Gabriel Eidelman
PhD Candidate
Department of Political Science
University of TorontoDRAFT 2011-05-02Scholars of urban governance in North America often discount the
role and influence of multiple levels of government in local affairs.
Many of the field’s canonical works, largely derived from the US
experience, centre on the dominance of private development
interests or local political alliances (Logan and Molotch 1987;
Stone 1989). Neil Brenner (2009) recently described this epi-
-stemological tendency in the American literature as a form of
methodological localism. All too often, argues Brenner, national
or extra-local considerations are inappropriately and unjustifiably
taken as self-evident background conditions for the study of
urban politics, rather than suitable subjects of study in themselves.
