Comparing Metropolitan Governance in Germany and the US: A Social Network Analysis

摘要

The context for this paper is a comparison of metropolitan governance of specific metropolitan regions in Germany and the United States. In Germany, the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) describes metropolitan regions or spaces as high-density locations, which are centers of the global network of goods, capital, information and migration flows. In the United States, metropolitan regions or metropolitan statistical areas are based on the concept of a core area with a large population nucleus, plus adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that core. On the surface, the German definition appears to focus more squarely on building social capital and creating metropolitan governance structures capable of achieving "centeredness". In this paper, we compare aspects of metropolitan governance for the metropolitan areas of Hamburg, Germany and South Florida, USA. To simplify the empirical analysis, we focus on a single governance function - planning for adaptation to climate change. UCINET network analysis software is used to examine the pattern of interaction among stakeholders. The software returns indicators of size, connectivity, and cluster. Each of these indicators tells us about different attributes of the governance structure. The formal null hypothesis is that all three types of measures (representations of metropolitan governance) will be identical for both metropolitan regions. The formal null hypothesis is mostly rejected. The two regions demonstrate markedly different planning networks in dealing with adaptation to climate change. The final part of the paper reflects on the general method of using social network analysis to characterize metropolitan governance structures.