The Growth Machine Stops? Urban Politics and the Making and Remaking of an Edge City

Abstract

Critical reflections on growth machine and urban regime theory have pointed to the value of integrating these theories of urban politics with the likes of regulation theory. This article attempts such a synthesis with a view to further elaborating theories of urban politics with regard to settlement type and evolution. The scheme presented is prompted by a critical questioning of how the seeming novelty of edge cities can obscure rapid change in settlements that have already passed through several cycles of redevelopment and may have experienced associated shifts in urban politics. The empirical basis of the article is a case study of Tysons Corner, Virginia-perhaps the archetypal "edge city..