Cities in Transition : Institutional Breaches and Governance Transformations

Cities are transitioning – transitioning from being mere delivery vehicles for national policies to creators and implementors of their own context-specific policies, from adhering to national guidelines to aligning to local needs, from being static spatial entities to becoming dynamic actors in the delivery of international goals. This transition is real and is happening now. This transition is not sudden and the signs of it have been visible in the past decade, around the world. This is becoming increasingly pronounced of late given the pace and nature of the challenges that the world is having to deal with – effects of climate change, exploitation of natural resources to cater to the increasing needs of the populace, loss of biodiversity, need for reducing social inequality, and the list goes on. The negative effects of these challenges are experienced the most at the ground-level – in cities and towns. In this research, I have studied this significant evolution in the city scape through the lens of Institutional Theory. There are several research papers that have studied cities through the urban and place-making lens, and likewise, there are many papers on institutional theories that focused on organisations, or industries. There is very little evidence of any research that brings these two areas together – Institutional theory in the context of cities. More specifically, I refer to the streams of Institutional Breaches and Institutional Governance and draw parallels to how cities are breaching international and national policies for the benefit of their own communities and how they are developing tailored governance mechanisms to deliver on the local agendas. I gather observations from three different institutional fields – economic growth and regeneration, energy transition and climate resilience, and implementation of the sustainable development goals. Across these three institutional fields, I have gathered evidence from cities to understand how they have breached conventional policy norms, the characteristics of these breaches, and the complementary governance frameworks that they have created to deliver on the new institutional logics. The findings show that the triggers for these breaches are usually one or more of – contextual pressures, infrastructure void, aspirational shortfall, or stakeholder expectations. These breaches are essentially rooted, targeted, and/or relational in nature. The governance mechanisms they design are collaborative, incentivised, or adaptive in how they manifest themselves through the associated norms and practices. Situated Breaches and Situated Governance Mechanisms is the terminology I use to refer to these kinds of breaches and the associated governance mechanisms – ‘situated’ in the context of the needs of the city and the dynamics of the institutional field. These ‘situated’ breaches are different to the presently known types of institutional breaches – collision, hybrid, severe, etc., owing to the nature of the trigger and the intended purpose of the breach. Most importantly, these breaches don’t result in institutional level repair to revert to a stable state, rather these signify a new pathway for institutional evolution. Likewise, situated governance mechanisms differ from the presently known types of institutional governance – performative, normative, negotiated, owing to the collaborative, incentivised, and adaptive nature of these mechanisms. These concepts provide a new dimension to the streams of institutional breaches and institutional governance and more so in the context of cities. The contribution of this research to the field of institutional theory creates scope for future work especially in the light of current events happening around the world – geo-political tensions, natural disasters, emergencies, and the many more occurrences that are impacting humanity. Cities are ‘situating’ themselves in the light of worldly events to ensure that they are doing the right thing for their people and places rather than just doing things right. They are transitioning and in the process are breaching conventional policies and norms and are transforming how they are structured and organised to deliver for their respective cities. It is not a one-off but a movement that is gaining momentum and voice. This is fuelled by numerous entities and organisations that are absolutely backing this move not as a show of political prowess but as an absolute necessity as we all work towards making this planet safe, secure, and resilient for us and for the coming generations to thrive.