Professor Jen Nelles
PhD, MA, BA (Hons)
Professor of Systems and Spatial Analysis /Senior Research Fellow Innovation and Research Caucus
Oxford Brookes Business School
Role
Jen Nelles is a Senior Research Fellow with the Innovation Caucus and co-director of the Oxford Regions, Innovation, and Enterprise Lab (ORIEL) at Oxford Brookes Business School.
Research
Jen specializes in the areas of innovation and productivity policy, urban and metropolitan governance, regional economic development, infrastructure, and system dynamics. Her most recent work explores dynamics of innovation, clustering, and agglomeration in the UK, where she has a particular interest in the geography of knowledge flows and how they intersect with localised assets in place-based innovation.
Other current work focuses on regional governance organizations and their abilities to coordinate policy across jurisdictional boundaries. Her most recent book takes a close look at one of these, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, to understand how entrepreneurial intergovernmental organizations succeed and fail in fragmented political environments. Her scholarship on Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs), convened through Project RIGO, continues to try to change bring nuance and new perspectives to the dialogue on regional governance in the United States. All of this research intersects with her work with the RSA Network on Infrastructural Regionalism (NOIR), which she co-directs with Michael Glass (University of Pittsburgh) and J P Addie (Georgia State University), which was recently renewed to 2027. This network, and the research that it supports, places the region at the center of the ‘infrastructural turn’ and reflects both the increased conceptual, geographic, and political importance of infrastructure and the endemic crises of access (social space), expertise (technology), and resources (governance) that varied provision of infrastructures within regions can cause. She has recently partnered with Gabe Eidelman (University of Toronto) and a group of regional stakeholders to explore the evolution of inter-mayoral collaboration in the Toronto area in response to and in the wake of COVID-19.
She has written several books including Comparative Metropolitan Policy: Governing Beyond Boundaries in the Imagined Metropolis (Routledge 2012); A Quiet Evolution: The Emergence of Indigenous-Local Intergovernmental Partnerships in Canada (University of Toronto Press 2016); and Discovering American Regionalism: An Introduction to Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (Routledge 2019); Mobilizing the Metropolis: How the Port Authority Built New York (2023). She is also the co-editor of two recent collections: Infrastructural Times: Temporality and the Making of Global Urban Worlds (Bristol University Press 2024) and Canadian Urban Governance in Comparative Perspective (University of Toronto Press 2024).
Research impact
Jen's applied research through the Innovation and Research Caucus and her academic work are designed to have broader impacts. To list a selection of impactful projects include an exploration of the role of further education colleges (FECs) in innovation ecosystems, which has provoked several waves of follow on research; the innovation profiles and intentions of firms in the Foundation Industries; mapping the healthy ageing economy in the UK; and a framework of innovation skills. Many of these projects result in the development of tools and frameworks used by funders, such as Innovate UK and other government departments and their stakeholders in their policy work. For more information on these, please consult the Innovation and Research Caucus website.
Her collaborative research with Cambridge Econometrics on spatial patterns of innovation, supported in part by the Productivity Insights Network, has resulted in a new map of economic activity in the UK and new tools to understand spatial dimensions of productivity and innovation. She recently contributed to the development of an Innovation Cluster Map in partnership with Cambridge Econometrics and The Data City for DSIT. Her work on regional governance in the United States through Project RIGO (with Jay Rickabaugh, Appalachian State University) connects academics and practitioners interested in understanding the constellation of actors involved in coordinating policies across jurisdictional boundaries. Research with Christopher Alcantara (University of Western Ontario) on intermunicipal cooperation and municipal-First Nations relationships in Canada helped to open up new dialogues in Indigenous-Canadian relationships in both scholarship and practice.
Centres and institutes
Projects
- Developing an ecosystem framework for space policy intervention
- Innovation and Research Caucus
Projects as Co-investigator
- Innovation and Research Caucus - Lead a network of innovation and research funding policy experts(09/01/2023 - 31/03/2026), funded by: Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), funding amount received by Brookes: £4,728,640, funded by: Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC)
Publications
Journal articles
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Tuckerman L, Nelles J, Owalla B, Vorley T, 'Exploring the Evolutionary Boundaries of Community Business'
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 53 (5) (2023) pp.1205-1229
ISSN: 0899-7640 eISSN: 1552-7395AbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARCommunity businesses contribute to the economic and social wellbeing of the communities in which they operate. As a subset of hybrid organizations, community businesses have unique challenges and opportunities related to their community embeddedness. Our study adopts an institutional logic perspective to understand the evolutionary boundaries of community business, which we argue, are shaped by the interplay of tensions between the social, market and community logics. While existing literature discusses institutional logics from a dichotomous angle, focusing mainly on the social and market logics, we argue that the introduction of a third logic (i.e. community logics) has ramifications for the evolution of hybrid organizations. The different trajectories may have implications for the social, community and economic impact that organizations can have. We draw on 39 qualitative interviews to provide useful insights for policy and practice on supporting community businesses.
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Valler D, Allmendinger, P, Nelles J, 'The sinking of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc: Strategic planning in England at a nadir?'
