Governance

Exploring how governing matters to regional resilience.

Key Publications
Regional Problem-Solving: A Fresh Look at What Works
Regional Problem-Solving: A Fresh Look at What Works, [pdf] by Kathryn Foster and Bill Barnes (National League of Cities/ BRR, 2011). This essay, adapted from an article we wrote for Urban Affairs Review, proposes a new way of thinking about what it takes to solve problems at the regional level. The framework, which emphasizes regional [...]Read more
Reframing Regional Governance for Research and Practice
By Kathryn Foster (presentation).Read more
Regional Resilience: Building Understanding of the Metaphor
By Kathryn Foster, Rolf Pendall, and Margaret Cowell (Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economics and Society 2010).Read more
Snapping Back: What Makes Regions Resilient?
By Kathryn Foster (National Civic Review vol. 96, no. 3, Autumn 2007).Read more
Key Questions

  • What are does a multifaceted concept of regional governance look like?
  • How can we develop models for a cross-metropolitan index of resilience?
  • How does regional governance influence a region’s resiliency?

Key Findings

  • Regions whose leaders adopt more creative responses to regional changes are more likely to successfully adapt than are those who attempt to only recreate the past.
  • Regions that “Bet on the Basics” are less resilient that those that “Bow Out” and diversify their economy.
  • Timing matters.  Many of the regions that responded swiftly to changes were more adaptive.
  • Regional governance has five dimensions—the actor group, the agenda, internal capacity, external capacity, and regional track record. New work is creating a quantifiable way to compare regional governance.