Urban governance innovation is being framed as an imperative to address complex urban and global challenges, triggering the adoption of novel institutional forms, approaches and techniques. Urban political geographers are still some way off fully apprehending the dynamics of these innovations and their potential to reconfigure the composition and politics of urban governance. This paper suggests dialogue between urban political geography and public sector innovation literatures as a productive way forward. We build from this engagement to suggest a critical research agenda to drive systematic analysis of innovatory urban governance, its heterogeneous formation, politics and possibilities.
AcutoMSteenmansKIwaszukE, et al. (2018) Informing urban governance? Boundary-spanning organisations and the ecosystem of urban data. Area51(1): 94–103.
2.
AcutoM (2013) City leadership in global governance. Global Governance19(3): 481–498.
3.
AllenJ (2003) Lost Geographies of Power. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
4.
AllenJCochraneC (2010) Assemblages of state power: topological shifts in the organization of government and politics. Antipode42(5): 1071–1089.
5.
AngeloHWachsmuthD (2020) Why does everyone think cities can save the planet?Urban Studies57(11): 2201–2221.
6.
AtheyGGlossopCHarrisonB, et al. (2007) Innovation and The City: How Innovation has Developed in Five City-Regions. London, UK: Nesta.
7.
AvelinoFWittmayerJMPelB, et al. (2017) Transformative social innovation and (dis)empowerment. Technological Forecasting and Social Change145: 195–206.
8.
Australian Government (2010) Empowering Change: Fostering Innovation in the Australian Public Service. Barton: Attorney General’s Department.
9.
BareghehARowleyJSambrookS (2009) Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. Management Decision47(8): 1323–1339.
10.
BarnettC (2022) The wicked city: genealogies of interdisciplinary hubris in urban thought. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers47(1): 271–284.
11.
BasonC (2014) Design Attitude as Innovation Catalyst. London: Routledge.
12.
BasonC (2017) Leading Public Design: How Managers Engage with Design to Transform Public Governance. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School.
13.
BasonC (2018) Leading Public Sector Innovation: Co-Creating for a Better Society. 2nd edition. Bristol: Policy Press.
14.
BevilacquaCOuYPizzimentiP, et al. (2020) New public institutional forms and social innovation in urban governance: insights from the “Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics” (MONUM) in Boston. Sustainability12(1): 1–24.
15.
BjögvinssonEEhnPHillgrenPA (2012) Design things and design thinking: contemporary participatory design challenges. Design Issues28(3): 101–116.
16.
BlomkampE (2018) The promise of co-design for public policy. Australian Journal of Public Administration77(4): 729–743.
17.
Bloomberg Philanthropies (2015) City Hall Innovation Team Playbook: The Innovation Delivery Approach to Develop and Deliver Bold Innovation. New York, NY: Bloomberg Philanthropies.
18.
BommertB (2010) Collaborative innovation in the public sector. International Public Management Review11(1): 15–33.
19.
BraunB (2014) A new urban dispositif? governing life in an age of climate change. Environment and Planning D32(1): 49–64.
20.
BuggeMMBlochCW (2016) Between bricolage and breakthroughs—framing the many faces of public sector innovation. Public Money and Management36(4): 281–288.
21.
BulkeleyHCoenenLFrantzeskakiN, et al. (2016) Urban living labs: governing urban sustainability transitions. Current Opinions in Environmental Sustainability22: 13–17.
22.
BunnellTGCoeNM (2001) Spaces and scales of innovation. Public Health Genomics25(4): 569–589.
23.
CardulloPKitchinRDi FeliciantonioC (2018) Living labs and vacancy in the neoliberal city. Cities73: 44–50.
24.
Castán BrotoVNeves AlvesS (2018) Intersectionality challenges for the co-production of urban services: notes for a theoretical and methodological agenda. Environment and Urbanization30(2): 367–386.
25.
ChangI-CCJouS-CChungM-K (2021) Provincialising smart urbanism in Taipei: the smart city as a strategy for urban regime transition. Urban Studies58(3): 559–580.
26.
ChattertonPOwenACutterJ, et al. (2018) Recasting urban governance through leeds city lab: developing alternatives to neoliberal urban austerity in co-production laboratories. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research42(2): 226–243.
27.
ClarkJ (2020) Uneven Innovation: The Work of Smart Cities. New York: Columbia University Press.
28.
ClarkeACraftJ (2019) The twin faces of public sector design. Governance32(1): 5–21.
29.
CohenBAlmirallEChesbroughH (2016) The city as a lab: open innovation meets the collaborative economy. California Management Review59: 5–13.