Town Planning Review [online first] (2023)
ISSN: 0041-0020 eISSN: 1478-341XAbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARThere is a clear consensus amongst both academic commentators and the professional community that current arrangements for strategic planning in England are inadequate. The withdrawal of central government from leadership of the proposed ‘Oxford-Cambridge Arc’ in early 2022 marks a particular nadir, not least given the ambitions for the planning of the area set out only a year earlier. This paper offers a conjunctural reading of the failure of the proposed Arc Spatial Framework, emphasising that not only was the process of planning the Arc itself problematical, but it also faced wider governmental and political headwinds which fuelled public opposition to the scheme, reduced central government commitment, and redirected political priorities elsewhere. In this context the prospects for the future of strategic planning in England appear rather bleak.
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Tuckerman L, Nelles J, Walsh K, Vorley T, 'Sustainable Innovation Policy: Examining the discourse of UK Innovation Policy'
Environmental Science & Policy 145 (2023) pp.286-297
ISSN: 1462-9011 eISSN: 1873-6416AbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARInnovation can be a key mechanism to address some of society's greatest challenges, or it can contribute to them. There is extensive conceptual academic literature focused on how policy can be used to create more positive societal and environmental impacts through innovation, however, little empirical evidence exists to understand to what extent innovation policy in particular embeds the principles of social and environmental sustainability into its discourse. We aim to address this lack of evidence by using a critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics approach to explore how UK Innovation Policy embeds the concepts of societal and environmental impact, and how it balances these at times conflicting paradigms into policy documents. We find that although there is some inclusion of key environmental and societal words these are predominately secondary to economic themes, signalling a ‘business as usual’ approach to innovation policy.
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Nelles J, Walsh K, Nyanzu E, 'Innovation in regional graphics (and academic communication)'
Regional Studies, Regional Science 9 (1) (2022) pp.727-731
ISSN: 2168-1376AbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARThis editorial explores the importance and power of regional graphics for communication in both academia and practice. This journal regularly publishes regional graphics, which feature one or a series of visualizations accompanied by short text that frames the value of the research and includes methodological points. In the relatively short life of the journal, regional graphics have generated a significant amount of engagement and regularly appear on the list of most viewed and trending articles. This collection assembles a diverse range of regional graphics to showcase the variety of ways that visualizations can be used to convey regional arguments, to raise the profile of this type of contribution to Regional Studies, Regional Science and to highlight innovations in visualizations that can also be used to enhance standard length articles and academic engagement beyond this medium.
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Nelles J, Wolfe DA, 'Urban governance and civic capital: analysis of an evolving concept'
Territory, Politics, Governance Online first (2022)
ISSN: 2162-2671 eISSN: 2162-268XAbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARThis article argues that the concept of civic capital affords considerable insight into systems of urban economic development, usefully bridging gaps in both institution-centric and social capital approaches. While the concept has been applied in the literature on urban governance and economic development, its use has been fragmentary and has not seen broad engagement. This review of the state of the literature situates the concept of civic capital relative to existing literature in the field, highlights its relationship to other concepts, and reviews several qualitative approaches that apply the concept to case studies. It provides an overview of the concept and a description of the way it has developed alongside the rich literature on governance and social capital in urban development to illustrate its potential for further analytical study.
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Rickabaugh J, Nelles J, 'STATE OF THE FIELD – American Regionalism and the Constellation of Mechanisms for Cross-Boundary Cooperation'
Urban Affairs Review Nov (2021)
ISSN: 1078-0874 eISSN: 1552-8332AbstractPublished hereIn this colloquium, we explore the variety of actors involved in the cross-boundary cooperation that we associate with American regional governance and the evolving connections and relationships between them. We aim to produce a cutting-edge review of the state of the field of American regionalism that is accessible, thought provoking, and forward looking. In bringing together scholarship on different mechanisms for cross-boundary cooperation, and highlighting common themes, we hope to transcend some of the barriers in our field and begin to develop a comprehensive, grounded, and modern understanding of the dimensions of regional governance. The contributing scholars approach this broad question of regional activity with original quantitative data, case studies, interviews, and new arguments for theory development or research. We further hope to spark some lively debate that can generate sustained interest in the important work happening in American regions. We begin this colloquium with our introduction and four posts that consider different mechanisms and their interactions in American regional governance.
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Addie J-PD, Glass MR, Nelles J, 'Regionalizing the infrastructure turn: a research agenda'
Regional Studies, Regional Science 7 (1) (2019) pp.10-26
ISSN: 2168-1376AbstractPublished hereAn interdisciplinary ‘infrastructure turn’ has emerged over the past 20 years that disputes the concept of urban infrastructure as a staid or neutral set of physical artefacts. Responding to the increased conceptual, geographical and political importance of infrastructure – and endemic issues of access, expertise and governance that the varied provision of infrastructures can cause – this intervention asserts the significance of applying a regional perspective to the infrastructure turn. This paper forwards a critical research agenda for the study of ‘infrastructural regionalisms’ to interrogate: (1) how we study and produce knowledge about infrastructure; (2) how infrastructure is governed across or constrained by jurisdictional boundaries; (3) who drives the construction of regional infrastructural imaginaries; and (4) how individuals and communities differentially experience regional space through infrastructure. Analysing regions through infrastructure provides a novel perspective on the regional question and consequently offers a framework to understand better the implications of the current infrastructure moment for regional spaces worldwide.
