A Focus on Innovation: Political Strategies for Local Governing in Times of Crisis

Austerity is a dominant feature of the political landscape in European countries (Randma-Liiv and Savi 2014). The way in which cities put forward public policies in a context of austerity, however, shows differences, both in European and elsewhere. The focus of this proposal is local public sector innovation and the modernization of public administrations as factors for economic growth and competitiveness. As such, the work will study: 1) strategies city leaders devise to enhance governing capacity, 2) strategies do leaders develop to enhance their influence in governance networks, with particular attention to policy transfer across local governments; and 3) local government capacity to promote open citizen-centric public services --since innovation is also linked to the development of this capacity or the lack thereof. In terms of theory, scope and methodology, the work will be based on previous comparative research on smart cities in four European cases (Amsterdam, Málaga, Santander and Tarragona), and four non-European cases (Shanghai, Iskandar, New York and cities in Japan) conducted together with fellow researchers (Gil and Navarro 2013, Gil and Zheng 2015), and based on theories developed by Chourabi et al. (2012). However, I expect a strong effort to study theoretical models and empirical papers that might allow to leapfrog and open paths to new contributions to conceptualize the issues above. The work should ultimately have a broad glimpse to theoretical models designed to illuminate and dissect the multi-faceted strategies developed by city leaders dealing with austerity. The work should make a contribution to asses differences and similarities to local economic growth, public service transformation and policy learning, as well as to policy success (centrally and locally), within an international setting, all of which are critical at a time of austerity (Copus and Steivers 2014).