30.
CollierSGruendelA (2022) Design in government: city planning, space-making and urban politics. Political Geography97: 2026–2044.
31.
CooperD (2017) Preconfiguring the state. Antipode49(2): 335–356.
32.
ConsidineMLewisJAlexanderD (2009) Networks, Innovation and Public Policy. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
33.
CowleyRJossS (2020) Urban transformation through national innovation competitions: lessons from the UK’s future city demonstrator initiative. Journal of Urban Affairs, ahead of print: 1–27.
34.
CoxK (1993) The local and the global in the new urban politics: a critical view. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space11(4): 433–448.
35.
CraftJWilderM (2017) Catching a second wave: context and compatibility in advisory system dynamics. Policy Studies Journal45(1): 215–239.
36.
CriadoJIDiasTFSanoH, et al. (2020) Public innovation and living labs in action: a comparative analysis in post-new public management contexts. International Journal of Public Administration44(6): 451–464.
37.
CriadoJIGil-GarciaJR (2019) Creating public value through smart technologies and strategies: from digital services to artificial intelligence and beyond. International Journal of Public Sector Management32(5): 438–450.
38.
CriadoJIGuevara-GómezA (2021) Public sector, open innovation, and collaborative governance in lockdown times a research of Spanish cases during the COVID-19 crisis. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy. ahead of print: 1–15.
39.
DavidsonMWardK (2022) Post-great recession municipal budgeting and governance: a mixed methods analysis of budget stress and reform. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space54(4): 634–652.
40.
d’AlmeidaAC (ed), (2018) Smarter New York City: How City Agencies Innovate. New York: Columbia University Press.
41.
De VriesHBekkersVTummersL (2016) Innovation in the public sector: a systematic review and future research agenda. Public Administration94(1): 146–166.
42.
DuroseCRichardsonL (2015) Designing Public Policy for Co-production: Theory, Practice and Change. Bristol: Policy Press.
43.
European Commission (2013) Implementing an Action Plan for Design-Driven Innovation. Brussels: European Commission.
44.
EvansJKarvonenARavenR (2017) The Experimental City. London: Routledge.
45.
FastenrathSCoenenL (2021) Future-proof cities through governance experiments? insights from the resilient melbourne strategy (RMS). Regional Studies55(1): 138–149.
46.
FerreiraMBoteroA (2020) Experimenal governance? the emergence of public sector innovation labs in Latin America. Policy Design and Practice3(2): 150–162.
47.
FosterSIaioneC (2016) The city as a commons. Yale Law and Policy Review34(2): 281–349.
48.
FuentenebroPAcutoM (2021) The gifted city: setting a research agenda for philanthropy and urban governance. Urban Studies59: 1944–1955. ahead of print: 1–12.
49.
GeorgeGMcGahanAMPrabhuJ (2012) Innovation for inclusive growth: towards a theoretical framework and a research agenda. Journal of Management Studies49(4): 661–683.
50.
GodinB (2015) Innovation Contested: The Idea of Innovation over the Centuries. London: Routledge.
51.
GryszkiewiczLLykourentzouIToivonenT (2016) Innovation Labs: Leveraging Openness For Radical Innovation? (SSRN Scholarly Paper ID 2556692). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network.
52.
HallTHubbardP (1996) The entrepreneurial city: new urban politics, new urban geographies?Public Health Genomics20(2): 153–174.
53.
HartleyJ (2005) Innovation in governance and public services: past and present. Public Money and Management25(1): 27–34.
54.
HartleyJ (2013) Public and private features of innovation. In: OsborneSPBrownL (eds), Handbook of Innovation in Public Services. Cheltenham: Elgar, 44–59.
55.
HarveyD (1989) From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: the transformation in urban governance in late capitalism. Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography71(1): 3–17.
56.
HeadBWAlfordJ (2015) Wicked problems: implications for public policy and management. Administration and Society47(6): 711–739.
57.
HermusMvan BuurenABekkersV (2020) Applying design in public administration: a literature review to explore the state of the art. Policy and Politics48(1): 21–48.
58.
HillMHupeP (2009) Implementing Public Policy. London: SAGE.
59.
HodgsonDFredMBaileyS, et al. (2019) Introduction. In: HodgsonDFredMBaileySHallP (eds), The Projectification of the Public Sector. London: Routledge, 1–18.
HodsonMEvansJSchliwaG (2018) Conditioning experimentation: the struggle for place-based discretion in shaping urban infrastructures. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space36(14): 80–98.
