Chapter one Introduction: Good Urban Governance: Challenges and Values

Abstract

The quest for good urban governance is not a recent trend or phenomenon. In ancient Greece, Aristotle already discussed the way a regime, which we would now call urban, could best serve the happiness of all its members and distinguish between good and bad rule (Thatcher 1900). As pointed out by Torfing (2007) and Pierre (2011), there has not been a clear-cut transition from government to governance. The two have always co-existed. Governance networks have recently become a more central component of official strategies aimed at governing society at local, national, and trans-national levels. However, diverse arrangements and relationships between the public sector, private sector, and civil society have always existed.