Forging Glocal Governance? Urban Infrastructures as Networked Financial Products

• Published in: International journal of urban and regional research 2008-03, Vol.32 (1), p.1-21
• Main Author: TORRANCE, MORAG I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bgi / Prodig; Canada; Cities; Commercial law; Europe; European Union; financialization; global infrastructure funds; Globalization; glocal governance; Glocalization; Governance; Human geography; Infrastructure; investment; Local Government; Private property; Privatization; Provisions; Public good; Public infrastructure; Regional studies; Road transport; Sociological analysis; Supranationalism; Toll roads; Toronto; Toronto, Ontario; Urban Areas; Urban economics. Equipment. Transportation; Urban geography; urban infrastructure; Urban studies
• ISSN: 0309-1317; 1468-2427
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2007.00756.x

Urban infrastructure provisions are increasingly shifting from public good to private property, with cities and regions valued merely on a quarter‐to‐quarter basis. The argument in this article is threefold. The urban infrastructure landscape is undergoing financialization. Additionally, building on Graham and Marvin who describe how infrastructure networks are being unbundled locally, these infrastructures are simultaneously being interlinked internationally via specialist global infrastructure funds. Third, non‐local owners, by abiding by contractual obligations, play an increasing role in the governance of infrastructure projects at the urban scale, and a ‘glocal’ form of governance is developing. These arguments are illustrated by an investigation of the privatized toll road 407 in the Greater Toronto Area, where the leading investment bank in ‘infrastructure’ is one of the global owners. With increased use of the international norms of commercial law and the fluctuating cycle of local, national and supranational politics, a toll‐pricing controversy occurred wherein provincial politics challenged a ‘self‐regulating’ contract encouraging the private owners to increase the toll charges when both the traffic and toll thresholds were met, so as to create congestion relief on this particular road. Road users, provincial and federal Canadian governments, and even the European Union were involved. Résumé La fourniture d’infrastructures urbaines est de plus en plus souvent transférée du domaine public vers le privé, la valeur des villes et régions étant estimée simplement d’un trimestre sur l’autre. L’argumentation de cet article se présente en trois volets : le paysage des infrastructures urbaines connaît une financiarisation ; par ailleurs, dans le prolongement de la description de Graham et Marvin concernant la désintégration locale des réseaux d’infrastructures, ces dernières se trouvent directement liées au niveau mondial via des fonds internationaux spécialisés en infrastructures; enfin, les propriétaires non‐locaux jouent, en respectant les obligations contractuelles, un rôle accru dans la gouvernance des projets d’infrastructure à l’échelle urbaine, ce qui génère une forme ‘glocale’ de gouvernance. Ces propos sont illustrés par une étude sur l’autoroute privée 407 de la banlieue de Toronto, la principale banque d’investissement en ‘infrastructure’ en étant l’un des propriétaires internationaux. Compte tenu de l’application plus fréquente de normes de d