62.
JessopBMoulaertFHulgardL, et al. (2013) Social innovation research: a new stage in innovation analysis? In: MoulaertFMacCullumDMehmoodA, et al. (eds), The International Handbook on Social Innovation: Collective Action, Social Learning and Transdisciplinary Research. Cheltenham: Elgar, 110–130.
63.
JordanSR (2014) The innovation imperative: an analysis of the ethics of the imperative to innovate in public sector service delivery. Public Management Review16(1): 67–89.
64.
JulierG (2017) Consultant social design, austerity and citizenry. City21(6): 813–821.
65.
JulierGKimbellL (2019) Keeping the system going: social design and the reproduction of inequalities in neoliberal times. Design Issues35(4): 12–22.
66.
KarvonenA (2018) The city of permanent experiments? In: TurnheimBKivimaaPBerkhoutF (eds), Innovating Climate Governance: Moving Beyond Experiments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 201–215.
67.
KarvonenAvan HeurB (2014) Urban laboratories: experiments in reworking cities. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research38(2): 379–392.
68.
KieboomM (2014) Lab Matters: Challenging the Practice of Social Innovation Laboratories. Amsterdam: Kennisland.
69.
KimbellL (2011) Rethinking design thinking: part I. Design and Culture3(2): 285–306.
70.
KimbellLBaileyJ (2017) Prototyping and the new spirit of policy-making. CoDesign13(3): 214–226.
71.
KimbellL (2019) What if there were more policy futures studios?Journal of Futures Studies23(4): 120–136.
72.
KitchinRCollettaCMcArdleG (2017) Urban informatics, governmentality and the logics of urban control. The Programmable City. Working Paper no. 25. https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/27hz8/ (accessed 24 August 2020).
73.
KleimanNHillardT (2016) Innovation and the City. New York: Centre for an Urban Future/NYU Wagner.
74.
KronsellAMukhtar-LandgrenD (2018) Experimental governance: the role of municipalities in urban living labs. European Planning Studies26(5): 988–1007.
75.
LauermannJ (2018) Municipal statecraft: revisiting the geographies of the entrepreneurial city. Public Health Genomics42(2): 205–224.
76.
LawtonP (2020) Tracing the provenance of urbanist ideals: a critical analysis of the Quito papers. International Journal of Urban and Regional Studies44(4): 731–742.
77.
LeeCMaL (2020) The role of policy labs in policy experiment and knowledge transfer: a comparison across the UK, Denmark, and Singapore. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice22(4): 281–297.
78.
LeminenSRajahonkaMWesterlundM (2017) Towards third‐generation living lab networks in cities. Technology Innovation Management Review7(11): 21–35.
79.
LevendaAMTretterE (2020) The environmentalization of urban entrepreneurialism: from technopolis to start-up city. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space52(3): 490–509.
80.
LewisJMMcGannMBlomkampE (2020) When design meets power: design thinking, public sector innovation and the politics of policymaking. Policy and Politics48(1): 111–130.
81.
LyonsTSHamlinREHamlinA (2018) Using Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation to Mitigate Wealth Inequality. Berlin: De Gruyter.
82.
LovellH (2019) Policy failure mobilities. Public Health Genomics43(1): 46–63.
83.
MaalsenS (2022) The hack: what it is and why it matters to urban studies. Urban Studies59(2): 453–465.
84.
MazzucatoM (2013) The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public Versus Private Sector Myths. London: Anthem Press.
85.
MazzucatoM (2021) Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism. London: Penguin Books.
McGannMBlomkampELewisJM (2018) The rise of public sector innovation labs: experiments in design thinking for policy. Policy Sciences51(3): 249–267.
88.
McGuirkP (2021) Global urbanism: urban governance innovation in/for a world of cities. In: LacioneMMcFarlaneC (eds), Global urbanism: knowledge, power and the city. London, UK: Routledge.
89.
McGuirkPDowlingR (2021) Urban governance dispositifs: cohering diverse ecologies of urban energy governance. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space39(4): 759–780.
90.
McGuirkPDowlingRChatterjeeP (2021a) Municipal statecraft for the smart city: retooling the smart entrepreneurial city?Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space53(7): 1730–1748.
91.
McGuirkPDowlingRMaalsenS, et al. (2021b) Urban governance innovation and COVID-19. Geographical Research59(2): 188–195.
92.
MeijerAThaensM (2021) The dark side of public innovation. Public Performance & Management Review44(1): 136–154.
