Paper "Institutional innovation in urban governance: The case of climate change adaptation" now available for free download
How to adapt to new uncertainties and challenges
Urban governance systems need to be adaptive to deal with emerging uncertainties and pressures, including those related to climate change. Realizing adaptive urban governance systems requires attention to institutions, and in particular, processes of institutional innovation. Interestingly, understanding of how institutional innovation and change occurs remains a key conceptual weakness in urban climate change governance. This paper explores how institutional innovation in urban climate change governance can be conceptualized and analyzed.
The authors develop a heuristic involving three levels:
- “visible” changes in institutional arrangements,
- changes in underlying “rules-in-use”, and
- the relationship to broader “governance dilemmas”.
The authors then explore the utility of this heuristic through an exploratory case study of urban water governance in Santiago, Chile. The approach presented opens up novel possibilities for studying institutional innovation and evaluating changes in governance systems.
The paper contributes to debates on innovation and its effects in urban governance, particularly under climate change.
