12-11-2008

Innovation in (urban) governance is an important theme you say. It is also a theme which is addressed in almost every local, national or international policy document. Where does this ‘hype’ come from?

“I think the word ‘hype’ is somewhat negative. Governance is an attractive and uniting notion, which enables different actors to help each other in finding new ways of dealing with urban issues. The traditional way of managing cities does not work very well anymore in today’s modern society. Local governments have had difficulties improving the quality of neighbourhoods for quite some time. This has to do with the way in which welfare organisations, businesses, citizens and the local government deal with each other to shape life in the city. Every urban actor experiences its own social reality (pluriformity of realities). The challenge is to unite these different social realities and turn them into synergy and action. ‘Governance’ is about reaching this goal. It is therefore something completely different from ‘government’, a concept which places the local government at the centre of the decision-making process. ‘Government’ analyses, makes policies, decides, initiates and implements. The analyses, visions and plans are concentrated at the town hall. When it comes to ‘governance’, these three elements are scattered around the city. Developing a city from a governance perspective means that a local government should respond to what citizens, professionals and organisations in the city address. You have to let these actors speak and involve them in balanced concertation. In the end, who defines the quality of a neighbourhood? It’s the people who live and work there: young and old, black and white, the schools, the welfare organisations, housing corporations and local businesses. Not primarily local government! Such a way of thinking and working has major implications for local governments though. It requires ‘social change’: changes in people, in organisations, in their attitudes, their expectations, competences, behaviour, but also in organisational structures and procedures.”

How can one encourage such a new approach?

“The City of The Hague has set up a project in cooperation with the Centre for Governance Studies at The Hague Campus of Leiden University. This project is called ‘experimental situations’. The programme basically consists of the creation of self-reflecting situations in order to develop ‘governance’. We organise interviews with local government- and other actors involved in urban development about the experiences in their working realities. These experiences are mapped out and consequently placed within critical dialogue and reflection. By confronting local government workers with their personal way of working, it becomes clear to them that it is not very useful to approach a neighbourhood or city in a one-dimensional way, dominated by the local government. It is necessary to exchange ideas and experiences with others. The challenge is for local government employees to discuss urban issues with a wide range of actors in an unbiased way, and create vision and action from that discussion. The ‘experimental situations’ programme has triggered great motivation among local government employees in The Hague to learn and do things differently. We started with the programme a relatively short time ago, but I already see that people have begun to look for new ways of seeing things and acting upon those observations. This programme encourages people to critically evaluate their own working methods. Hereby the local government apparatus is slowly moving ahead. The programme does not offer a new governance theory or model that people have to learn. Personal experiences and critical reflection form the basis of the learning process. Of course we do address scientific theories and perspectives in this critical confrontation. However, these are mainly meant to guide people to think critically about themselves.”

Does ‘governance’ mean that local governments should do everything local actors say or want?

“No, of course local government employees also bring along their own moral ideas about what is or isn’t good for the development of a city. There should be a clear political framework on the basis of which ideas arising from the city can be judged. As part of ‘governance’, the local government should pass judgement on how plans and developments fit with these political principles. It is an important task for local government employees to have these principles and actively use and discuss them in the town hall. This is a new way of taking part in processes of urban development. It means one has have an open attitude towards the opinions of others while at the same time applying a political framework. This is a complex game that asks for suitable working strategies. It demands something else from local government employees than solely focusing on fixed plans, policy frameworks or permits. They should discuss what is addressed in cities and see whether that fits with their political principles. This kind of approach is not very strong yet. That is because many civil servants still tend to concentrate on the policy documents in their shoulder-bags too much.”

“In November the Annual General Meeting of Eurocities will take place in The Hague. During this meeting ‘innovation in local governance’ will be a central theme. At this meeting we want to discuss governance issues in an open way and explore how we can further develop this concept in a European context. While preparing for the meeting, the question arose whether we could make a model or a toolbox for modern local governance. However, creating a recipe for local governance is not only impossible, it is also undesirable.
That is because, first of all, every city has its own socio-cultural context. Within this context, a certain interplay between citizens, organisations and local government is effective. Because of its social nature, governance is a very contextual issue. It might not have any general principles and it functions differently in various places.

At the Eurocities conference we want to exhibit the working methods of the ‘experimental situations’ programme and discuss them with other European cities. With the possible assistance of Nicis Institute and EUKN, we want to form a ‘community of practice’ with other European cities, in order to develop innovation in local governance. The selection of cities is very important in this respect, because you have to be able to realise an effective exchange of knowledge and information. Knowledge and insight from different urban ‘experimental situations’ programmes should be made accessible and communicable. That is a complex task. In order to reach effective communication between different actors you need a common reference framework that takes universal notions and contextual local elements into account.
At the moment we do not have such a common reference framework for governance issues, nor do we have an adequate and holistic understanding of its content. We still lack a (methodological and conceptual) framework to visualise the modern city in all its objective, subjective and normative diversity. This makes it difficult for us to really work on integrated approaches towards urban development. In cooperation with Nicis Institute and the European Foundation of Social Quality, we are currently preparing an EU project application to develop indicators that will allow for such a visualisation and understanding of the modern city. This project is also aimed at enabling international comparisons. In time, connecting this project with the ‘community of practice’ will be highly relevant of course, because the content and the processes have to come together.

It is also important to create an inspiring exchange of good practices. The presentation of good practices and new knowledge through a limited description on a website is not sufficient. It is not inspiring to just read an abstract text. Within the framework of our European project we have to search for new methods to make that communication more inspiring. My dream is to realise a permanent and sustainable ‘community of practice’ about integrated urban development within a Eurocities framework, in which it is tradition to develop new insights with cities and communicate about these ideas under a common framework and understanding.”

EUKN, Simone Pekelsma