Area-based initiatives in contemporary urban policy – innovation in city governance

During the last ten or fifteen years a range of new urban regeneration policies was set up in the U.S. and in Europe, both at a national and at a Community level. This paper provides a comparison of the E.U. Urban Programme under Community Initiative and the U.S. Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Community Programmes promoted by the Federal Government. These programmes can be considered as experiences of public and political participation leading toward different forms of urban citizenship in the framework of the European integration process and the changes in the American Federal system. Moreover, although there are many differences between the above mentioned programmes, they present some interesting points of connection such as the area-based approach, the integrated form of action, and the central role for 'local people' and for partnerships and cooperation. These initiatives can be viewed as new modes of governance, which attempt to empower local self-governing capabilities, and aim to achieve the result of a broader decision making process in the growing complexity of the political arena. Exploring their points of connection can, on the one hand, meaningfully contribute in analysing some 'basic aspects' of the urban policies and, on the other hand, help us to some extent in the efforts for a better understanding, and in elaborating a new framework to look at the process of European integration, while relating it to the U.S. Federal System. Hence, in the case of the U.S. ,both the existence of a Federal System and a common cultural matrix as the concrete condition to " being in the same boat " are crucial to understanding the way in which urban federal policies are implemented; in the European case, instead, there isn't a single political system, but, due to the ambivalence of the concept of Europe, ambiguity has a central role to play in order to keep differences together within the Community's urban initiatives. In conclusion, this paper is much more an attempt to draw up a research track than a research result.