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Glass MR, Addie J-PD, Nelles J, 'Regional infrastructures, infrastructural regionalism'
Regional Studies 53 (12) (2019) pp.1651-1656
ISSN: 0034-3404 eISSN: 1360-0591AbstractPublished hereAn ‘infrastructure turn’ across the social and policy sciences is generating a new wave of interdisciplinary enquiry into how infrastructure is shaping urban and regional space. This editorial introduces a virtual special issue that charts the evolution of infrastructure as an empirical and conceptual concern within Regional Studies. The issue demonstrates that analysing regions through infrastructure – whether large, capital-intensive projects or more mundane infrastructures – provides a novel and necessary perspective on the regional question.
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Nelles J, 'Alternative manifestations of metropolisation: spatial dissimilarity and the tensions between heuristics and realities of metropolisation'
Urban Geography 42 (1) (2019) pp.21-36
ISSN: 0272-3638 eISSN: 1938-2847AbstractPublished hereThis paper explores the potential and limits of using the concept of metropolisation to describe the emergence and evolution of metropolitan spaces (process) and particularly focuses on its utility as a tool to specify the limits of the metropolitan (lens). To that end, it asks to what degree this alternative and multifaceted conceptualization of the metropolitan challenges existing models. It explores this question by outlining the main tenants of the metropolisation approach and engaging in a preliminary attempt to more firmly operationalize its political-institutional dimension. This paper focuses on unpacking this contrast in the United States and argues that applying metropolisation as a lens returns a very different interpretation of the extent of metropolitan areas than widely used statistical definitions (such as MSAs).
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Miller D, Nelles J, 'Order out of Chaos: The Case for a New Conceptualization of the Cross-Boundary Instruments of American Regionalism'
Urban Affairs Review 56 (1) (2018) pp.325-359
ISSN: 1078-0874 eISSN: 1552-8332AbstractPublished hereIn the absence of consensus about which organizations matter or are the “right” manifestations of American regional intergovernmentalism scholarship has had to develop an imprecisely defined and tacitly circulated perception of regions and the cross-boundary organizations that embody them. Even where effort has been made to establish a broad and consistent definition for regional cross-boundary organizations these standards have been applied loosely and with notable exceptions. We argue that the lack of conceptual precision and consensus, to date, makes large-scale comparative research difficult and prone to potential blind spots. We offer a framework within which we can unify these different pieces. Rather than focusing on organization type, or geographical scales, we propose a system of identifying and studying regional organizations by five core attributes. We submit these regional intergovernmental organizations (RIGOs) as a conceptual lingua franca that transcends organizational nomenclature and statistical constructs and enables broad, methodologically rigorous, comparative research.
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Nelles J, Gross JS, Kennedy L, 'The role of governance networks in building metropolitan scale'
Territory, Politics, Governance 6 (2) (2018) pp.159-181
ISSN: 2162-2671 eISSN: 2162-268XAbstractPublished hereThe role of governance networks in building metropolitan scale – Territory, Politics, Governance. The broad aim of this comparative study is to examine the relationship between governance networks and the emergence (or lack thereof) of metropolitan scales through an analysis of metropolitan development-policy processes. It explores the characteristics and substance of policies that purport to be metropolitan in scope through a set of six case studies of global city-regions lacking a formal metropolitan-scale government: Berlin, Delhi, New York, Paris, Rome and Shenzhen. This is done to obtain a better sense of the networks, strategies and approaches used in various contexts to tackle boundary-spanning issues in regions. Three paired case studies analyse what interests and actors were involved, how central each actor was to the policy process, and what territorial scales and interests dominated to identify commonalities across cases and to look for evidence of the emergence of new actors in metropolitan policy-making and of political rescaling.
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Plotch PM, Nelles J, 'Mitigating Gridlock: Lessons on Regional Governance from the Organization that Keeps New York Moving'
Articulo – revue de sciences humaines 15 (2017)
ISSN: 1661-4941 eISSN: 1661-4941AbstractPublished hereThe literature on metropolitan governance is replete with examples of collaborative efforts that have fallen short of expectations and grim prognoses of the potential for voluntary forms of regional governance. This article analyzes something often sought, and rarely found, in American metropolitan politics: successful, effective, and sustained interjurisdictional and interagency cooperation. TRANSCOM, a non-profit transportation organization, stands out as an instance of successful collective cooperation. Operating behind the scenes in one of the world’s most politically fragmented metropolitan areas, its secret has been (a) engaging and building upon a clear and focused mission; (b) demonstrating organizational legitimacy by providing tangible benefits to members; (c) executing its mission without impinging on members’ organizational autonomy; (d) creatively tapping into available resources; (e) sustaining buy-in by developing strong relationships with members; and (f) seeking out champions and empowering decisive and strategic leadership.
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Alcantara C, Broschek J, Nelles J, 'Rethinking Multilevel Governance as an Instance of Multilevel Politics: A Conceptual Strategy'
Territory, Politics, Governance 4 (1) (2015) pp.33-51
ISSN: 2162-2671 eISSN: 2162-268XAbstractPublished hereThis paper introduces a new approach to the comparative analysis of multilevel governance (MLG). Using water governance in North America as an illustrative example, it advances an innovative approach for scrutinizing the varieties of actor constellations in multilevel settings. While MLG is commonly conceptualized rather broadly as a system, we define MLG instead as an instance of a specific actor configuration that can rigorously be distinguished from other configurations, most notably intergovernmental relations (IGR). With this more conceptually bounded classification, we suggest that scholars can now more fruitfully engage in systematic analyses of MLG and IGR across different types of political systems (e.g. unitary, federal and supranational). Our hope is that this paper will provide some much needed conceptual and analytical clarification to an increasingly nebulous debate on what MLG actually is and what it means for students of political science, public policy and public administration.