MartinDGPierceJ (2013) Reconceptualizing resistance: residuals of the state and democratic radical pluralism. Antipode45(1): 61–79.
95.
MiaoJTPhelpsNA (2019) The intrapreneurial state: Singapore’s emergence in the smart and sustainable urban solutions field. Territory, Politics, Governance7(3): 316–335.
96.
MintromM (2019) So you want to be a policy entrepreneur?Policy Design and Practice2(4): 307–323.
97.
MirvissASorinJ (2020) How to Fail (Forward): A Framework for Fostering Innovation in the Public Sector. London, UK: Centre for Public Impact.
98.
MoisioSRossiU (2020) The start-up state: governing urbanised capitalism. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space52(3): 532–552.
99.
MontanariFSgaragliFTeloniD (eds), (2017) Cities as Engines of Inclusive Growth. Rome, Italy: Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini.
100.
MonteroS (2020) Leveraging Bogotá: sustainable development, global philanthropy and the rise of urban solutionism. Urban Studies57(11): 2263–2281.
101.
MooreMHartleyJ (2008) Innovations in governance. Public Management Review10(1): 3–20.
102.
MoulaertFMacCallumDMehmoodD (2013) The International Handbook on Social Innovation: Collective Action, Social Learning and Transdisciplinary Research. Cheltenham: Elgar.
103.
MunroJ (2015) Accelerating innovation in local government. Public Money and Management35(3): 219–226.
104.
MyersJ (2017) To austerity and beyond! third sector innovation or creeping privatization of public sector services?Public Money and Management37(2): 97–104.
105.
NestiG (2018) Co-production for innovation: the urban living lab experience. Policy and Society37(3): 310–325.
106.
NichollsA (2010) The legitimacy of social entrepreneurship: reflexive isomorphism in a pre-paradigmatic field. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice34(4): 611–633.
107.
OECD (2012) Public-sector innovation. In: OECDs Science, Technology and Industry Outlook. Paris: OECD Publishing.
108.
OECD (2019) Enhancing Innovation Capacity in City Government. Paris: OECD.
109.
OECD (2017) Systems Approaches to Public Sector Challenges: Working with Change. Paris: OECD Publishing.
110.
OECD (2020) Transformation of Public Value: Cities as the Playground for the Future. Paris: OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation.
111.
OsorioFDupontLCamargoM, et al. (2020) Shaping a public innovation laboratory in bogotá: learning through time, space and stakeholders. Journal of Innovation Economics Management31(1): 69–100.
112.
OsborneSPBrownL (2011) Innovation, public policy and public services delivery in the UK: the word that would be king?Public Administration89(4): 1335–1350.
113.
PaschoalBWegrichK (2017) Urban governance innovations in Rio de Janeiro: the political management of digital innovations. Journal of Urban Affairs41(1): 117–134.
114.
PeckJ (2001) Neoliberalizing states: thin policies/hard outcomes. Public Health Genomics25(2): 445–455.
115.
PeckJ (2011) Geographies of policy: from transfer-diffusion to mobility-mutation. Public Health Genomics35(6): 773–797.
PeckJ (2014) Entrepreneurial urbanism: between uncommon sense and dull compulsion. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography96(4): 396–401.
118.
PeckJTheodoreN (2015) Fast Policy: Experimental Statecraft at the Thresholds of Neoliberalism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
119.
PerngSKitchinRMac DonnchaD (2018) Hackathons, entrepreneurial life and the making of smart cities. Geoforum97: 189–197.
120.
PerryBAthertonM (2017) Beyond critique: the value of co-production in realising just cities?Local Environment22(sup1): 36–51.
121.
PettigrewA (1973) The Politics of Organisational Decision Making. London: Tavistock.
122.
PhelpsNAMiaoJT (2020) Varieties of urban entrepreneurialism. Dialogues in Human Geography10(3): 304–321.
123.
PuttickRBaeckPColliganP (2014) The Teams and Funds Making Innovation Happen in Governments Around the World. London, UK: Nesta & Bloomberg Philanthropies.
124.
RabinowPRoseN (2003) Foucault today. In: The Essential Foucault: Selections from the Essential Work of Foucault, 1954–1984. New York: New Press, 7–35.
125.
ReckhowSDowneyDSapotichneJ (2020) Governing without government: nonprofit governance in Detroit and Flint. Urban Affairs Review56(5): 1472–1502.
126.
RichardsonLDuroseCPerryB (2018) Coproducing urban governance. Politics and Governance6(1): 145–149.
127.
