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Growth Management and Regional Government: How an Interpretive Approach Can Explain Politicians' Commitment to Smart Growth Policies in Waterloo Region, Ontario

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dc.contributor.advisorPilon, Dennis M.
dc.creatorDaley, Caitlin Michelle
dc.date.accessioned2018-03-01T13:49:25Z
dc.date.available2018-03-01T13:49:25Z
dc.date.copyright2017-06-06
dc.date.issued2018-03-01
dc.date.updated2018-03-01T13:49:25Z
dc.degree.disciplinePolitical Science
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation is a case study that explains how the Waterloo areas regional government in Ontario, Canada, came to embrace smart growth policies, which aim to protect agricultural and environmentally sensitive areas from urban sprawl while creating more dense urban communities. It develops an interpretive approach based on Mark Bevir and Rod Rhodess work on situated agency to explain why the 2010 to 2014 Region of Waterloo council defended the Regions smart growth policies against two major challenges, choosing to build its intensification-focused light rail transit (LRT) project despite public controversy, and choosing to appeal an Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) ruling that threatened its most recent official plan. Based on interviews, archival research, and document review, the dissertation is written in three parts that tell three kinds of stories, using Bevir and Rhodess concepts of tradition, dilemma, and webs of beliefs. Part I uses a historical narrative to explain the tradition of growth management and regional government in the Waterloo area. It finds that regional government and growth management have conditioned each other over the course of the last half century. Part II explains the dilemmas that the 2010 to 2014 regional council faced as a group in deciding to defend its smart growth policies. It finds that dilemmas related to light rail transit were resolved, and that meaningful dilemmas did not form as a result of the OMB ruling. Part III uses a series of narrative vignettes to examine the beliefs and actions of each regional councillor as an individual in the context of their own web of beliefs. It finds that politicians supported smart growth in their own ways and for their own reasons. The dissertation concludes with an assessment of what the three stories taken together show with respect to both specific aspects of planning policy and our understanding of practices of municipal government in Waterloo Region. Finally, it suggests that an interpretive institutionalism in political science may be both possible and warranted, and that narrative approaches to the study of politics can produce accounts that are both academically rigorous and interesting to a broader audience.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/34277
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectUrban planning
dc.subject.keywordsSmart growth
dc.subject.keywordsGrowth management
dc.subject.keywordsUrban sprawl
dc.subject.keywordsUrban planning
dc.subject.keywordsPlanning policy
dc.subject.keywordsRegional planning
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmentalism
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental protection
dc.subject.keywordsFarmland
dc.subject.keywordsLight rail transit
dc.subject.keywordsLRT
dc.subject.keywordsHigher order transit
dc.subject.keywordsOfficial plans
dc.subject.keywordsOntario Municipal Board
dc.subject.keywordsOMB
dc.subject.keywordsAging in place
dc.subject.keywordsLand budget methodology
dc.subject.keywordsIntensification
dc.subject.keywordsDensity
dc.subject.keywordsGrowth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe
dc.subject.keywordsOntario Greenbelt
dc.subject.keywordsProvince of Ontario
dc.subject.keywordsWaterloo Region
dc.subject.keywordsRegion of Waterloo
dc.subject.keywordsCity of Waterloo
dc.subject.keywordsCity of Kitchener
dc.subject.keywordsCity of Cambridge
dc.subject.keywordsTownship of Wellesley
dc.subject.keywordsTownship of Woolwich
dc.subject.keywordsTownship of Wilmot
dc.subject.keywordsTownship of North Dumfries
dc.subject.keywordsRegional Growth Management Strategy
dc.subject.keywordsCountryside Line
dc.subject.keywordsProtected Countryside
dc.subject.keywordsEast Side Lands
dc.subject.keywordsWaterloo Moraine
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmentally Sensitive Policy Areas
dc.subject.keywordsESPAs
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmentally Sensitive Landscapes
dc.subject.keywordsESLs
dc.subject.keywordsMunicipal restructuring
dc.subject.keywordsLocal government reform
dc.subject.keywordsWaterloo Area Local Government Review
dc.subject.keywordsMunicipalities
dc.subject.keywordsOntario municipalities
dc.subject.keywordsRegional municipalities
dc.subject.keywordsOntario planning
dc.subject.keywordsPolitics of urban development
dc.subject.keywordsUrban development
dc.subject.keywordsPublic policy
dc.subject.keywordsCase study
dc.subject.keywordsInterpretive political science
dc.subject.keywordsInterpretivism
dc.subject.keywordsNew institutionalism
dc.subject.keywordsInterpretive institutionalism
dc.subject.keywordsMark Bevir
dc.subject.keywordsR.A.W. Rhodes
dc.subject.keywordsTradition
dc.subject.keywordsDilemma
dc.subject.keywordsBeliefs
dc.subject.keywordsWeb of beliefs
dc.subject.keywordsProcedural individualism
dc.subject.keywordsSituated agency
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative research methods
dc.subject.keywordsVignettes
dc.subject.keywordsStorytelling
dc.subject.keywordsPoliticians
dc.subject.keywordsKen Seiling
dc.subject.keywordsDoug Craig
dc.subject.keywordsJane Brewer
dc.subject.keywordsClaudette Millar
dc.subject.keywordsCarl Zehr
dc.subject.keywordsBrenda Halloran
dc.subject.keywordsLes Armstrong
dc.subject.keywordsRoss Kelterborn
dc.subject.keywordsTodd Cowan
dc.subject.keywordsRob Deutschmann
dc.subject.keywordsJane Mitchell
dc.subject.keywordsTom Galloway
dc.subject.keywordsSean Strickland
dc.subject.keywordsJim Wideman
dc.subject.keywordsJean Haalboom
dc.subject.keywordsGeoff Lorentz
dc.titleGrowth Management and Regional Government: How an Interpretive Approach Can Explain Politicians' Commitment to Smart Growth Policies in Waterloo Region, Ontario
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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