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Kantor P, Nelles J, 'Global city region governance and multicentered development: a North American perspective'
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 33 (3) (2015) pp.475-495
ISSN: 0263-774X eISSN: 1472-3425AbstractPublished hereThe impact of governance on multicentered development is examined by surveying the political responses of two leading North American global city regions (GCRs): New York and Toronto. Although both GCRs have experienced very similar policy tensions during recent decades, their process of economic restructuring is strongly mediated by four systemic features in regional governance: concentration of political authority, prevailing social cleavages, civic group resources, and intergovernmental coordination. Differences in these characteristics are found to influence collective action to manage tensions in three major policy areas. Their impact is not entirely cumulative, however. Even though there is evidence that having more of certain governing attributes enhances the possibilities for joint intervention on a regional scale, interaction among system components affects forms of intergovernmental collaboration. Further, the impact of governance systems on collective action also varies with policy area.
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Durand F, Nelles J, 'Binding cross-border regions: an analysis of cross-border governance in Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai eurometropolis'
Journal of Economic and Human Geography 105 (5) (2014) pp.573-590
ISSN: 0040-747X eISSN: 1467-9663AbstractPublished hereWhile the relatively free and frequent flow of traffic across international boundaries is an essential foundation of cross-border regions, cross-border public transit systems are the ultimate symbols of metropolitan integration. This paper investigates the governance of the cross-border transit system in Eurometropolis of Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai between France and Belgium. It relies on a qualitative analysis of actors and institutions as well as social network analysis to more precisely fix the positions and roles of actors on either side of the border. The new cross-border institution, the EGTC agency, is a central actor in public transit policy networks and its function is more complex than the institutional analysis implies. Evaluating these roles in evolving cross-border public transit policy enables an assessment of the effectiveness of this new governance institution and the challenges faced by general-purpose cross-border governance structures in affecting policy areas in which political authority is fragmented.
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Alcantara C, Nelles J, 'Indigenous Peoples and the State in Settler Societies: Toward a More Robust Definition of Multilevel Governance'
Publius: The Journal of Federalism 44 (1) (2014) pp.183-204
ISSN: 0048-5950 eISSN: 1747-7107AbstractPublished hereOver the past fifty years, Indigenous peoples in settler countries have mobilized to demand policy and institutional changes from their respective states. Although some scholars have employed multilevel governance (MLG) to make sense of these developments, none has examined systematically whether MLG accurately describes these phenomena. We address this lacuna by creating a more robust definition of MLG and applying it to a sample of Indigenous–settler interactions in Canada. Our findings suggest that MLG is an applicable concept for some, but not for all of the Indigenous–state interactions that are typically assumed to be instances of MLG. This conceptual clarification should help scholars from a variety of countries to use MLG more effectively to analyze the relationships between Indigenous peoples and their respective states.
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Nelles J, Alcantara C, 'Explaining the Emergence of Indigenous-Local Intergovernmental Relations in Settler Societies: A Theoretical Framework'
Urban Affairs Review 50 (5) (2014) pp.599-622
ISSN: 1078-0874 eISSN: 1552-8332AbstractPublished hereThere has been growing interest among practitioners and academics in the emergence of intergovernmental relations between local and Aboriginal governments in Canada. Initial research has focused on describing the nature of these relations but has yet to develop any theoretical expectations regarding why some communities are more likely to cooperate than others. We address this lacuna by developing a theoretical framework for explaining the emergence of cooperation between Aboriginal and local governments. After identifying a set of variables and specifying how they are likely to affect the propensity of communities to cooperate, we conclude with a discussion of how future researchers might use this framework to investigate cooperation and noncooperation between Aboriginal and local governments in Canada and in other settler societies.
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Nelles J, Durand F, 'Political rescaling and metropolitan governance in cross-border regions: comparing the cross-border metropolitan areas of Lille and Luxembourg'
European Urban and Regional Studies 21 (1) (2014) pp.104-122
ISSN: 0969-7764 eISSN: 1461-7145AbstractPublished hereIn the last 20 years, the number of cross-border cooperation structures in Europe has exploded owing to political and financial support by the European Union aimed at encouraging cohesion and developing peripheral regions. These policies are part of processes of de-bordering and political rescaling that have profoundly affected cross-border areas by creating new institutional territories and political structures. The purpose of this paper is to study the institutional history of cross-border metropolitan governance in Europe through the comparison of two of the most advanced cross-border metropolitan regions: Lille and Luxembourg. This paper asks how these cross-border structures have developed and changed. What can their patterns of institutional evolution contribute to understanding governance in other cross-border regions? Are these new spaces evidence of political rescaling? This paper presents and redefines cross-border governance as a cyclical and a long-term process and also explores the challenges that these partnerships face in becoming functionally effective and autonomous policy actors. Ultimately, we find that there is no replicable ideal of cross-border governance and that even long-standing partnerships are in a period of exploration and reinvention. Establishing a competitive and coherent cross-border metropolitan region is ambitious and complex, and it necessitates the coordination of policies at multiple scales and across institutionally diverse territories. This project requires the modification and/or construction of new institutional and legal frameworks. This reorientation of political attention has resulted in a reconceptualization of political space but not the empowerment of new political actors, indicating that the process of rescaling may be a work in progress.
