Urban assistance and the material world: Learning by doing at the world bank

Environment and Urbanization

Volumn 13, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 37-60

  Cohen, Michael ^a,b  

^a NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH   (United States)

^b NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

URBAN DEVELOPMENT; URBAN POLICY; WORLD BANK;

EID: 0035019341     PISSN: 09562478     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/095624780101300104     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. See, for example, Hall, Peter and Ulrich Pfeiffer (2000), Urban 21: The Report of the Global Commission on the Urban Future, E and F N Spon, London.
2. Bender, Thomas (2001), "The new metropolitanism and a pluralized public", Harvard Design Review, Winter-Spring, pages 70-77.
3. See, for example, Becker, Charles, Jeffrey Williamson and Edwin S Mills (1992), Indian Urbanization and Economic Growth Since 1960, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
4. Bourne, Larry (2001), "Designing a metropolitan region: the lessons and lost opportunities of the Toronto experience" in Freire, Mila and Richard Stren (editors), The Challenge of Urban Government: Policies and Practices, The World Bank, Washington DC, pages 27-46.
5. Statement by Michel Goly-Kouassi, in Fraternité Matin, 1969.
6. Haeringer, Philippe (1969), "Quitte ou double: les chances de l'agglomeration abidjanaise", ORSTOM, Abidjan.
7. Balbus, Isaac (1971), The Dialectics of Legal Repression, Russell Sage, New York.
8. US National Academy of Sciences (2001 forthcoming), "Report of the committee on urban demographic dynamics", Washington DC.
9. Hawkins, Edward (1970), The Principles of Development Aid, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
10. See, for example, Caufield, Catherine (1996), Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
11. Cassen, Robert and Associates (1994), Does Aid Work?, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
12. See, for example, the work of David Satterthwaite (1998), "The constraints on aid and development assistance agencies giving a high priority to basic needs", PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science. Urban aid is not even mentioned in the Earthscan series, The Reality of Aid, Earthscan, London, 2000.
13. See, for example, the work of David Satterthwaite (1998), "The constraints on aid and development assistance agencies giving a high priority to basic needs", PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science. Urban aid is not even mentioned in the Earthscan series, The Reality of Aid, Earthscan, London, 2000.
14. World Bank estimate, 1991.
15. World Bank (1991), World Development Report: The Challenge of Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
16. Cohen, Michael (1996), "The hypothesis of urban convergence" in Cohen, Michael, Blair Ruble, Joseph Tulchin and Allison Garland (editors), Preparing the Urban Future: Global Forces and Local Pressures, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
17. Kantor, Rosabeth (1995), World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy, Simon and Schuster, New York.
18. See reference 8; also Cohen, Michael (2000), "Mirando a traves de un caleidoscopio urbano", La Factoria, Junio-Septembre, Barcelona, pages 33-52.
19. Houphouet-Boigny, Felix, President of Côte d'Ivoire, 1968.
20. Cohen, Michael (1983), Learning by Doing: World Bank Assistance for Urban Development, 1972-81, World Bank, Washington DC.
21. It is interesting to note that in the almost 20 years since its publication and after a large number of external evaluations of Bank urban operations, "Learning by Doing" has not been regarded as an "inside whitewash".
22. Discussion by the Board of Executive Directors of the Retrospective Review of Urban Operations, December 1982.
23. See, for instance Turner, John (1976), Housing by People, Pantheon Books, New York; also Cohen, Michael (1983), "The challenge of replicability: towards a new paradigm for shelter in developing countries", Regional Development Dialogue, United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, August.
24. See, for instance Turner, John (1976), Housing by People, Pantheon Books, New York; also Cohen, Michael (1983), "The challenge of replicability: towards a new paradigm for shelter in developing countries", Regional Development Dialogue, United Nations Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, August.
25. In mid-1986, while waiting for the traffic light to change in downtown Washington DC, the author met Robert McNamara, who had by then retired from the World Bank. He introduced himself and McNamara grabbed him by the lapels of his coat and started to say in a loud voice, attracting many bystanders, "You urban guys knew how to do housing but you had no idea about creating jobs." After what seemed like an eternity, McNamara was promised a set of recent Bank work on urban employment, to be hand-delivered that day. The following morning at eight o'clock, McNamara called saying: "Your conclusions are OK, but your reasoning is terrible!"
26. See, for instance, the discussions during the 1976 United Nations' Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) held in Vancouver.
27. Personal communication in Islamabad, October 1986.
28. Dillinger, William (1994), Better Urban Services, the World Bank, Washington DC.
29. Cohen, Michael and Dario Debowicz (1999), "The five cities of Buenos Aires: an essay on poverty and inequality in urban Argentina", International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University, March 2000.
