Multi-level crisis governance in Canada and the UK: Seeing crisis governance like a city

This knowledge synthesis project responds to the theme of Involvement and inclusion in governance structures with its focus on changing technological landscapes of participation by more diverse communities in Canada and the UK, and Systems of governance, with a particular view towards "the central role played by municipalities in recent crises" and the workings of "levels of governance and responsibilities between national, regional and local governments." The project's overall aim is to distil knowledge of how multi-level governance is constructed in Canada and the UK in an era of urban crises identifying clearly the knowledge gaps in the literature. Looking at how such crises are now conceptualized as poly- or permacrises, we will focus on how governance mechanisms and responsibilities have been changing. In doing so, and in slight digression from the conventional "methodological nationalism," we prioritize an urban view (looking at crisis urbanization as an ongoing process) and a city view (looking at specific crisis urbanisms as instances of crisis) in examining the emerging systems of governance across levels and scales of government. This changed epistemological stance does not see cities (their politics and governance) as primarily constituted "from above" but primarily "from below" (both contested concepts in a globalizing world). The governance of urban crises is not separate from, but interwoven with, urban ways of life and must reflect how urban residents and communities are experiencing, navigating and countering crises. We focus on contextualised accounts of the impacts, dilemmas and possibilities of living with and beyond crisis and on how the literature has reflected this interweaving of urban life and governance. This synthesis of knowledge will advance thinking on just and sustainable responses to crisis in cities in Canada and the UK resulting in an agenda for future research. In sum, this project will study the challenges facing, and agency shown by civil society, community activists, urbanists, focusing on diverse and often marginalised urban residents and communities living with crisis. From that perspective we will focus on how just and resilient structures can be built into urban life and how institutions and processes of governance can support them. We analyze contextualized and experiential accounts of crisis governance, as a contributing factor in the crisis of liberal democracy, taking seriously the capacity of people to develop skills to deal with crisis, and innovative ways of viewing crisis governance through dialogic comparison in a transatlantic perspective. Expected contributions and impacts: We will make an essential contribution to the scholarly and policy literature on multi-level governance from an urban perspective in Canada and the UK. It builds on past and ongoing joint work by the applicants on urban and regional governance and politics. The significance of this project lies in its direct response to the experience of urban communities over the past few years when, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic universally tested the resilience of municipal actors and as cities around the world have been threatened by wildfires and impacted by flooding, and other disasters. In Canada, this focus includes a look at the role of crisis in Indigenous communities (from boiled water advisories to racist violence) and the central role of Indigenous governance in that country's governance architecture. The project's "urban lens" promises empirical and conceptual insights on contemporary forms of crisis as they interweave with urban life and governance.