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Nelles J, 'Cooperation and Capacity? Exploring the Sources and Limits of City-Region Governance Partnerships'
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 37 (4) (2013) pp.1349-1367
ISSN: 0309-1317 eISSN: 1468-2427AbstractPublished hereScholarship abounds on the importance of city-regions to regional and national prosperity, and to the wider global economy. But little is known about their capacity to function as effective, legitimate and robust policy actors. This article begins to address the important question of what determines the governance capacity of city-regions by unpacking the concepts at the core of this research. It focuses on sources of horizontal capacity as a function of the strength of intermunicipal partnerships. Research suggests a variety of determinants of the strength of inter municipal partnerships, from rational choice to institutional perspectives. This article acknowledges the contribution of these approaches, but argues that none of the approaches presented to date can alone explain observed variations in the strength and capacity of city-regional partnerships. Instead the article presents an alternative theoretical framework that reimagines and combines existing approaches, and introduces the concept of civic capital as a critical determinant of governance capacity.
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Nelles J, 'Regionalism Redux: Exploring the Impact of Federal Grants on Mass Public Transit Governance and Political Capacity in Metropolitan Detroit'
Urban Affairs Review 49 (2) (2013) pp.220-253
ISSN: 1078-0874 eISSN: 1552-8332AbstractPublished hereThe policy actions of senior levels of government can often be important catalysts to collective action for metropolitan governance. This article compares the challenges that actors in metropolitan Detroit have faced in attempting to establish metropolitan transit governance in response to the promise of federal funding for regional transit in 1967 and the grants announced in the 2000s. How has the region responded differently to the challenge of regional transit in the most recent wave of funding? What accounts for governance failure even when, at various points in the historical debate, local actors have been in agreement on a metro transit agenda? What has changed since the 1960s and will these differences empower the metro region to finally establish metropolitan transit governance? Finally, what can the lessons of these two periods teach us about governing regional transit in fragmented political contexts?
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Nelles J, Vorley T, 'Entrepreneurial Architecture: A Blueprint for Entrepreneurial Universities'
Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 28 (3) (2011) pp.341-353
ISSN: 0825-0383 eISSN: 1936-4490AbstractPublished hereUniversities are increasingly challenged to become more socially and economically relevant institutions. While this phenomenon has prompted a growing literature documenting the evolution of the contemporary university, it remains at once both too broadly conceptualized and overly fragmented. Thus, while these literatures continue to grow, they remain largely undertheorized. This paper employs the concept of “entrepreneurial architecture” as a more nuanced perspective to understand this new mission of contemporary universities. This newly emphasized mission has been politically driven through public policy and funding. While providing a theoretical contribution to the study of the entrepreneurial university/university entrepreneurship, the paper also has broader implications for institutions and policymakers as a pragmatic approach.
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Nelles J, Alcantara C, 'Strengthening the ties that bind? An analysis of aboriginal-municipal inter-governmental agreements in British Columbia'
Canadian Public Administration 54 (3) (2011) pp.315-334
ISSN: 0008-4840 eISSN: 1754-7121AbstractPublished hereDespite a rich and well-developed literature on Canadian federalism, multilevel governance, and aboriginal–settler relations, scholars have tended to ignore the variety of inter-governmental agreements that have emerged between aboriginal and municipal governments in Canada. This article examines ninety-three such agreements to construct a typology of aboriginal–municipal inter-governmental partnerships in British Columbia. It finds that over time there has been a shift from mundane, service-provision agreements towards more collaborative, cooperative and sometimes decolonizing, horizontal and multilevel governance partnerships. As a result, the authors suggest that scholars study these agreements to further explain and understand the evolution of aboriginal–settler relations and multilevel governance in Canada.
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Alcantara C, Nelles J, 'Claiming the City: Co-operation and Making the Deal in Urban Comprehensive Land Claims Negotiations in Canada'
Canadian Journal of Political Science 42 (3) (2009) pp.705-727
ISSN: 0008-4239 eISSN: 1744-9324AbstractPublished hereSince their introduction in 1973, comprehensive land claims (CLC) agreements have become important mechanisms for Aboriginal peoples to achieve their political, social, cultural, and economic goals. Although the literature on CLC negotiations is a rich and varied one, it has tended to ignore the role that municipal governments have on influencing negotiation outcomes. This lacuna is surprising since a number of treaty negotiations in the Yukon Territory and BC involve lands located in major municipalities. This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding the influence that municipal governments can have on treaty negotiation outcomes. Using a case study of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation treaty negotiations in the Yukon Territory, we find that institutional and milieu factors are important. However, leadership was the most important and decisive factor.
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Bramwell A, Nelles J, Wolfe DA, 'Knowledge, innovation and institutions: Global and local dimensions of the ICT cluster in Waterloo, Canada'
Regional Studies 42 (1) (2008) pp.101-116
ISSN: 0034-3404 eISSN: 1360-0591AbstractPublished hereKnowledge, innovation and institutions: global and local dimensions of the ICT cluster in Waterloo, Canada, Regional Studies. This paper presents research findings on the information and communication technology (ICT) cluster in Waterloo, Ontario. Cluster dynamics in Canada do not conform to some of the key assumptions in the literature on clusters that emphasize the importance of local intra-cluster dynamics based on inter-firm linkages at the local level. The results of this case study indicate that many inter-firm linkages in the Waterloo ICT cluster are non-local, and that extra-firm institutional supports, such as the local university and industry association, are critical in sustaining and strengthening the cluster. Knowledge-based cluster theories that emphasize the role of local and global knowledge flows and learning processes, and the interaction effect of civic capital and local institutions in supporting the development of a local ‘learning economy’, provide more compelling explanations for the resilience of the ICT cluster in Waterloo, Ontario.
