Comment on ‘Urban Governance in Relation to the Operation of Urban Services in Developing Countries’ by Trudy Harpham and Kwasi A. Boateng

I would like to raise some issues that were not explored by Harpham and Boateng (1997) in their paper Urban Governance in Relation to the Operation of Urban Services in Developing Countries. In doing so, I hope further debate might be stimulated. There is also a need for greater synergism of multi-disciplinary research and integrated planning of the wide range of complex and related factors in the provision and operation of urban services (essentially ecological functions) for sustainable social functioning and local governance. The other crucial factor is the spatial (also temporal) dimensions within which urban social systems occur for ‘balanced’ and ecologically sustainable governance of common and other resources.