Experiences of Integrative City Policy in Domestic City Areas

Abstract

During the last decade a new urban movement emerged in the European Union and in the member countries. Discourses about integrative urban policies became evident in the Euro- pean normative texts. The new member states suffer from different urban inequalities and the lack of coherent national urban policies. Recent research about Hungarian experience covered 9 city region areas and 86 local governments. The results are useful for strengthening the competitiveness of Hungarian cities and its surroundings. Hungarian cities adapted a series of integrative technics, but a coherent urban public policy is missing at national level. Hunga- rian local govemment leaders need more knowledge about experience and development potential of new urban policy methods, models and technics. The co-operation with other local governments is highly underestimated, and there are no practices at the level of subunits. The neoliberal model of local govemment managerial practices needs other integrative and transformative ones. The legal and organisational competencies are missing at neighbour- hood level; there are no practices for community development. The Hungarian local govem- ments have a traditional view of development, there is a strong emphasis on state or local state centred developments and it gives a low value to the capital investment of multinational firms. They are sceptic conceming civil societies and social economy. The main theories about endogenous development and innovation capacity are missing from discourses of local leaders (the role of higher education institutions, research and technology transfer firms). The highly fragmented local govemment system seems not only ineffective but problematic in adapting innovative practices as well as.