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Nelles J, Tuckerman L, Purna N, Phillips J, Vorley T, 'Policy Responses to the Healthy Ageing Challenge: Confronting Hybridity with Social Innovation'
Journal of Aging and Social Policy [in press]
ISSN: 0895-9420 eISSN: 1545-0821
Books
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Plotch Philip, Nelles Jen, Mobilizing the Metropolis: How the Port Authority Built New York, University of Michigan Press (2023)
ISBN: 9780472076130AbstractPublished hereThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has morphed in ways that would be unrecognizable to its founders. Its mission evolved from improving rail freight to building motor vehicle crossings, airports, office towers, and industrial parks and taking control of a failing commuter rail line. In its early years, the agency was often viewed with admiration; however as it drew up plans, negotiated to take control of airfields and marine terminals, and constructed large bridges and tunnels, the Port Authority became the object of less favorable attention. It was attacked as a “super-government” that must be reined in, while the mayors of New York and Newark argued that it should be broken up with its pieces given to local governments for their own use.
Despite its criticisms and travails, for over half a century the Port Authority overcame hurdles that had frustrated other public and private efforts, built the world's longest suspension bridge, and took a leading role in creating an organization to reduce traffic delays in the New York-New Jersey region. How did the Port Authority achieve these successes? And what lessons does its history offer to other cities and regions in the United States and beyond? In a time when public agencies are often condemned as inefficient and corrupt, this history should provide some positive lessons for governmental officials and social reformers.
In 2021, the Port Authority marked its 100th birthday. Its history reveals a struggle between the public and private sectors, the challenges of balancing democratic accountability and efficiency, and the tension between regional and local needs. From selected Port Authority successes and failures, Philip Mark Plotch and Jen Nelles produce a significant and engaging account of a powerful governmental entity that offers durable lessons on collaboration, leadership, and the challenge of overcoming complex political challenges in modern America.
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Miller D, Nelles J, Dougherty G, Rickabaugh J, Discovering American Regionalism, Routledge (2018)
ISBN: 9780815374268 eISBN: 9781351242653AbstractPublished hereRegions are difficult to govern – coordinating policies across local jurisdictional boundaries in the absence of a formal regional government gives rise to enormous challenges. Yet some degree of coordination is almost always essential for local governments to effectively fulfill their responsibilities to their citizens. State and local governments have, over time, awkwardly, and with much experimenting, developed common approaches to regional governance. In this revolutionary new book, authors David Miller and Jen Nelles offer a new way to conceptualize those common approaches: Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) that bring together local governments to coordinate policies across jurisdictional boundaries.
RIGOs are not governments themselves, but as Miller and Nelles demonstrate, they do have a measure of political authority that allows them to quietly and sometimes almost invisibly work to further regional interests and mitigate cross-boundary irritations. Providing a new conceptual framework for understanding how regional decision-making has emerged in the U.S., this book will provoke a new and rich era of discussion about American regionalism in theory and practice. Discovering American Regionalism will be a future classic in the study of intergovernmental relations, regionalism, and cross-boundary collaboration.
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Alcantara C, Nelles J, A Quiet Evolution, University of Toronto Press (2017)
ISBN: 9781487522643 eISBN: 9781442625891AbstractPublished hereMuch of the coverage surrounding the relationship between Indigenous communities and the Crown in Canada has focused on the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. Yet it is at the local level where some of the most important and significant partnerships are being made between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
In A Quiet Evolution, Christopher Alcantara and Jen Nelles look closely at hundreds of agreements from across Canada and at four case studies drawn from Ontario, Quebec, and Yukon Territory to explore relationships between Indigenous and local governments. By analyzing the various ways in which they work together, the authors provide an original, transferable framework for studying any type of intergovernmental partnership at the local level. Timely and accessible, A Quiet Evolution is a call to politicians, policymakers and citizens alike to encourage Indigenous and local governments to work towards mutually beneficial partnerships.
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Nelles J, Comparative Metropolitan Policy, Routledge (2012)
ISBN: 9780415684750 eISBN: 9781136458101AbstractPublished hereHow are metropolitan regions governed? What makes some regions more effective than others in managing policies that cross local jurisdictional boundaries? Political coordination among municipal governments is necessary to attract investment, rapid and efficient public transit systems, and to sustain cultural infrastructure in metropolitan regions. In this era of fragmented authority, local governments alone rarely possess the capacity to address these policy issues alone.
This book explores the sources and barriers to cooperation and metropolitan policy making. It combines different streams of scholarship on regional governance to explain how and why metropolitan partnerships emerge and flourish in some places and fail to in others. It systematically tests this theory in the Frankfurt and Rhein-Neckar regions of Germany and the Toronto and Waterloo regions in Canada. Discovering that existing theories of metropolitan collective action based on institutions and opportunities are inconsistent, the author proposes a new theory of "civic capital", which argues that civic engagement and leadership at the regional scale can be important catalysts to metropolitan cooperation. The extent to which the actors hold a shared image of the metropolis and engage at that scale strongly influences the degree to which local authorities will be willing and able to coordinate policies for the collective development of the region.
