Local Governance and the Dialectics of Hierarchy, Market and Network: A Conflict Analysis

Abstract

This paper seeks to bring conflict back into the analysis of the new institutions of urban governance. Neither the orthodox nor the sceptical literatures on the proliferation of autonomous, self-organising networks in urban governance pay sufficient attention to the role of conflict in defining the relationship between market, hierarchy and network, although they recognise that conflict occurs. Conflict is a constitutive and animating feature of market societies. The core argument is that where conflict manifests in networks, the exercise of authority often becomes necessary to sustain them. However, the exercise of authority can undermine trust and reciprocity, further undermining networking. These findings suggest that where conflict manifests itself, hierarchical intervention may simultaneously be necessary for networking, but undermine it. Conflict therefore places proponents of governance as networking in a dialectical bind, when the centre does not wish to intervene but has to, and such intervention further undermines local networks, in turn prompting the further exercise of state authority. The paper concludes, however by highlighting factors that limit network conflict and it puts forward a model for comparative research, positing a set of relationships between conflict and cooperation and network openness or closure.