Civic Capital and Governance in the Waterloo Region

1. Jen Nelles Program on Globalization and Regional Innovation Systems Centre for International Studies University of Toronto Paper Presented to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association UWO, London, June 2, 2005 Civic Capital and Governance in the Waterloo Region

2. The Waterloo Region

3. The Four Facets of Institutional Thickness (Amin and Thrift, 1995) • The presence of many institutions of various kinds • High levels of interaction between institutions • The establishment of formal or informal coalitions and hierarchies • The development of shared goals and visions regarding regional governance

4. The Barriers to Regional Associational Governance in the Waterloo Region • Fragmented political authority and identities • Weak private sector involvement in regional governance • Weak ties between organizations

5. The Problem with the Concept of Social Capital “Social capital in the form of trust, it is argued, is created as a by-product of other collective endeavours such as participation in civic associations, but these activities are themselves public goods, and are also identified as social capital, leaving us with the problematic conceptual task of distinguishing between the sources of social capital [and] the benefits derived from them” (Woolcock, 1998)

6. Competing Conceptions of Social Capital • Coleman (1988): Social capital consists of “a variety of entities that all consist of some aspect of social structures, and they facilitate certain actions of actors – whether persons of corporate actors – within the structure” (98). • Putnam (2000): Social capital refers to “connections among individuals – social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them” (19). • Ostrom and Ahn (2001): define social capital as “an attribute of individuals and of their relationships that enhance their ability to solve collective-action problems” (17). • Woolcock (2001): Social capital is the norms and networks that facilitate collective action. • Glaeser (2001): “a set of social attributes possessed by an individual – including charisma, contacts and linguistic skill – that increase the returns to that individual in his or her dealings with others”

7. Civic Capital • Civic capital consists interpersonal networks and solidarity within a community based on a shared identity, expectations or goals and tied to a specific region or locality. It is comprised of formal or informal networks between individual community members, between communities, or between community and the state. Civic capital acknowledges the critical role of local leaders in intensifying and formalizing collaborative networks within and between communities. • By defining civic capital as, at its weakest a sense of solidarity or interpersonal ties enables civic capital to exist prior to agency but also accounts for how it can be harnessed and intensified for meaningful regional governance by civic entrepreneurs.

8. Three Periods of Civic Capital Intensification in the Waterloo Region • Canada’s Technology Triangle (1987) • Communitech (1997) • The Prosperity Council (2003)

9. Evidence of Changing Attitudes • “The CTT is a partnership, but it’s a tentative one because everybody has their own vested interest. Everybody wants to sell their land. You want to promote the whole area, and it makes a lot of sense on paper to say “Yes, we’re part of CTT”, but you want to be the place where the plant comes through (quoted in Leibovitz, 2003: 2626).” • “Now there were some people on our council who were less than supportive of CTT but I think that ended up being because of their personality issue and certain dynamics and certain circumstances. Today that scepticism has diminished significantly and I would have to say that there is full support there once more for the organization (Local government official, personal interview 2003).”