30. A rich survey of metropolitan development in Asia is by Sivaramakrishnan K C and Leslie Green (1986), Metropolitan Management: The Asian Experience, Oxford University Press, New York.
31. This programme was included the Third Calcutta Urban Development Project, assisted by the World Bank.
32. Attahi, Koffi (2000), "Metropolitan governance in West Africa: the cases of the metropolises of Abidjan, Dakar, Douala, Bamako, and Ouagadougou", Bureau National d'Etudes Techniques et de Développement, Abidjan.
33. Campbell, Tim (1998), The Quiet Revolution: The Rise of Political Participation and Local Government with Decentralization in Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank, Washington DC
34. See, for example, the work of Dillinger, William (1992), Urban Property Taxation, World Bank, Washington DC.
35. Bernstein, Janis (1988), Urban Land Registration Systems, World Bank, Washington DC.
36. In 1979-1980, the author taught two six-week courses on urban project management, one for francophone African project directors in Abidjan and one for anglophone African project directors. On the francophone course, only one of the 33 students could calculate project contingencies; on the anglophone course, the results were only marginally better. The students were responsible for the management of millions of dollars in international urban aid.
37. Bartone, Carl, L Leite, T Triche and R Schertenleib (1991), "Private sector participation in municipal solid waste service: experiences in Latin America, Waste Management and Research Vol 9, No 6, pages 495-509.
38. Cohen, Michael (1998), "Stock and flow in metropolitan management", The Brookings Review, Washington DC.
39. World Bank (1994), World Development Report 1994: Infrastructure for Development, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
40. US National Academy of Science, Committee on Infrastructure (1993), "In our own backyard", Washington DC.
41. Kessides, Christine (1993), "Institutional options for the provision of infrastructure", World Bank Discussion Paper 213, Washington DC.
42. See, for example, the critiques of Bank operations by Herman Daly in Caulfield (1996), see reference 10, page 223.
43. This meeting took place in Government House in October 1978. The author participated in the briefing of the Chief Minister.
44. World Bank documents.
45. Collins, Chuck and Felice Yeskel (2000), Economic Apartheid in America,: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity, The New Press, New York.
46. Citizens's Committee for Children of New York (1999), Tracking New York's Children, New York.
47. See reference 27.
48. Parrott, James, Alice Meaker and Zofia Nowakowski (1999), The State of Working New York: the Illusion of Prosperity: New York in the New Economy, Fiscal Policy Institute, New York.
49. Orfield, Myron (1998), Metropolitics, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC. His book demonstrates how these processes have worked in Chicago and includes extraordinary maps to illustrate the rich data on the differences which have been created.
50. Galster, George (1998), "An econometric model of the urban opportunity structure: cumulative causation among city markets, social problems and underserved areas", The Fannie Mae Foundation, Washington DC, September.
51. Morley, Samuel (1998), The Impact of the Macroeconomic Environment on Urban Poverty, UN Economic Commission for Latin America, Santiago.
52. Blakely, Edward and Mary Gail Snyder (1997), Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC.
53. A history of managing the landscape of Los Angeles demonstrates how metropolitan vulnerability to fires, droughts and even earthquakes is another aspect of this equation which deserves attention. Davis, Mike (1998), The Ecology of Fear, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, New York.
54. Glass, Ruth (1989), Clichés of Urban Doom, Blackwell, London.
55. See reference 19.
56. See reference 22, Cohen (1983).
57. See reference 37.
58. See work on flooding in Buenos Aires by Herzer, Hilda (1999), "Inundaciones", Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, University of Buenos Aires, July.
59. Jacobs, Jane (2000), The Nature of Economies, The Modern Library, New York.
60. As described richly by Sir Peter Hall in his book, Cities in Civilization, Pantheon, New York, 1999.
61. Turner, John F C (1972), "Housing as a verb", in Turner, John F C and Robert Fichter (editors), Freedom to Build, the MacMillan Company, New York. Exploration of this concept has been furthered by Roberto Doberti in Buenos Aires.
62. Personal communication from Alberto Harth Deneke.
63. Putnam, Robert (1993), Making Democracy Work Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press.
64. See reference 27.
65. See reference 48.
66. Sennett, Richard (1990), The Conscience of the Eye, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
67. Jacobs, Jane (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Vintage, New York.
68. Sen, Amartya (1999), Development as Freedom, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
69. Germani, Gino (1967), "La ciudad como mecanismo integrador" in Bassols, Mario et al. (1988), Antologia de Sociologia Urbana, UNAM, Mexico.
70. Schon, Don (1983), The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action, Basic Books, New York.
71. Bender, Thomas (2000), "Urban history and the urban future", Medio Ambiente y Urbanization No 55, IIED-America Latina., Buenos Aires.
72. Lynch, Kevin (1981), Good City Form, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.