Contractual Communities in the Self-Organising City. Freedom, Creativity, Subsidiarity

pBoth "land-use regulation" and "territorial collective services" have traditionally been accomplished in cities through coercive efforts of public administrations. Recently, land-use regulation and collective service provision regimes have emerged within "contractual communities:" territory-based organisations (usually, but not exclusively residential) such as homeowners' associations. /ppThis book examines the problems and opportunities of contractual communities, avoiding both the alarmism and unwarranted apologies found in much of the literature on contractual communities./ppThe central notion is that cases in which coercive action by a public agency was deemed indispensable have been unjustly overstated, while the potential benefits of voluntary self-organising processes have been seriously understated.
The authors propose a revised notion of the state role that allows ample leeway for contractual communities of all forms./pp