A reconceptualisation of urban management: The administration of cities, their services, and their growth

摘要

The book under review is the second monograph on urban management written by Baclija. It draws on the results of a study of urban management practices in different European cities (Baclija 2011; 2013) to support her argument for a revival and a reconceptualisation of the term urban management. Baclija defends urban management as a useful umbrella term for subsuming various forms of urban management projects and reforms, and for distinguishing between this form of public management at the local level and other forms of public management at the national level, such as new public management (NPM). The author provides her own definition of urban management as 'an administrative reform working like a balancing scale' (2014, 143), which has to maintain equilibrium between the interests of the stakeholders/citizen and the shareholders/ investors.