Metropolitan Governance and Policy will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative urban and metropolitan governance and sociology.
Book chapters
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Nelles J, Vorley T, Brown A, 'From Systems Change to Systems Changed: Assuming a systems-based approach in response to crisis' in Productivity and the Pandemic: Challenges and Insights form COVID-19, Edward Elgar (2021)
ISBN: 9781800374591 eISBN: 9781800374607AbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARThe existing literature has highlighted the complexities of productivity puzzle in the UK, with the systems lens providing a mean to both explore a more holistic approach as well as examining the intersections and interdependencies of productivity policies and outcomes. As the economic implications of the COVID-19 crisis continue to become apparent this presents an opportunity to reconceptualise how the future of the productivity debate might be reimagined from a systems perspective with a focus on future economic resilience. This chapter explores where and how the manifest points of crisis, and subsequent policy interventions, can serve to focus the attention on specific sub-systems of activity that are sensitive to the ways in which policies and processes are embedded in the wider system. The chapter concludes by identifying and advocating the need for more experimental and adaptive approaches based on evidence and insight emerging in real time.
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Vorley T, Nelles J, 'From Silos to Systems: Insights and Implications for Productivity Policy ' in McCann P, Vorley T (ed.), Productivity Perspectives, Edward Elgar (2020)
ISBN: 9781788978798 eISBN: 9781788978804AbstractPublished hereAcademic debates on productivity have traditionally been dominated by economists using growth accounting frameworks. The productivity slowdown during the last decade has especially highlighted the limitations of these orthodox approaches to explaining the productivity puzzle. In particular, many of the drivers and inhibitors of productivity growth may be related to complex causal relationships which preclude examination by standard growth accounting frameworks, and many of the other potential explanatory factors cannot be incorporated into these frameworks. While other evidence reviews in this volume reflect on the different thematic aspects of the productivity puzzle in the UK this chapter assumes a broader conceptual approach. We argue that while in-depth academic insights may help unpack individual aspects of the productivity puzzle, simply more research of this type is not the answer. Rather, if insights are to meaningfully help governments and institutions better respond to the current productivity challenges there is a compelling argument for thinking about productivity at a systems level. This chapter posits that while existing research is gradually coming to recognise the importance of the intersections to these debates, more innovative and critical thinking is required if research is to impact policy.
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Gross JS, Nelles J, 'Contesting the Region: Transportation and the Politics of Scale in New York' in Gross JS, Gualini E, and Ye L (ed.), Constructing Metropolitan Space: Actors, Policies, and Processes of Rescaling in World Metropolises, Routledge (2018)
ISBN: 9780815380870AbstractPublished hereThe New York metropolitan region is a geographically complex, politically fragmented and economically powerful place. To date, few formal partnerships at the regional scale have emerged, and even fewer have proved durable. Because of this, intergovernmental cooperation is vital to keeping New Yorkers moving. In order to build new transportation infrastructure, actors have engaged in an ongoing process of negotiating space, power and scale. This chapter explores scale construction (or its absence) through an analysis of six transit-oriented development projects attempted within the NY metropolitan region: the Hudson and Manhattan tunnels, the North River tunnel, the Holland and Lincoln vehicular tunnels, the George Washington Bridge, and Access to the Regions Core. Using a process of reverse engineering, we use these cases instrumentally to build an understanding of the nature scalecraft in this region, highlighting it as a dynamic and changing process rather than one which is static and unidirectional. Despite the obvious benefits of regional governance in the NY metropolitan area, these projects all reveal that the divided and competitive political system is simply not conducive to developing a regional scale. This analysis highlights the major tensions within regional transportation policy and demonstrates that the roles of key actors have remained consistent over time.
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Nelles J, 'Myth making and the ‘Waterloo Way’: Exploring Associative Governance in Kitchener-Waterloo' in Bradford N, Bramwell A (ed.), Governing Urban Economies: Innovation and Inclusion in Canadian City Regions, University of Toronto Press (2018)
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Nelles J, 'Mass Transit and Urban Change' in Kelleher Palus C, Dilworth R (ed.), The CQ Press guide to urban politics and policy in the United States, CQ Press (2016)
ISBN: 9781483350035AbstractPublished here
Other publications
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Nelles J, '100 Years of Infrastructural Regionalism: Exploring the dynamic interaction between infrastructure and regional governance in metropolitan New York', (2022)
AbstractPublished hereThe Network on Infrastructural Regionalism (NOIR) launched with a call for a new research agenda focusing on exploring the intersection between infrastructure and regionalism centered on four interrelated themes: interdisciplinarity; infrastructure and regional governance; seeing like a region; and infrastructure and regional lives. This talk brings the topic of infrastructure governance to the fore examining the synergies between how infrastructure shapes governance structures, and how actors involved in regional governance determine the development of regions. It explores this theme through the lens of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) and the infrastructural development of the New York metropolitan region, based on research from my forthcoming book with Phil Plotch, Mobilizing the Metropolis (University of Michigan Press, Forthcoming 2023). While the PANYNJ is in some ways a unique organization – a vast, well-established, financially self-sustaining, multipurpose, bistate agency – exploring its evolution in parallel with infrastructural sinews that fueled the region’s growth and bound it together reveals some of the tensions inherent in regional governance. Come for the conflict, the fragmentation, the scandal, and the political struggles. Stay for lessons about the importance of coalition building, collaboration, and creativity required to pull off a hundred years of infrastructure innovation, growth, and development!
