Understanding the Role of the National Exemplar in Constructing 'Strategic Glurbanization'

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the tensions between economic and environmental priorities through attempts to reconfigure urban governance arrangements in a world city. We examine these tensions through the development of the hydrogen energy economy in London and through attempts to cultivate new techniques of governance in realizing this vision. Through case study material, we develop two representations of the negotiation of new forms of governance. First, we outline the representation of ‘London as world leader in progressive urban governance’. Second, we develop a characterization of ‘the politics of the world city in CO2 reduction’. The article moves on to address the scalar making up of these representations, in relation to and through analysing multiple interpretations of London as a ‘national exemplar’. The active positioning and representation of London as the exemplar by the national state and the specificities of London governance, we claim, enables the mayor to actively negotiate between the two sets of apparently conflicting logics of hydrogen development. London's energy strategy is therefore to a large extent ‘nationalized’ while at the same time national energy policy is also regionalized around London. Consequently, London is differentially and positively positioned in comparison to other city‐regions of the UK. The need to develop a sustainability fix that can allow London, and the greater South East of England, to continue to grow economically and within the apparent constraints of environmental limits requires a specific governance fix around the national exemplar and new socio‐technical energy networks, which we characterize as ‘strategic glurbanization’. Résumé Cet article s'intéresse aux tensions entre priorités économiques et environnementales dans les tentatives de reconfiguration de la gouvernance urbaine d'une ville mondiale. Ces tensions sont étudiées dans le cadre de l'économie de l'hydrogène développée à Londres et de projets de nouvelles techniques de gouvernance visant à concrétiser cette vision. À partir d'éléments d'étude de cas, deux représentations de la négociation de formes innovantes de gouvernance sont élaborées. D'abord, sont exposées la représentation de ‘Londres, chef de file mondial d'une gouvernance urbaine novatrice’, puis une description des ‘politiques de réduction en CO2 de la ville mondiale’. L'article aborde ensuite l'échelle de création de ces représentations, en fonction et au travers de l'analyse d'in