RoyMJMcHughNHill O’ConnorC (2014) Social innovation: worklessness, welfare and well-being. Social Policy and Society13(3): 457–467.
128.
SchuurmanDTõnuristP (2017) Innovation in the public sector: exploring the characteristics and potential of living labs and innovation labs. Technology Innovation Management Review7(1): 7–14.
129.
SellickV (2019) 20 Tools for Innovating in Government. London, UK: Nesta.
130.
SchollCKempR (2016) City labs as vehicles for innovation in urban planning processes. Urban Planning1(4): 89–102.
131.
SiebersVTorfingJ (2018) Co-creation as a new form of citizen engagement: comparing danish and dutch experiences at the local government level. International Public Management Review18(2): 187–208.
132.
SørensenETorfingJ (2011) Enhancing collaborative innovation in the public sector. Administration and Society43(8): 842–868.
133.
SørensenETorfingJ (2018) Co-initiation of collaborative innovation in urban spaces. Urban Affairs Review54(2): 388–418.
134.
SorinJRoseK (2019) The Future of US Cities. London, UK: Centre for Public Impact & Boston Consulting Group.
135.
StrippleJBulkeleyH (2019) Towards a material politics of socio-technical transitions: navigating decarbonisation pathways in Malmö. Political Geography72: 52–63.
136.
Taylor BuckNWhileA (2017) Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: the UK future cities initiative. Urban Studies54(2): 501–519.
137.
TeoSS (2021) Shared projects and symbiotic collaborations: Shenzhen and London in comparative conversation. Urban Studies59(8): 1694–1714.
ThompsonM (2019) Playing with the rules of the game: social innovation for urban transformation. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research43(6): 1168–1192.
140.
ThompsonM (2021) What’s so new about new municipalism?Public Health Genomics45(2): 317–342.
141.
ThompsonMNowakVSouthernA, et al. (2020) Re-grounding the city with Polanyi: from urban entrepreneurialism to entrepreneurial municipalism. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space52(6): 1171–1194.
142.
TironiM (2018) Speculative prototyping, frictions and counter-participation: a civic intervention with homeless individuals. Design Studies59: 117–138.
143.
TironiM (2020) Prototyping public friction: exploring the political effects of design testing in urban space. The British Journal of Sociology71(3): 503–519.
144.
TimeusKGascóM (2018) Increasing innovation capacity in city governments. Journal of Urban Affairs40: 992–1008.
145.
TõnuristPCookJW (2020) Transformation of Public Value: Cities as the Playground for the Future. Paris: OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation.
146.
TõnuristPKattelRLemberV (2017) Innovation labs in the public sector: what they are and what they do?Public Management Review19(10): 1455–1479.
147.
TorfingJSørensenERøiselandA (2019) Transforming the public sector into an arena for co-creation: barriers, drivers, benefits, and ways forward. Administration and Society51(5): 795–825.
148.
TorrensJvon WirthT (2021) Experimentation or projectification of urban change? a critical appraisal and three steps forward. Urban Transformations3(8): 1–17.
149.
TozerL (2019) The urban material politics of decarbonization in Stockholm, London and San Francisco. Geoforum102: 106–115.
van BuurenALoorbachD (2009) Policy innovation in isolation? conditions for policy renewal by transition arenas and pilot projects. Public Management Review11(3): 375–392.
152.
VinselLRussellAL (2020) The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work that Matters Most. New York: Currency.
153.
WagenaarHWoodM (2018) The precarious politics of public innovation. Politics and Governance6(1): 150–160.
154.
WardK (2005) Geography and public policy: a recent history of `policy relevance. Public Health Genomics29(3): 310–319.
155.
WellsteadAMGofenACarterA (2021) Policy innovation lab scholarship: past, present, and the future Introduction to the special issue on policy innovation labs. Policy Design and Practice4(2): 193–211.
156.
WhicherA (2021) Evolution of policy labs and use of design for policy in UK government. Policy Design and Practice4(2): 252–270.
157.
World Bank (2015) Citizen-Driven Innovation: A Guidebook for City Mayors and Administrations. Brussels: World Bank and European Network of Living Labs.
158.
YuanQGasco-HernandezM (2021) Open innovation in the public sector: creating public value through civic hackathons. Public Management Review23(4): 523–544.
159.
ZivkovicS (2021) A practitioner tool for developing and measuring the results of interventions. Journal of Strategic Innovation and Sustainability16(1): 33–44.
160.
ZukinS (2020) The Innovation Complex: Cities, Tech and the New Economy. New York: Oxford University Press.
