph, Deficit or Contestation? Deepening the ‘Deepening Democracy’ Deba-te, IDS Working paper 264. Brighton, Sussex.

Georgiadou, Y., and Stoter, J. (2010). “Studying the Use of Geo-Information in Government – A Con-ceptual Framework.” Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 34 (1): 70–78. doi:10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2009.04.002.

Giezen, M. (2012). Navigating mega projects through complexity and uncertainty: strategic and adaptive capacity in planning and decision-making, PhD Dissertation, University of Amsterdam

Harrison, P, Todes, A and Watson, V. (2009). Planning and Transformation: Learning from the Post-Apartheid Experience, Abingdon, UK, Routledge.

Harvey, F., & Tulloch, D. (2006). Local‐government data sharing: Evaluating the foundations of spatial data infrastructures. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 20(7), 743–768.

Healey, P. (2007). Urban complexity and Spatial Strategies: Towards a Relational Planning for our Times, London, Routledge.

Heller, P. (2009). Democratic Deepening in Brazil, India and South Africa: Towards a Comparative Framework, Paper prepared for “Building Sustainable Democracies” Indiana University, Bloo-mington January 29-30.

Hordijk M.A & Baud, I.S.A. (2011). Inclusive Adaptation: Linking Participatory Learning and know-ledge management to urban resilience, in Zimmermann K.O. (Ed) Resilient Cities, Cities and Adap-tation to Climate Change, Proceedings of the Global Forum 2010, Springer Verlag, Dordrecht, 111-121

JNNURM, Mandatory primer 1, e-Governance, ULB reform, n.d.; p.2. Accessed from: http://www.indiaurbanportal.in/reforms/local/e-governance.pdf

Kahila, M. and M. Kyttä (2009) SoftGIS as a Bridge-Builder in Collaborative Urban Planning, in: S. Geertman, J.C.H. Stillwell (eds.), Planning Support Systems Best Practice and New Methods, 389 – 411.

Kennedy, L. et al. (2011). The Politics of Large-Scale Economic and Infrastructure Projects in Fast-Growing Cities of the South, Literature Review, Chance2Sustain, EADI.

Kitchin, R., J. Gleeson & Dodge, M. (2013). Unfolding mapping practices: a new epistemology for cartography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38, 480–496.

Martinez, J. (2009). The use of GIS and indicators to monitor intra-urban inequalities: A case study in Rosario, Argentina, Habitat International, 33, 387–396.

Martinez, J., Pfeffer, K. & van Dijk, T. (2011) E-government tools, claimed potentials, unnamed limi-tations, Environment and Urbanization Asia, 2(2), 223-234.

McCall, M.K. & Dunn, C.E. (2012). Geo-information tools for participatory spatial planning: Ful-filling the criteria for ‘good’ governance?, Geoforum, 43(1), 81-94.

McCall, M.K., Martínez, J.A. and Verplanke, J.J. (2014) Shifting boundaries of volunteered geo-graphic information systems and modalities: learning from PGIS. In: ACME : an international e - journal for critical geographies : open access, (2014) IN PRESS 36 p.

McCann, E. & Ward, K. (2011). Mobile Urbanism, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

McFarlane, C. (2011). Learning the City, Knowledge and Translocal assemblage, Wiley-Blackwell, Sussex.

McFarlane, C. (2011). Learning the City, Knowledge and Translocal Assemblage. Wiley-Blackwell. Sussex.

McFarlane, C. (2008). Sanitation in Mumbai’s informal settlements: state, ‘slum’ and infrastructu-re. Environment and Planning A, 40(1), 88–107.

Ministry of Urban Development (2010) Handbook on Service level Benchmarks for E-governance in Municipalities. Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi.

Miranda Sara, L., Pfeffer, K., Baud, I.S.A. (2016,) Unfolding Urban Geographies of Water-Related Vulnerability and Inequalities; Recognising Risks in Knowledge Building in Lima, Peru. In: Allen, A. Bell, S., Hofmann, P., The, H-E. (eds.) Urban Water Trajectories. Routledge, London.

Monmonnier, M. (1991). How to Lie with Maps, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Peyroux, E., Scott, D., Baud, I.S.A., Jameson, S. (2014). Spatial Knowledge Management and Partici-patory Governance: Rethinking the Trajectories of Urban, Socio-Economic and Environmental Change and the Politics of ‘Sustainability’ in Southern cities. C2S Report.

Pfeffer, K., Martinez, J., O’Sullivan, D., Scott, D. (2015) Geo-technologies for Spatial knowledge: challenges for Incusive and Sustainable Urban Development, in: Gupta, J., Pfeffer, K., Verrest, H., Ros-Tonen, M. (eds.) Geographies of Urban Governance: Advanced theories, methods, and practi-ces. Springer.

Pfeffer, K., Baud, I.S.A., Denis, E., Scott, D. & Sydenstricker-Neto, J. (2013). ‘Participatory spatial knowledge management tools’, Information, Communication & Society, 16 (2), 258–285.

Pfeffer, K., Deurloo, M.C. and Veldhuizen, E.M. (2012) Visualising postcode data for urban analysis and planning: the Amsterdam City Monitor. Area, 44(3), 326-335.

Pfeffer, K., J. Martinez, I.S.A. Baud, N. Sridharan. (2011). Knowledge production in Urban Gover-nance Systems through Qualitative Geographic information systems (GIS), Environment and Urba-nization ASIA, 2(2), 235-250.

Prins, J. E. J., Broeders, D., & Griffioen, H. M. (2012). iGovernment: A new perspective on the future of government digitisation. Computer Law & Security Review, 28(3), 273–282.

Richter, C. (2014). Digital transformations in Indian cities: Between paper list and GIS map (PhD. Dissertation). University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.

Robinson, J. (2011). Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture. International Journal of Urban Regional Research, 35 (1), 1-23.

Robinson, J. (2006). Ordinary cities: between modernity and development, Vol. 4. London: Routled-ge.

Roy, A. (2009) Civic Governmentality: The Politics of Inclusion in Beirut and Mumbai, Antipode, 41(1), 159-179.

Scott, D., & Barnett, C. (2009). Something in the Air: Civic science and contentious environmental politics in post-apartheid South Africa. Geoforum, 40(3), 373–382.

Sekhar, S. (December 15, 2012) “By March, slum survey in city to be complete”, The Hindhu, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/by-march-slum-survey-in-city-to-be-complete/article4200675.ece, Accessed December 13, 2013.

Shatkin, G. (2007). Global cities of the South: Emerging perspectives on growth and inequality, Cities, 24 (1), 1–15.

Van Ewijk, E. & Baud, I.S.A. (2009). Partnerships between Dutch municipalities and municipalities in countries of migration to the Netherlands: knowledge exchange and mutuality, Habitat Interna-tional, 33(2), 218-226.

Watson V (2002): Change and Continuity in Spatial Planning: metropolitan planning in Cape Town under political transition. Routledge, London and New York.

Wood, D. (2012). Rethinking the power of Maps, Guilford Press, NY, London.

Wright, G., Pranesh P., Abraham, S. & Shah, N. (2010). Open Government Data Study: India, The Centre for Internet and Society.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.