The Charleston approach: placing policy analysis with street level bureaucrats

This paper answers the following question: How do traditional concepts and methods of urban policy analysis and outcomes change when the concept of place is prioritized in the process? We review the public policy literature and we point out where place might usefully be incorporated to advance the study of government. We utilize a qualitative case study method of Charleston, SC and we analyze 14 in-depth interviews with municipal workers. From this analysis we draw the following conclusions: (1) there is something urban about urban policy analysis, and public policy literature advances by bridging to and drawing from the robust urban geographies of place marketing and branding; (2) street-level bureaucrats exercise discretion vis-à-vis their understanding of place, and this has implications for theorizing urban change; and (3) Municipal workers help manufacture aesthetic consent via a place ontology and not necessarily via the growth machine structures.