Networks Are Not Enough . . . But They Do Matter

Abstract

This comparison of workforce development networks in Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Ottawa, Ontario generates theoretical insights into the dynamics of capacity-building in Canadian cities. Evidence of new forms of state-society relations in Ontario cities suggests that there are features of urban governance that are particular to the Canadian case. None of the three cities was able to sustain a community-wide local workforce development network but networks did exist in all three cases despite the absence of a provincial policy framework, which indicates that the organization of societal interests and the patterns of interaction between them do have an impact on urban governance in Canada. Yet governance efforts in Canadian cities continue to operate in the ambiguous nexus between top–down policy frameworks and bottom–up self-organizing networks, and new forms of governance are difficult to sustain in the absence of supportive policy frameworks.