The session will conclude with contributions by discussants who will offer their own perspectives on the theme of infrastructure and regional governance and stimulate a lively discussion by adding international contexts to complement the New York metropolitan case.
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Nelles J, Brown A, Nyanzu E, Vorley T, 'Geographies, Geometries, and Economies of Spatial Productivity in the UK', (2021)
AbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARWhile there has always been a strong urban bias in narratives about productivity and spatial inequalities, our analysis based on micro data (LSOAs) shows a much more complex picture. High productivity does not seem to be as restricted to urban areas, and nor is the performance of a city region entirely determined by the strength of its central business district alone. The link between density and productivity is less directly deterministic than often characterised – effective density matters more than physical density, and the possibility of synergy implied by economic density does not guarantee the realisation of that synergy – other factors must also fall into place.
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Brown A, Nelles J, Frost A, 'What Places Do Versus What Places Have', (2021)
AbstractPublished hereThis project focuses on one important aspect of productivity differences: sectoral structure. Briefly, because different sectors exhibit different levels of productivity it is reasonable to assume that the mix of sectors in each region might contribute to productivity differences. That is, regions with higher proportions of higher productivity sectors will have higher overall productivity. However, this assumes that the activities associated with each sector are the same in each region (albeit at different proportions) even though, empirically, we know that this is not the case. This project builds on existing research highlighting this effect to explore the impact of sectoral structure using microdata. Specifically, it was designed to explore the degree to which differences sectoral productivity levels between geographies (in this case, English LEP areas) can be explained by differences in the underlying sub-sectoral employment structure using 5- digit SIC sectoral data. For every sectoral grouping we ask what kinds of effects explain deviations of performance across places. In doing so, we not only draw conclusions about which sectors appear to be most impacted by variations in mix and productivities of sub-sectoral activities but have compiled a database and rich appendix of data to serve as a foundation for future analysis.
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Brown A, Nelles J, Nyanzu E, Vorley T, 'Rethinking Place to Understand Spatial Productivity Patterns', (2020)
AbstractPublished here Open Access on RADARRecent research demonstrates that the UK is very spatially unequal when it comes to productivity with 72% of regions (NUTS3, 2016) performing below the UK average(McCann, 2020; Nguyen, 2019; Zymek & Jones, 2020). A 2019 UK2070 Commission report points to lagging urban areas as an important source of these gaps(Martin et al., 2019). In 2020, the OECD noted the underperformance of UK core cities relative to international peers, while Core Cities UK found that these places were not living up to their growth potential. The Centre for Cities quantifies the impact of urban underperformance noting that if the eight largest laggards alone closed their output gap the UK economy would be £47.4 billion larger(Cambridge Econometrics, 2018; OECD, 2020; Swinney & Enenkel, 2020). Prior to COVID-19, tackling these patterns of spatial inequality were a high priority forming the rationale behind the ‘levelling up’ agenda of the current administration. However, regional inequalities have taken on a new degree of urgency as productivity will likely be an important element of post-COVID-19 economic recovery and resilience(Sena, 2020). Spatial patterns of productivity can offer a clue as to which places hold the most promise and face the most peril and understanding these dynamics is critical to crafting place-based approaches and interventions(Arestis, 2020; Tsvetkova et al., 2020). However, we argue that our current methodologies are producing an incomplete picture of the productivity landscape and diluting the value of inter-city and inter-regional comparisons. The spatial boundaries currently in use6 – such as primary urban areas (PUAs) for urban cores - tend to distort our perception of economic performance of places to the extent that, because of their methodological construction based largely on jurisdictional areas, the analysis based upon them can reach misleading conclusions. A new approach is required.
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Nelles, J., Walsh, K., Papazoglou, M., Vorley, T. (2022) FECs, Innovation, and Skills: A literature review. The Productivity Institute.
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Nelles, J., Verinder, B., Walsh, K., Vorley, T. (2023) Skills, Innovation, and Productivity – The role of Further Education Colleges in Local and Regional Ecosystems. The Productivity Institute.
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Nelles, J., Tuckerman, L., Purna, N., Vorley, T. (2022) The Healthy Ageing Challenge: Defining Innovation and Shaping Support in a Hybrid Domain. The Innovation Caucus.
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Nelles, J., Vallance, P., Vorley, T., Wallace, P. (2022) Understanding Cluster Growth Potential. Innovation Caucus.
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Nelles, J., Walsh, K., Nyanzu, E., Papazoglou, M., Abdul Rahman, S., Vorley, T. (2023) Understanding Cluster Growth Potential - Place-Based Innovation. Innovation Caucus.
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Nelles, J., Wilton, N., Walsh, K., Vorley, T. (2023) Innovation Skills Framework Summary. Innovation Caucus.
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DSIT (2024) Identifying and Describing UK Innovation Clusters. DSIT research paper number 2024/001
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NP11 (2024) Innovation Clusters in the North of England.
Professional information
Memberships of professional bodies
- American Political Science Association (APSA),
- Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA),
- Urban Affairs Association (UAA),
- Regional Studies Association (RSA)
Further details
She is the North American editor for Regional Studies, Regional Science; is on the editorial board of Urban Affairs Review; is a co-director of the RSA Network on Infrastructural Regionalism (NOIR); and is co-director of Project RIGO, a network of scholars studying regional intergovernmental organizations (RIGOs).