CHANGING SPACES – COMMUNITIES, GOVERNANCE AND THE POLTICS OF GROWTH

Open Access
- Author:
- Glass, Michael Roy
- Graduate Program:
- Geography
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 18, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Deryck William Holdsworth, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Roger Michael Downs, Committee Member
Chris Benner, Committee Member
Amy S Greenberg, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Urban Political Geography
Metropolitan Governance
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Scale
Power
Identity
Geographical Imaginations - Abstract:
- Metropolitan governance is on the agenda for urban regions in the twenty first century. Problems of resource allocation, environmental protection and economic competitiveness are propelling debates about the most appropriate scale for urban government, and regional solutions are being proposed in cities across the western world. Despite the presentation of such metropolitan reform proposals as novel, governance change has a lengthy history and it is incumbent upon modern policy makers and academics to understand the background to metropolitan solutions. At a broader scale the question of how to configure social space to meet local community needs is persistent over time and across place. This dissertation examines the origin and geographical imprint of successive changes to political spaces in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania between 1750 and 1929. Allegheny County is located in southwestern Pennsylvania, and contains the post-industrial City of Pittsburgh. The county in the twenty first century is predominantly urban and contains 130 distinct minor civil divisions – cities, townships and boroughs. By examining the urban history of this county, it is evident that the current social and political form of Allegheny County was not predetermined with the original erection of the county, and instead was formed gradually through a history of guile, negotiation and violence. This dissertation presents this history through four ‘episodes of change,’ each of which identifies a different rationale for the division of space and a different response by local communities to the division of space. Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, the first episode tracks the imposition of colonial theories of power and identity upon a sparsely settled landscape. Colonial surveyors and politicians imposed political lines on the natural world of this region in order to legitimize claims to the region and to assist the governing of local communities. From the earliest days of the county, local communities began to reshape the political map of Allegheny County in order to meet their changing needs. During the nineteenth century, the gaze of the Pennsylvania state government was focused on broad infrastructural improvements. This inattentiveness to local politics meant communities were able to develop new municipal units to fit their changing needs. The second episode describes the burgeoning ‘geographical imaginations’ which were finding expression within Allegheny County. The county was splintering into a mosaic of municipal forms based on social, economic and political considerations. The third episode of change starts in the late nineteenth century, when the municipal units founded on an industrial logic begin to overshadow the rural and suburban worlds of Allegheny County. This was a form of horizontal competition, whereby the different geographical imaginations for Allegheny County jostled for primacy within the county. At the same time, a vertical competition was emerging as Allegheny County became implicated in the broadening national and international economic system. County and state leaders decided Allegheny County needed a ‘regional champion’ to contend in this economic competition, and the City of Pittsburgh became synonymous with the county for this reason. The final episode of change was a consequence of Allegheny County becoming embedded in the global world economy of the early twentieth century. The Progressive Era had given rise to a new national network of civic reformers and professional classes who advocated for change to the political and social institutions of the nineteenth century city. This advocacy was adopted by the Civic Club of Allegheny County, whose leaders accepted the logic of metropolitan governance and agitated for the creation of a Greater Pittsburgh, which would consolidate the city with the county. This advocacy would eventually fail at the ballot box, marking the first time local communities had rejected a broad restructuring of local political boundaries in the county. This dissertation includes four key findings. First, political spaces cannot keep pace with the social evolution and changing needs of local communities and the broader region. As soon as lines are inscribed upon a map, changes are occurring to render them obsolete. Second, within existing spatial units are the preconditions for new geographical imaginations – nascent communities and concepts of place will emerge over time. Third, theories for the division of space will falter if they are not linked to local contingencies. This was especially important in Allegheny County, as national theories of the Progressive Era were not suited to the contingencies of that place. Finally, the division of space was accelerated after the first political lines were inscribed on the area which became Allegheny County. This initial abstraction facilitated future divisions as local conditions and community needs changed.